Psychological Explanations Of Offending Behaviour: Psychpdynamic

Question 1

Important consideration of emotion:

Answer 1

this theory deals with the role of emotional factors

one criticism in psychological explanations is that certain factors are overlooked but this approach addressed this. It discusses anxiety and fear which may contribute to offending behaviour

this approach also considers biological influences and the importance of early childhood experiences

Question 2

Not causal findings:

Answer 2

In bowlbys theory, separation wasn’t manipulated and thus all that was shown was an association between separation and emotional problems - there may have been other factors

such as discord in the home that ‘caused’ prolonged separations

Question 3

Gender bias in Freud’s theory:

Answer 3

Freud believed that women should develop a weaker superego because they don’t identify as strongly with their same-sex parent

he also believed that there was little reason for anyone to identify with a women because of their lower status

this represents an alpha bias
if Freud was correct, then more women would be criminals due to their weaker superego
(not the case)

Question 4

Complex set of factors:

Farrington (2009)

Answer 4

bowlby acknowledged that juvenile delinquency was due to many factors such as: poverty, bad housing etc

F: carried out a longitudinal study on boys for 40 years and found that the most important risk factors at 8-10 for later offending were:

• family history of criminality (differential association)
• risk-taking personality (eyesneck)
• low school attainment
• poor parenting (psychodynamic)

thus these explanations should be combined to give a clearer picture of the origins of offending behaviour