Psychological explanations: Psychodynamic Flashcards
The superego works on ________ principle
morality
How does the superego exert its influence?
Punishes the ego through guilt for wrongdoing and rewards the ego with pride for good moral behaviour
What is the effect of an inadequate superego?
To allow primitive, emotional demands to become uppermost in guiding moral behaviour
The effect of an inadequate superego is to allow primitive, emotional demands such as what to become uppermost in guiding moral behaviour?
Weak, deviant and over-harsh
The effect of an inadequate superego is to allow primitive, emotional demands to become uppermost in guiding moral behaviour. This is a key feature of which approach to offender behaviour?
Psychodynamic
The effect of an inadequate superego is to allow primitive, emotional demands to become uppermost in guiding moral behaviour. This is a key feature of the psychodynamic approach and marks it out as…
different from the other explanations of crime
The psychodynamic approach deals with which part of the individual?
Their emotional life
Which approach to offender behaviour acknowledges the role of anxiety and guilt in the development of offending behaviour?
The psychodynamic approach
The psychodynamic approach acknowledges the role of what in the development of offending behaviour?
Anxiety and guilt
The psychodynamic approach says that what is relevant to understanding offending behaviour?
Lack of guilt
Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation argued that the ability to form meaningful relationships in adulthood was dependent on the what?
The child forming a warm, continuous relationship with a mother-figure
Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation argues that failure to establish what kind of relationship means a child is likely to experience a number of damaging and irreversible consequences in later life?
A warm, continuous relationship with a mother-figure
Which theory argues that failure to establish a warm, continuous relationship with a mother-figure during the first few years of life means a child is likely to experience a number of damaging and irreversible consequences in later life?
Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation
Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation argues that failure to establish a warm, continuous relationship with a mother-figure during which point in life means a child is likely to experience a number of damaging and irreversible consequences in later life?
The first few years
Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation argues that failure to establish a warm, continuous relationship with a mother-figure during the first few years of life means a child is likely to experience a number of damaging and irreversible consequences, one of which being aff…
affectionless psychopathy
What is affection less psychopathy characterised by?
A lack of guilt, empathy and feeling for others
What does Bowlby suggest that affectionless psychopathy is caused by?
Maternal deprivation
What are affectionless psychopaths likely to engage in?
Acts of delinquency
True/False: Affectionless psychopaths can develop close relationships with others
False, they cannot
True/False: Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation is supported by his own investigation
True
Who did Bowlby study in his investigation supporting his theory?
44 juvenile thieves
Bowlby found that __ of the sample he studied showed personality and behavioural characteristics that could be classified as affection less psychopathy?
14
Bowlby found that 14 of the sample he studied showed personality and behavioural characteristics that could be classified as…
affection less psychopathy
How did Bowlby study his sample of 44 juvenile thieves?
Through interviews with the thieves and families
Of the 14 in Bowlby’s sample who showed personality and behavioural characteristics that could be classified as affection less psychopathy, how many had experienced prolonged separation from their mothers during infancy?
12
Of the 14 in Bowlby’s sample who showed personality and behavioural characteristics that could be classified as affection less psychopathy, 12 had experienced prolonged separation from their mothers during infancy - in particular during which point in their life?
The first two years
Of the 14 in Bowlby’s sample who showed personality and behavioural characteristics that could be classified as affection less psychopathy, 12 had experienced prolonged separation from their mothers during infancy. What was the figure for the non-offender group?
2
What did Bowlby conclude about his juvenile thieves in his study?
The effects of maternal deprivation had caused affectionless and delinquent behaviour among the juvenile thieves
True/False: Bowlby’s theory is only based on association between maternal deprivation with offending
True
What did Lewis (1954) do in relation to Bowlby’s theory?
Analysed data drawn from interviews with 500 young people
Lewis (1954) analysed data drawn from interviews with how many young people?
500
What did Lewis (1954) find about maternal deprivation in their analysis of data drawn from interviews with 500 young people?
Maternal deprivation was a poor predictor of future offending and the ability to form close relationships in adolescence
Lewis (1954) analysed data drawn from interviews with 500 young people and found that maternal deprivation was a poor predictor of which two things?
Future offending behaviour and the ability to form close relationships in adolescence
Lewis (1954) analysed data drawn from interviews with 500 young people and found that maternal deprivation was a poor predictor of future offending and…
the ability to form close relationships in adolescence
Lewis (1954) analysed data drawn from interviews with 500 young people and found that maternal deprivation was a poor predictor of the ability to form close relationships in adolescence and…
future offending
Even if there is a link between children who have experienced frequent or prolonged separation from their mothers and offending in later life, Lewis’ analysis suggests this is not necessarily…
A causal relationship
True/False: Maternal deprivation may be due to growing up in poverty
True
True/False: Maternal deprivation may be due to growing up in poverty. This can’t explain later offending
False, it can
The fact that there are countless other reasons for the apparent link between children who have experienced frequent or prolonged separation from their mothers and offending later in life suggests that…
maternal deprivation may be one of the reasons for later offending behaviour, but not the only reason
Blackburn (1993) argued that if the superego is somehow deficient or inadequate then…
offending behaviour is inevitable
Blackburn (1993) argued that a deficient or inadequate superego has what effect on the id?
It is given ‘free rein’ - not properly controlled
How many types of inadequate superego have been proposed?
Three
What is the cause of a weak superego?
