psychodynamic theory

• BLACKBURN - suggested 3 types of inadequate superego (internal sense of right/wrong) are responsible for criminal behaviour

  • DEVIANT - when a child internalises abnormal moral standards from criminal parents
  • WEAK - when a child doesn't identify moral standards from same sex parent, due to an absence - no internal right/wrong
  • OVER-HARSH - craves punishment and feels excessive guilt so commits crimes due to over-harsh parents
• INADEQUATE SUPEREGO - means there is no internal right/wrong, so the id takes control ( primal instincts based on pleasure principle ), which explains impulsive and selfish behaviour seen in criminals
• • BOWLBYS MATERAL DEPRIVATION HYPOTHESIS
  • the inadequate superego was based on bowlbys theory of maternal deprivation
  • Bowlby stressed the importance of a primary attachment figure present at birth. he suggested it is an instinctive mechanism aimed to promote survival.
  • he claimed if an attachment wasn't made within the critical period ( first 2 years of life ), then it can cause irreversible intellectual and emotional damage such as mental retardation and affectionless psychopathy.
  • Bowlby displayed these two characteristics in his 44 juvenile thieves study
• A03

  — There is evidence contradicting the findings of Bowlby’s 44 juvenile thieves study. For example, Lewis found that maternal deprivation during childhood was not indicative or a reliable predictor of the likelihood of becoming criminal in the future, nor were maternally deprived children at a significant disadvantage in terms of forming close relationships during adulthood. Therefore, this decreases the validity of Blackburn’s conclusion that inadequate superegos are a reliable predictor of criminality.
• A03 — lack of scientific rigour. For example, the superego/an individual’s internalised sense of right and wrong is embedded within the unconscious tripartite personality, meaning that such a conceptcannot be empirically and objectively measured. Therefore, sincethe superego is a concept which cannot be proven wrong, thissuggests that, according to Popper’s criterion of falsification, that it is unfalsifiable and therefore pseudoscientific. This does little to increase the scientific credibility of psychology.
• — psychodynamic explanations for criminality suffer from gender bias, according to Hoffman . For example, in line with Freud’s psychodynamic approach, girls should be at a greater risk of becoming criminal because they suffer from penis envy , and so their superego has been internalised to a smaller extent compared to boys. However, statistical evidence does not support this idea. Instead, girls within the phallic stage actually display a greater appreciation of the value of delayed gratification compared to boys!