Psychodynamic explanations

• What is the inadequate superego as a psychodynamic explanation for offending behaviour?

  • Superego - punishes ego with feelings of guilt/fault for wrongdoing, rewards it with pride and satisfaction for good
  • In criminals the superego is weak or deficient, giving the id free rein to do whatever satisfies it
  • This can be inadequate in 3 ways: weak, deviant, or harsh/overdeveloped
• What is the weak superego?

  • Caused by an absent same-sex parent in the phallic stage - the superego develops as a result of identifying with a same-sex parent
  • Without this it will not develop properly, leading to poor control over antisocial behaviour and acting in ways that gratifies the id's impulses
• What is the deviant superego?

  • When an immoral superego is internalised - when we normally develop our superegos we take on the same attitudes of our parents
  • If the parent is a criminal then the child will adopt the same deviant attitudes
• What is the harsh or overdeveloped superego?

  • Internalisation a harsh or strict parent - superego becomes overly harsh and would cripple the ego with anxiety and guilt
  • Would leave to the individual committing crime wishing to be caught, as the punishment would reduce their guilt
  • OR may use defence mechanisms to repress their anxiety which cause an overabundance of unresolved conflicts, being expressed in extreme criminal behaviour
• What is one strength of the inadequate superego part of the psychodynamic explanation?

  • Megargee (1966): reported a series of cases of violent acts carried out by people who were seen as passive/harmless e.g. an 11 year old boy stabbed his brother 34 times but was described as polite without any previous history of aggressive tendencies
  • Represented a subgroup of violent offenders who shared the characteristic of being unable to express their anger in normal ways and eventually release all of this in one go as extreme crime
• What is another strength of the harsh/overdeveloped superego part of the psychodynamic explanation?

  • Goretta: analysed 10 offenders referred for psychiatric treatment and found disturbances in each of their superego formations - all experienced feelings of guilt and need for self-punishment
  • Need for punishment manifests as a desire to commit acts of wrongdoing and offend, supporting the theory's predictions
• What is one weakness of the inadequate superego as part of the psychodynamic explanation?

  • Gender bias: theory states that girls develop weaker superegos because they do not identify with their mothers as strongly as boys do with their fathers, due to lack of castration anxiety
  • This would imply that women should be more prone to offending behaviour than men but evidence suggests otherwise
  • In the UK 20x more men are in prison than women and only 1/5 of all crimes are committed by women
• What is the maternal deprivation hypothesis as a psychodynamic explanation for offending behaviour?

  • Bowlby - the ability to form meaningful adult relationships is dependent on a warm and continuous relationship with the mother in the first few years of birth
  • Disruption of this prototype would lead to the impairment of this ability
  • Could develop 'affectionless psychopathy' - inability to feel guilt or empathy, likely to engage in acts of delinquency and antisocial behaviour - evidenced by 44 thieves study
• What is a limitation of the maternal deprivation hypothesis as part of the psychodynamic explanation?

  • Reductionist: theory was only based on an association between maternal deprivation and offending
  • Lewis (1954): analysed interviews from 500 young people and found maternal deprivation is a poor predictor of future offending and the ability to form close relationships in adulthood
  • Not necessarily a causal relationship due to other factors, showing reductionism