Topic 3 Flashcards
What is the psychodynamic approach?
The interaction of drives and forces within a person, in their unconscious mind, that influences behaviour. Which is rooted in childhood experiences, where personality is made up of distinct parts.
What is Sigmund Freuds psychodynamic explanation of crime?
The mind is made up of the ‘id’ - control selfish/anamlistic urges and operates on the pleasure principle (instant gratification, regardless of consequences). The ‘ego’ - making decisions based on reason, acting as a mediator between id and superego to work out how to satisfy demands, while abiding by society’s rules. The ‘superego’ - controls the id and persuades ego to act morally.
How does childhood experiences effect the unconscious mind?
id is present at birth, ego and superego develop through social interactions.
Freud believed a child needs a loving, stable home environment to develop a good balance between the three.
Imbalances between the 3 may lead to criminality, as it may affect personality and behaviour.
Freud’s concept of the weak superego & crime. (ck)
If one type of mind is too strong, it creates conflict and affects personality and could explain criminality.
A weak superego may cause criminal behaviour because they have little moral conscience and won’t feel guilt. This occurs due to failure in parental guidance, like negligance and absent parents.
Freud’s concept of the harsh superego & crime. (ek)
Moral conscience too intense - will feel guilt for behaviours others don’t worry about = will activly commit acts to be punished for like arson. Those with a high sense of morality may commit crimes to prove they are more righteous than others.
Occurs due to controlling parents.
What are learning theories?
How we learn behaviour suggests crime is something that individuals learn through social interactions.
What’s Banduras - Social learning theories? (ck)
SLT’s suggest antisocial behaviour is imitadted.
The individual observing must be motivated to imitate internal motivation or external motivation based on reinforcement.
People will look to role models like parents, teachers and celebrities and copy their behaviour.
Banduras Social learning theories (ek)
Media’s effect on everyday life - influences opinions and actions we take. This is done directly as they affect human values and judgment. Watching violence in real life can lead to imitation of this behaviour like copy cat behaviour.
e.g. Murder of Jamie Bulger by children who watched childs play 3
Evidence for Bandura’s Social learning theories
Bobo doll experiment - children watched an adult attacking a bobo doll, when left in same situation the children copied the adults. Another group watched adults interact with the doll, and when left alone, they did the same thing.
results - closest imitation with same gender, aggressive model = aggressive behaviour copied, non-aggressive behaviour = gentle with bobo doll.
define
psychological theorie of crime
- of affecting or arising in the mind, related to the mental and emotional state of a person.
Eysencks - criminal personality (ck)
Introversion: reliable and in control of emotions.
Extraversion: sociable but bored quickly if there is a lack of stimulation. (murder,vadelism)
Neuroticism: anxious and irrational (assault, theft)
Stable: Calm and emotionally in control.
Eysenck predicted extrovers and neurotics are more likely to offended. extroverts do it for the thrill, neurotics do it for the impulsivity.
Eysenck - criminal personality (ek)
added 3rd trait to model-psychoticism (being cold, uncaring, unemotional, fail to adopt to norms) links to serial killers and terrorists.
those with high levels of psychotism, extraversion and neurotism combined have a criminal personality.
Evidence for Eysenck - Criminal personality
McGurk & McDougall - Gave Eysenck personality test to 100 convicted inmates and 100 trade base students. All 17-20, social class controlled.
Results showed a higher number of people with extraverted and neurotic personality traits in the delinquent group compared to the control group.
Evaluation of individualistic theories
Strengths:
-Experiments conducted are highly controlled, reliable
-Can be used to treat/prevent crime if we know the cause.
-Some key treatment methods have developed using these theories.
-It is widely regarded that upbringing and environment affect behavior later in life.
Weakness:
-Some theories are no longer widely accepted (freud)
-Assumes crime is only due to individualistic factors, so ignores sociological/biological influences.
-Mostly explain violent crime, which is not a petty crime.
Eval of psychodynamic theories
Strengths:
-drew attention to the importance of childhood experience on later mental health
-I can relate to a wide range of people, and all have an id, ego, and superego.
Weakness:
-can’t prove or test the existence of the unconscious mind, makes it unscientific.
-can only explain specific crime-for gratification and gain or to punish themselves.
Eval of learning theories
Strengths:
-Can explain a wide range of crimes
-Some good evidence to support the theory cause it’s well controlled; follow up studies found similar results.
Weakness:
-Ignores the role of other factors.
-Doesn’t explain why people commit crime when they never witnesses that kind of behavior.
Eval of Psychological theories
Strengths:
-Can help identify who is at risk of being criminal and intervene.
-Theory can relate to a wide range of people and a wide range of crimes.
Weakness:
-Not every extroverted/neurotic will commit a crime.
-Not all criminals are extraverted/neurotic. This doesn’t explain, for example, an introverted criminal.
