Psychological explanations of offending behaviour Flashcards
(11 cards)
what is the inadequate superego? (BLACKBURN)
The superego runs on the morality principle.
Blackburn argued if the superego is deficient, then criminal behaviour is inevitable because the id (pleasure principle) is given ‘free rein’ and is not properly controlled.
What are the 3 types of inadequate superego?
The weak superego
Deviant superego
Over-harsh superego
The weak superego
If the same sex parent is absent during the phallic stage, the child cannot internalise a fully formed superego as there isn opportunity for identification. This would make immoral or criminal behaviour more likely.
The deviant superego
If the superego that the child internalises has immoral or deviant values this would lead to offending behaviour. EG: a boy who has been raised by a criminal father may not associate guilt with wrongdoing.
The over-harsh superego
A healthy superego is kind but also forgiving. An over harsh superego however is an excessively disciplinary superego which riddles the person with guilt and anxiety. May unconsciously drive the individual to perform criminal acts to satisfy the superego’s overwhelming need for punishment. A harsh superego may also lead to a build up of pressure which may cause an outburst of inappropriate behaviour.
3 types of Defence mechanisms to unconsciously justify behaviour:
DISPLACEMENT: might explain why innocent victims are targeted as substitutes for real objects of anger/frustration.
SUBLIMATION: Like repression, but instead of destructively repressing overwhelming feelings, it transforms the feelings into constructive channels for behaviour, emotion or action. EG: Desire to commit a heinous crime is diluted; vandalising a person’s car instead of physically attacking them.
RATIONALISATION: Rich people deserve to be burgled because they have much more than everyone else
MATERNAL DEPRIVATION THEORY:
Bowlby: iwm.
A failure, therefore, to establish this bond between the mother and child means damaging snd irreversible consequences -> affection less psychopathy (lack of guilt and empathy).
44 juvenile thieves
14/44 showed affection less psychopathy: 12 had experienced prolonged separation from their mothers during infancy.
In non criminal group, only 2 had experienced similar early separation, therefore maternal dep had caused affection less psychopathy and delinquent behaviour.
Failure to replicate - LEWIS
Lewis attempted to replicate 44 thieves study with 500 young people and found no correlation between early separation as a predictor for later criminality.
Opportunity for experimenter bias -Bowlby conducted the psychiatric assessments himself and made the diagnosis of Affectionless Psychopathy which may have led to a biased result.
Therefore other studies have nor replicated this.
Another limitation: i n d
Gender bias.
Freudian theory is the idea that girls have a weaker superego than boys.
Because girls do not experience castration anxiety, therefore unless less pressure to identify with their mothers compared to boys. Therefore females should be more prone to criminal behaviour due to an underdeveloped superego.
Yet statistics of the male to female ratio of inmate in prison do not show this.
Another limitation
There is very little evidence that children who were not raised with the same sex parent are less abiding.
This contradicts Blackburn’s weak superego argument. Similarly, children who are raised by parents with pro-crime attitudes go onto commit crime, this can be due to genetics or socialisation rather than the formation of a deviant superego.
Also the idea that criminal behaviour reflects an unsconcious desire for punishment seems implausible, as most offenders willl conceal their crimes as they wanna AVOID punishment.
