Psych exp: Psychodynamic exp

• What may an inadequate superego be linked to criminal behaviour?

  • Superego works on the morality principle, punishes ego through guilt, rewarding it with pride for moral behaviour  
  • If the superego hasn’t developed properly then the person is more likely to commit crime, this is because the id will be largely out of control and impulsive/selfish behaviour more likely  
• What did Ronald Blackburn suggest about the superego and criminality?

  • argued that if the superego is somehow deficient or inadequate then criminal behaviour is inevitable
  • the id is given ‘free reign’ and not properly controlled.
• What are the 3 types of inadequate superego?

  • Weak
  • Deviant
  • Over-harsh
• What is the impact of a deviant superego?

  • if the superego that the child internalises has immoral or deviant values, this would lead to offending behaviour.
  • E.g. a boy raised by a criminal father, not likely to associate guilt with wrongdoing
• What is the impact of an over-harsh superego?

  • An overly punitive or harsh superego means the individual is crippled by guilt and anxiety.
  • Very strong identification with strict same-sex parent.
  • may unconsciously drive the individual to perform criminal acts in order to satisfy the superego’s overwhelming need for punishment to therefore reduce guilt.
  • Offending would be a form of ego-defence mechanism. 
• What is the maternal deprivation theory as an explanation for criminal?

  • Bowlby argued that the ability to form meaningful relationships in adulthood was dependent upon the child forming a continuous relationship with a mother-figure  
  • Bowlby concluded that the effects of maternal deprivation caused affectionless and delinquent behaviour among juvenile thieves 
• Features/impacts of maternal deprivation that may lead to criminality?

  • Personality type, affectionless psychopathy is likely to lead individuals to engage in acts of delinquency and a failure to develop close relationships with others 
  • Failure to establish such a bond during the first 2/3 years of life means the child will experience damaging and irreversible consequences in later life (continuity hypothesis)
• Economic implications of Bowlby's research?

  • opportunity to improve children to give right kind of parenting in first 30 months and therefore reduce rates of offending and to avoid children developing affectionless psychopathy 
• LIMITATION- GENDER BIAS (AO3)

  • Freudian theory assumes that girls develop a weaker superego than boys (ALPHA BIAS)
  • As a result girls do not experience castration anxiety, therefore under less pressure to identify with parent
  • As a result their superego and sense of morality is less fully realised/developed
  • Therefore this should implicate that females are more prone to criminal behaviour
  • there is no evidence to support this, HOFFMAN
  • Hoffman found that when children were asked to resist temptation in a task, there were little gender differences
  • If there was, girls tended to be more moral
  • Limitation as it presents psychological explanation to account for gender differences,n ot the case
• Bowlby limitation extras

  • 44 thieves relies on self report and interview from parents on child, social desirability bias may not be a truthful account
  • Bowlby also failed to differentiate between the concepts of deprivation vs. privation in which tended to be more along the lines of rutter, therefore may overstate the effects of deprivation
  • Criminality may be more prone due to privation
• Alternative evaluations?

  • Other psychological explanations include disposition of personality (eysenck), differential association, cognitive explanations etc.
  • Or biological explanations such as genetic and neural or atavistic form
• LIMITATION- PSEUDOSCIENCE (AO3)

  • Psychodynamic explanations lack falsifiability due to a focus on unconscious concepts
  • Limited application to crime as concepts cannot be empirically tested for supporting evidence
  • Can only be judged based on face value which may be biased or untruthful
  • Therefore limited as superego concepts cannot contribute largely to why people commit and cannot be prevented necessarily, it can be suggested that it would take more than just changing parenting style of prevent criminality
• Contradictory evidence for blackburn (AO3)

  • Can alternatively be argued that those with a 'deviant superego' and being influenced by pro-crime attitudes can be a result of genetics or even socialisation processes
  • As a result these are more coherent explanations that also provide solutions to prevent criminal attitudes from being shared