Psychodynamic explanations of offending Flashcards
What are the 2 psychodynamic explanations?
Inadequate superego
Maternal deprivation theory
Who talks about the inadequate superego?
Blackburn
When is the superego formed?
At the end of the phallic stage when children resolve the Oedipus complex in boys and the Elektra complex in girls.
What did Blackburn state?
The superego works on the morality principle and works by exerting its influence by punishing the ego. If the superego is deficient or inadequate then criminal behaviour is inevitable because the id is given free rein and isnt controlled.
What are the 3 types of inadequate superego?
- the weak superego
- the deviant superego
- overharsh superego
The weak superego
if the same-gender parent is absent during the phallic stage, a child cannot internalise a fully-formed superego as there is no opportunity for identification. This would make immoral or offending behaviour more likely
The deviant superego
if the superego that a child internalised has immoral or deviant values this would lead to offending behaviour. For instance, a boy is raised by a criminal father is not likely to associate guilt with wrongdoing
The over-harsh superego
a healthy superego is based on identification with a parent who has firm rules but forgives transgressions. In contrast, an overly harsh parenting style leads to a child with an over-harsh superego either causing the person to become anxious and guilty by nature, causing them to unconsciously seek punishment and do so by committing criminal acts (to satisfy the superego’s overwhelming need for punishment).
What is the role of emotion / effect of an inadequate superego?
To allow primitive, emotional demands to become uppermost in guiding moral behaviour.
What did Bowlby propose?
Bowlby proposed that the ability to form meaningful social relationships in adulthood was dependent on a close, warm and continuous relationship with the mother in the first few years. Since this relationship acts as the prototype for all future relationships, its disruption would impair the person’s ability to relate to others. This could result in a condition Bowlby called ‘affectionless psychopathy’ - lack of guilt.
What was Bowlby’s research of?
44 thieves study to examine the link between affectionless psychopathy and maternal deprivation.
Describe the sample
The sample consisted of 44 criminal teenagers accused of stealing.
Describe the procedure
All thieves were interviewed for signs of affectionless psychopathy: characterised as a lack of affection, lack of guilt about their actions and lack
of empathy for their victims.
Their families were also interviewed in order to establish whether the ‘thieves’ had prolonged early separations from their mothers.
The sample was compared to a control group of 44 non-criminal but emotionally-disturbed young people.
What did Bowlby find?
Found that 14 of the 44 thieves could be described as affectionless psychopaths and 12 of these had experienced prolonged separation from their mothers
in the first 2 years of their lives. In contrast only 5 of the remaining 30 ‘thieves’ had experienced separations. Only 2 participants in the control group of 44 had experienced long separations.
What did Bowlby conclude?
That prolonged early separation/deprivation caused affectionless psychopathy.
