Psychodynamic Explanations for offending AO3

• What is research support for maternal deprivation?

  • Bowlby 1944 44 Juvenile Thieves study, investigated boys who had experienced separation from PCG before critical period
  • found boys were more likely to develop affectionless psychopathy than others, and go onto to commit crimes than those who hadn't experienced separation
  • supports the psychodynamic claim that disruptions to attachment in early childhood are detrimental to development and play a significant role in offending
• why is scientific basis a weakness of Bowlby's maternal deprivation in offending?

  • Lewis - maternal deprivation is a poor predictor of offending, looked at 500 young offenders and concluded that you can't establish a causal relationship between maternal deprivation and offending, and other factors may need to be looked at e.g. child's physical development/health
  • Bowlby's MD lacks validity - may lack operationalisation?
  • Bowlby conducted interviews and assessments for affectionless psychopathy - may be researcher bias
• what are positives of psychodynamic explanation?

  • some of first to link early experience during childhood to moral behaviour and offending and has contributed to development of other later theories e.g. Bowlby's maternal deprivation, suggests it's a valid theory?
  • also looked into emotional basis of offending, which is largely ignored by other explanations e.g. cognitive
• why is lack of scientific basis a weakness of psychodynamic explanations of offending?

  • lack ability to empirically test
  • unfalsifiable, and therefore unable to disprove
  • e.g. Freuds Oedipus/Electra complex are said to occur in unconscious mind, so difficult/impossible to test
  • many of Freuds ideas are based on case studies e.g. Little Hans, so unable to generalise to others and make universal claims about behaviour
  • undermines validity of psychodynamic approach as an explanation for offending
• why is gender bias a weakness of the psychodynamic explanation?

  • alpha-bias
  • Freudian theory suggests girls develop a weaker superego than boys sue to identification with same-sex parent being weaker, girls don't experience strong emotions like castration anxiety
  • superego is underdeveloped, suggests girls are more prone to offending due to a less developed sense of morality
  • statistically disproven, women make up 5% of prisons, suggests men are more likely to offend, undermines validity of Freud's 'weak' superego causing offending