eval

• There is evidence contradicting the findings of Bowlby’s 44 juvenile thieves study. For example, Lewis (1959) 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
• The third weakness of psychodynamic explanations is their 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 concept cannot be empirically and objectively measured. Therefore, since the superego is a concept which cannot be proven wrong, this suggests 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
• these theories can be used irl to reduce crime by encouraging adopting children + maximise time of mother with child