Psychological expl - Psychodynamic explanations

Question 1

Superego explanation

Answer 1

the superego is seen as the ‘morality principle’ it attempts to regulate behaviour by giving feels of guilt and pride as rewards and punishment.

It develops as part of the phallic psychosexual stage of development.
The child resolves the Oedipus/Electra complex identifying with same sex parent and imitating their behaviour

Question 1

Psychodynamic explanation

Answer 1

focus is on the role of the parent-child relationship in developing the personality of a criminal adult and the unconscious mental processes that lead to criminal behaviour

Question 2

What is an underdeveloped superego

Answer 2

because of lack of identification with the same sex parent, for example if they are absent, the superego is not able to fully form and control the id by providing the rewards and punishments needed for moral behaviour

Question 3

What is an over-developed superego

Answer 3

overly strict parenting and over identification produces and excessively dominant and punishing superego. The need to justify these extreme feelings of guilt lead to the person carrying out criminal behaviours

Question 4

What is a deviant superego

Answer 4

the same sex parent is identified with normally, however because the parent is a criminal, the behaviours that are imitated are criminal and the superego doesnt have the sense of morality shared by society

Question 5

Defence mechanisms

Answer 5

are unconscious mental processes that are used to avoid the ego experiencing feelings of anxiety from unacceptable thoughts/ stimuli

Question 6

Denial as a defence mechanism

Answer 6

the criminal rejects the reality or serious nature of their crimes

Question 7

Displacement as a defence mechanism

Answer 7

violent criminals feel anger towards a target they cant express that anger to. so they release their anger on weaker targets

Question 8

Rationalisation as a defence mechanism

Answer 8

the criminal finds a way to argue that their crime is justified in some way

Question 9

Bowlbys attachment theory in terms of psychodynamic explanations

Answer 9

Bowlbys theories were based on his psychodynamic background combined with an understanding of cognitive and evolutionary ideas. Attachment theory suggests a poor quality infant-caregiver relationships results in criminal behaviour

Question 10

Bowlbys attachment theory in terms of psychodynamic explanations - internal working model

Answer 10

our first relationship with our mother acts as an internal working model for our future relationships. Children with an insecure attachment style expect other people cant be trusted, this negatively influences their later interactions with people

Question 11

Bowlbys attachment theory in terms of psychodynamic explanations - maternal deprivation

Answer 11

extreme levels of maternal deprivation can result in affectionless psychopathy, a lack of empathy for others or feelings of guilt for your own actions. Bowlby linked this personality type to high levels of delinquency in young boys in his 44 thieves study

Question 12

Psychodynamic explanations strength

Answer 12

Theories on the link between early childhood experience and later criminality can be applied to reduce crime. Freuds ideas can be used to ensure children superego is not under or over developed with parenting classes. In adoption care should be taken not to give the child a deviant same sex parent to identify with. Bowlbys ideas have been accepted and care is now taken to reduce maternal deprivation

Question 13

Psychodynamic explanations limitations

Answer 13

Bowlbys work suggests a connection between antisocial behaviour in children and poor parenting, but this cant be seen as scientific evidence of a poorly developed superego leading to delinquency. Many Freudian concepts like the superego are not directly observable or falsifiable, meaning as an explanation of offending behaviour it cant be empirically tested so will always be an unscientific explanation

Freuds suggest that as females dont resolve the Oedipus complex they should have weaker superegos and less moral. This is an example of alpha bias and likely due to Freud’s own androcentric world view. Offending data clearly shows across cultures, females are less likely to be offenders than males, a direct counter to Freuds theory

Evidence for early childhood experience and later criminal behaviour like Bowlbys 44 thieves is correlational. Cause and effect cant be established so criminal behaviour may due to other factors. here is a range of evidence for alternative explanations for offending behaviour sich as social learning processes and genetic origins.