PSYCHOLOGICAL EXPLANATIONS: PSYCHODYNAMIC AO1 & AO3

Question 1

Psychodynamic – Inadequate Superego (Psychological Explanation)

Answer 1

• suggests offending behaviour can be explained by looking at childhood experience and the role of the unconscious.
• There are two 2 explanations for offending behaviour- inadequate superegos and maternal deprivations.

Question 2

what does black burn propose

Answer 2

• Blackburn proposes 3 types of inadequate superego making offending inevitable

Question 3

Weak superego

Answer 3

• superego suggests that if the same sex parent is absent during the phallic stage the child cannot internalise a fully formed superego due to a lack of identification.
• This causes crime as you’re likely to have a weak superego which means your ID becomes dominant.
• This leads to a psychotic personality- characterised by selfishness/lack of remorse.

Question 4

Deviant superego

Answer 4

• superego suggests if the SE is internalised and has deviant values the child is more likely to commit crime, and so if you have criminal parents you’re more likely to have criminal morals.

Question 5

Overharsh superego

Answer 5

• superego is crippled by guilt and anxiety.
• This may unconsciously drive the individual to crime in order to satisfy the superego’s need for punishment

Question 6

One limitation of Blackburn’s theory is that there is opposing research.

Answer 6

• There is very little evidence that
  suggests children raised without a same sex parent are less law-abiding as adults.
• This suggests there is insufficient evidence to support his theory, as the link between being raised without same sex parents and being criminal is too weak.
• This is a disadvantage as it decreases the validity of the theory. Furthermore, if we are following this ideology, being a child of a homosexual couple means the child is more likely to grow up to commit crime

Question 7

One limitation of PDE is that it lacks scientific methodology.

Answer 7

• For example, as there is no supporting research, arguments such as the inadequate superego can only be judged on their face value which is
  based on the subjective interpretation.
• Furthermore, unconscious concepts are difficult to operationalise meaning they cant be empirically tested due to the lack of standardised procedures.
• This decreases psychology’s credibility as a science because we are unable to test for falsifiability.

Question 8

One limitation of Bowlby’s theory is that it lacks internal validity.

Answer 8

• For example, Bowlby’s 44 thieves study was heavily criticised due to researcher bias and for his failure to distinguish between deprivation
  and privation.
• This is because he was measuring privation instead of deprivation.
• Furthermore, his findings lack objectivity as he was particularly affected by his own experience (lack of attachment to his
  mother).
• He designed and conducted the experiment and was also responsible for making the diagnosis of affectionless psychopathy and knew which participants were the 44 thieves, and which were the control
  group.
• This suggests he may have ignored factors in order to fit his aim, meaning findings may be
  inaccurate and lack validity

Question 9

One limitation of Bowlby’s theory is that it doesn’t take all factors into account.

Answer 9

• For example, children raised by deviant parents go on to commit crime themselves, this could be due to the influence of genetics or socialisation.
• This means it’s a limited explanation and too simplistic as it ignores other influences that can cause criminal behaviour.
• This is a disadvantage as it is reductionist as it only looks at
  one factor.
• Furthermore, biological explanations would be more appropriate when explaining the influence of genetics, as it suggests we are predisposed to specific genes (e.g. MAOA) that can cause criminal
  behaviour