The same-gender parent being absent during the phallic stage
If the same-gender parent is absent during the phallic stage a child cannot…
internalise a fully-formed superego and therefore there is no opportunity for identification
If the same-gender parent is absent during the phallic stage a child cannot internalise a fully-formed superego. Therefore there is no opportunity for…
identification
What is the effect of a weak superego?
Would make imoral or offending bheaviour more likely
If the superego that a child internalises has immoral or deviant values this would lead to…
offending behaviour
A boy who is raised by a criminal father is not likely to associate guilt with wrongdoing. This is an example of which type of inadequate superego?
The deviant superego
What is a healthy superego based on?
Identification with a parent who has firm rules but forgives transgressions
What does an excessively punitive or overly harsh parenting style lead to in terms of the psychodynamic approach?
A child with an over-harsh superego
A child with an over-harsh superego is crippled with…
guilt and anxiety
A child with an over-harsh superego is crippled with guilt and anxiety. How is this related to offender behaviour?
This may unconsciously drive the individual to perform criminal acts
A child with an over-harsh superego is crippled with guilt and anxiety that may unconsciously drive the individual to perform criminal acts in order to…
satisfy the superego’s overwhelming need for punishment
True/False: There is research support for the link between offending and the superego
True
Goreta (1991) conducted a ________-style analysis of ten offenders referred for psychiatric treatment
Freudian
Goreta (1991) conducted a Freudian-style analysis of how many offenders that were referred for psychiatric treatment?
10
Goreta (1991) conducted a Freudian-style analysis of 10 offenders that were referred for…
psychiatric treatment
In all of the 10 offenders referred for psychiatric treatment studied by Goreta (1991), what was diagnosed?
Disturbances to superego formation
Each of the 10 offenders referred for psychiatric treatment studied by Goreta (1991) experienced…
unconscious feelings of guilt and the need for self-punishment
Each of the 10 offenders referred for psychiatric treatment studied by Goreta (1991) experienced unconscious feelings of guilt and the need for self-punishment. How did Goreta explain this?
As the consequence of an over-harsh superego - the need for punishment manifesting itself as a desire to commit acts of wrongdoing and offend
Each of the 10 offenders referred for psychiatric treatment studied by Goreta (1991) experienced unconscious feelings of guilt and the need for self-punishment. Goreta said this was as a consequence of an over-hash superego - the need for…
punishment manifesting itself as a desire to commit acts of wrongdoing and offend
Goreta’s Freudian-style analysis of ten offenders seems to support the role of…
psychic conflicts and an over-harsh superego as a basis for offending
True/False: Generally, the central principles of the inadequate superego are not supported
True
If the theory of the inadequate superego was correct, we would expect, harsh, punitive parents to…
raise children who constantly experience feelings of guilt and anxiety
If the theory of the inadequate superego was correct, we would expect harsh, punitive parents to raise children who constantly experience feelings of guilt and anxiety. Is there evidence that opposes this?
Yes, evidence suggests that the opposite is true
Parents who rely on harsher forms of discipline tend to raise children who are…
rebellious and rarely express feelings of guilt or self-criticism
The fact that parents who rely on harsher forms of discipline tend to raise children who are rebellious and rarely express feelings of guilt or self-criticism calls into question the…
relationship between a strong, punitive parent and excessive feelings of guilt within the child as suggested by the inadequate superego
An implicit assumption within Freud’s theory is that girls develop a stronger/weaker superego than boys
weaker
An implicit assumption within Freud’s theory is that girls develop a weaker superego than boys because…
identification with the same-gender parent is not as strong - girls don’t experience the intense emotion associated with castration anxiety
According to Freud, girls do not experience the intense emotion associated with castration anxiety and therefore are under less pressure to identify…
with their mothers than boys are with their fathers
According to Freud, girls’ superego (and consequently their sense of morality) is more/less fully realised due to their lack of castration anxeity
less
According to Freud, girls’ superego (and consequently their sense of morality) is less fully realised due to their lack of castration anxiety. The implication of this is that women should be more/less prone to offending behaviour than men
more
According to Freud, girls’ superego (and consequently their sense of morality) is less fully realised due to their lack of castration anxiety. The implication of this is that women should be more prone to offending behaviour than men, however…
rates of imprisonment show that the opposite is more likely to be true
In the UK about __ times more men are in prison than women
20
True/False: In Hoffman (1975)’s study where children were required to resist temptation, hardly any evidence of gender differences were found
True
In Hoffman (1975)’s study where children were required to resist temptation, hardly any evidence of gender differences were found and when there was…
girls tended to be more moral than little boys
In Hoffman (1975)’s study where children were required to resist temptation, hardly any evidence of gender differences were found and when there was, girls tended to be more moral than little boys. What does this suggest about Freud’s theory?
There is alpha bias at the heart of Freud’s theory - it may not be appropriate as an explanation of offending behaviour
The fact that Freud’s theory may suffer from alpha bias means it may not be…
appropriate as an explanation of offending behaviour
Which explanations were some of the first to link early experience in childhood to moral behaviour and offending?
Psychodynamic
Psychodynamic explanations were some of the first to link early experience in childhood to moral behaviour and offending - something that is now regarded as…
common sense in contemporary contemporary criminology
Which explanation for offending draws attention to the emotional basis of offending, a factor that is largely ignored by other explanations?
Psychodynamic
The many unconscious concepts within psychodynamic theory are/aren’t open to empirical testing.
aren’t
In the absence of supporting evidence, arguments such as the inadequate superego can only be judged on…
their face value rather than their scientific worth
We must consider if the contribution of psychodynamic theory outweighs its lack of…
scientific rigour
