psychodynamic

• the superego is the morality principle and is the main one linking to offedning behaviour as it concerns what is rights and wrong

  • develops at around age 4 during the phallic stage as an outcome of teh oedipus or electra complex
• • what are the 3 variations of the superego?
  • deviant superego
  • weak or underdeveloped superego
  • harsh or overdeveloped superego
• weak or underdeveloped superego

  • children with an absent parent who do not identify with parent
  • they have little control over anti-social behaviour
  • likely to act in ways which gratify their id impulses
• The psychodynamic theory is alpha biased because it exaggerates the differences between men and women and devalues women

  In his theory he suggests Women are morally inferior as they have a less developed superego and have weaker identification with their same sex parent. If this was the case we would expect more female criminals due to their less developed superego and weaker morals , which is not actually the case.

  Aditionally andocentric- only studied men...
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  Bowlby's theory

  • bowlby thought a person who had maternal deprivation in childhood would suffer serious effects as adults.
  • One of these effects was affectionless psychopathy leading to lack of guilt, empathy, and the inability to form lasting relationships in adulthood
• Bowlby's study

  • interviewed 44 adolescent thieves and a control group
  • diagnosed them as having affectionless psychopathy
  • 39% of the thieves had early seperations compared with none in control group
• Problems with Bowlby's study

  • he carried out interviews himself and was aware of who were the thieves , researcher biased
  • opportunity sampling it was children in his clinic, may not represent other offenders and they couldnot have had a choice of participating.
  • memories may not be accurate, or responding to demand characteristics
  • cant determine cause and effect that the early seperation caused it. Other variables like violence or arguments at home, or a difficult child would be more likely to be left
• harsh or overdeveloped superego

  • if a child has a strict parent it could lead to this
  • very strong identification consequences are excessive feelings of guilt or anxiety
  • they would committ crime with a wish to be caught and punishment would reduce their feelings of guilt.
• strength of Bowlby

  Treatement of emotional prblems in young delinquents is slow and difficult so he suggestes it is preferable to try to prevent the problem and reduce early seperations. In his early reserach he demonstrated alternative emotional care was the most important.

  T his has real world appliaction in that children who are seperated or in care need a subsitute caregiver as early as possible which could possibly prevent offending
• deviant superego

  • with a criminal parent, they will adopt the same deviant morals
• no single explanation alone can fully explain offending behaviour

  Farrington did a report of a 40 year longitudnal study where he found the most important risk factors at age 8-10 for later offending were: family history of criminality (genetics or differential association), daring or risk taking personality (eyesneck)low school attainment, poverty, poor parenting (psychodynamic)

  showing these elements are better when look at together from a more holistic view

  however this supports these theories and shows they do all have their own significant part to play