individualistic psychodynamic

• ID = animal part of mind that is selfish and pleasure seeking
• superego = the moral part of the mind acting against it leads to guilt and anxiety
• ego = tries to satisfy the needs of the id and superego but in a more sociable way
• types of superego:

  • weak = less guilt feelings and more likely to act on ID'S urges
  • harsh = craves punishment to release guilt feelings
  • deviant = successful socialisation into deviant moral code
• Freud psychoanalysis:

  • key idea = early childhood experiences determine our personality and future including criminality
  • personality is 3 conflicting elements: superego, ego and the ID
  • THIS LINKS TO CRIME as anti social behaviour is caused by an abnormal relationship with parents. this can be from neglect to abuse. conflicts between the ID, superego and ego are unresolved which leads to a weak, deviant or harsh superego
• strengths of Freud:

  • some influence on policies for dealing with crime and deviance
  • critics doubt the existence of the unconscious mind
  • points to importance of socialisation and early family relationship in understanding criminal behaviour
• limitation of Freud:

  • unscientific and subjective
  • this is because it relies on accepting claims of a psychoanalyst about the unconscious mind of someone else. no way to tell if there correct
• Bowlby maternal deprivation theory:

  • KEY IDEA = link between maternal deprivation and deviant or anti social behaviour
  • attachment = child needs a close, continuous relationship with a primary carer from birth to 5 to develop normally
  • separation = if attachment is broken even for short time it can lead to affectionless psychopathy and criminal behaviour
  • evidence = study off 44 juvenile thieves referred to child guidance clinic. 39% suffered maternal deprivation before age 5 compared with 5% of control group of non denlinquents
• strengths of Bowlby:

  • backed up with evidence off 44 thieves study
  • shows importance of parent-child relationships in criminality
• limitations of Bowlby:

  • retrospective studies rely on memory
  • doesn't explain why 61% were not delinquent
  • no evidence of affectionless psychopathy in further studies
  • overestimates how far early childhood affects later behaviour
  • SAMMONS AND PUTWAIN argue maternal deprivation is not linked to criminality
• strengths of Eysenck:

  • describes how some measurable tendencies may lead to criminality
  • studies show that offenders lean more towards high extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism
• limitations of Eysenck:

  • personality type and criminality are correlated but this doesn't prove personality types causes criminality
  • convicted offenders may not be the typical offenders on the whole
  • Eysenck used self report questionnaires- people may lie making the results invalid
  • FARRINGTON = studies show that prisoners are not often extraverted
  • extraversion measures two separate things. impulsiveness and sociability. these things don't always correspond
• Eysenck personality theory:

  • KEY IDEA = criminality is the result off a highly neurotic and highly extraverted personality type
  • personality dimensions = extraversion v introversions (E) , neuroticism vs stability (N), then psychoticism (P)
• ESYENCK personality theory links to crime:

  • EXTRAVERSION = have a nervous system with a high need for stimulation so constantly seeking excitement through rule breaking and impulsive behaviour
  • NEUROTICISM = harder to condition into following societies rules due to high anxiety levels preventing them from learning from punishment
  • PSYCHOTICISM = people with high P score tend to be solitary misfits who are more likely to be criminal and may have serious mental illness. for example schizophrenia