Forensics: Psychodynamic theory

Question 1

Summarise Blackburn’s theory

Answer 1

• If the superego is somehow deficient or inadequate then criminal behaviour is inevitable because the id is given ‘free reign’ -> 3 explanations:
• the weak superego
• the deviant superego
• the over-harsh superego

Question 2

explain the weak superego (Blackburn)

Answer 2

• if the same-sex parent is absent during the phallic stage there is no identification so the child cannot internalise a fully-formed superego.
  -> making immoral / criminal behaviour likely.

Question 3

Explain the deviant superego (Blackburn)

Answer 3

• if the superego the child internalises has immoral or deviant values this would lead to offending behaviour e.g. influence of criminal parents.

Question 4

Explain the over-harsh superego

Answer 4

• An excessively harsh or punitive super-ego makes the individual crippled by guilt or anxiety. They may then commit criminal acts – to satisfy the superego’s need for punishment.

Question 5

Explain how the maternal deprivation theory is an explanation for offending (Bowlby, maternal bond)

Answer 5

• Failure to establish maternal bond in first few years.
• leads to damaging and irreversible consequences.
• Affectionless psychopathy: lack of guilt, empathy and feelings for others – can result in engaging in delinquency.
  -> Bowlby’s study on 44 thieves

Question 6

Explain Englander’s theory on displacement

Answer 6

• If offenders cannot control their aggression, which comes from their instinctive id, the aggression might spill out of their unconscious, resulting in violent and offending behaviour.

Question 7

Explain how defence mechanisms work

Answer 7

• these are used by the unconscious mind to reduce anxiety:
• Displacement: focus of anger shifted from actual target to neutral target.
• Denial: unwanted reality of threatening event is ignored and blocked from conscious awareness.
• Repression: involves the ego stopping unwanted and possibly painful thoughts from being conscious.

Question 8

List the evaluations for the psychodynamic approach for offending

Answer 8

Positive:
- considers emotion

Negative:
- gender bias
- Unconscious concepts (lacks empiricism)
- Correlation not causation

Question 9

(+) explain how the psychodynamic approach considers emotions

Answer 9

• Unlike most of the other approaches, the psychodynamic approach deals with the role of emotional factors.
• It explains how anxiety and / or how feelings of rejection may contribute to offending behaviour.
• It also recognises the role of biological influences and early childhood experiences in moulding adult personality.

Question 10

(-) explain how the psychodynamic approach has gender bias (Hoffman)

Answer 10

• Alpha bias in Freud’s research – women have lower status.
• argued women do not identify with same-sex parent as much as boys do.
  -> Superego is not fully realised as well as their sense of morality
• If Freud’s views were correct, there should be more female criminals than men because of a weak super-ego -> however it is the other way around.
• Hoffman found little difference in terms of gender for resistance to temptation.

Question 11

(-) explain how the psychodynamic approach uses unconscious concepts (lacks falsifiability -> lacks empiricism)

Answer 11

• unconscious concepts - lack of falsifiability and are not open to empirical testing.
• Psychodynamic explanations are therefore regarded as ‘pseudoscientific’ – fake science.

Question 12

(-) explain how research supporting the psychodynamic approach is correlational and does not explain causation (Lewis)

Answer 12

• Lewis (1954) analysed data drawn from interviews with 500 young people.
• Found maternal deprivation was a poor predictor of future offending and the ability to form close relationships in adolescence.
  -> There could be alternative explanations such as genetics or other social influences.