Psychodynamic explanation

• Who applied Freud’s concept of psychodynamic approach to offending behaviour?

  • Inadequate superego: Blackburn
  • Maternal deprivation theory: Bowlby
• What is the psychodynamic explanation?

  • A perspective that describes how unconscious forces operate on the mind and direct human behaviour and experience.
• When is the superego formed?

  • Formed in the phallic stage of development when children resolve the Oedipus complex.
• What is the superego?

  Morality principle, exerts its influence by punishing the Ego through guilt of wrongdoing, whilst rewarding it with pride for good moral behaviour.
• What did Blackburn suggest lead to offending behaviour?

  • Blackburn argued that if the superego is deficient or inadequate then offending behaviour is inevitable because the Id, is given ‘free reign’ and not controlled properly.
  • Blackburn proposed 3 types of inadequate superegos.
• What are the 3 types of inadequate superego?

  • Weak superego
  • Deviant superego
  • Over-harsh superego
• Weak superego

  • If same-sex parent is absent during the phallic stage, a child cannot internalise a fully-formed superego as there is no opportunity for identification.
  • This would make offending/immoral behaviour more likely.
• Deviant superego

  • Same-sex parent is present, but the superego a child internalised has immoral or deviant values, this would lead to offending behaviour.
  • E.g a boy raised by a criminal father is not likely to associate guilt with wrongdoing.
• Over-harsh superego

  • An overly harsh parenting style leads to a child with an over-harsh superego which is crippled with guilt and anxiety.
  • This may drive an individual unconsciously to perform criminal acts to satisfy the superego’s needs for punishment.
• How does an inadequate superego effect emotion?

  • An inadequate superego allows emotional demands to become uppermost in guiding moral behaviour.
• How did Bowlby explain how people form meaningful relationships in adulthood?

  Bowlby argued the ability to form meaningful relationships in adulthood were dependent upon the child forming a warm, continuous relationship with a mother-figure.
• How does Bowlby explain offending behaviour?

  • Failure to establish such relationship with the mother during childhood means the child is likely to experience damaging and irreversible consequences later on in life.
  • Such as affectionless psychopathy, characterised by lack of guilt, empathy and feelings for others.
  • Such maternally deprived individuals are likely to engage in acts of delinquency and cannot develop close relationships with others.
• Bowlby’s 44 Juvenile Thieves study

  • In interviews, he found that 14 out of 44 juvenile thieves were affectionless psychopaths.
  • 12 out of 14 had experienced prolonged separation from their mothers during infancy (particularly during first 2 years of life)
  • In a non-criminal group, only 2 had experienced early separation.
  • Bowlby concluded that maternal deprivation had caused affectional and delinquent behaviour in juvenile thieves.
• Research support linking offending and the superego

  • Goreta, conducted a Freudian analysis of 10 offenders referred for psychiatric treatment. Results found in all offenders they showed disturbances in superego formation.
  • Each offender experienced unconscious feelings of guilt and need for self-punishment. Goreta explained this may be a consequence of an over-harsh superego, the need for punishment manifesting itself as a desire to offend.
  • Therefore the evidence seems to support the role of an over-harsh superego as a basis of offending.
• How is the psychodynamic approach gender-biased?

  • Freud’s theory assumes girls develop a weaker superego than boys because they don’t experience castration anxiety, so are under less pressure to identify with their mothers.
  • Based on this assumption, girls should be more prone to criminal behaviour but they are not. Hoffman, found hardly any gender differences in moral behaviour, when there was a difference girls tended to be more moral than boys.
  • Suggests the psychodynamic explanation may be prone to alpha bias.
• Bowlby’s theory is based on an association between maternal deprivation and offending- NOT GOOD

  • Lewis analysed data drawn from interviews with 500 young people and found that maternal deprivation was a poor predictor of offending and the ability to form close relationships in adolescence. Even if there was a link, we don’t know if deprivation caused the offending.
  • May be other factors for this link, e.g maternal deprivation could be due to growing up in poverty and this may explain later offending.
  • Suggests maternal deprivation may not be the only reason for offending behaviour.
• Contradictory research for inadequate superego

  • Kochanska et al found parents who rely on harsher forms of discipline tend to raise children who are rebellious and rarely express feelings of guilt.
  • If the inadequate superego explanation was true, we would expect harsh parents to raise children who constantly experience guilt and anxiety.
  • The research questions the link between harsh parenting and the feelings of guilt within a child.