topic 2.2- describe individualistic theories of crime

Question 1

Who was psychoanalysis founded by?

Answer 1

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

Question 2

what is psychoanalysis (psychodynamic theories)

Answer 2

According to Freud our early childhood expereicnes determine our personality and future behaviour, in his view ‘the child is father to the man’. In particular our early expereinces determine whether we will go on to act in anti social ways.

Question 3

what is the ID (psychoanalysis)

Answer 3

The ID is located in the unconscious, insinctive, ‘animal’ part of the mind. It contains powerful selfish, pleasure-seeking needs and drives such as the desire for sex, food and sleep. The ID is governed by the ‘pleasure seeking principle’ - the blind desire to satisfy its urges at any cost. If we acted on these urges whenever we felt them, they would often lead to anti-social and criminal behaviour.

Question 4

What is the superego (psychoanalysis)

Answer 4

contains our conscience or moral rules, which we learn through interactions with our parents during early socialisation in the family. Through socialisation the child internalises its parents idea of right and wrong and the superego develops as sort of a internal nagging parent. If we act or even just think of acting contrary to the superego it punishes us with feelings of guilt and anxiety.

Question 5

The ego (psychoanalysis)

Answer 5

Freud saw our behaviour as the result of the struggle between the ID and the superego. The egos role is to try and strike a balance between the conflicting demands. The ego is driven by the reality principle. It learns from experiences that in the real world, our actions have consequences. The ego seeks control of the ids urges while still finding ways to satisfy them

Question 6

Example of ego (psychoanalysis)

Answer 6

a child learns to say ‘please’ to obtain what is wants. It learns that sometimes it may have to repress gratification of the ids desires. In a well-adjusted person, the ego acts in a way that satisfies the ids desires but that is also morally acceptible to the superego.

Question 7

how does psychoanalysis relate to crime?

Answer 7

Psychoanalytic theories see anti-social behaviour as caused by an abnormal relationship with parents during early socialisation for example due to neglect or to excessively lax or strict parenting. This can result in a week, over hard or deviant superego.

Question 8

how does psychoanalysis relate to crime - a weakly developed superego

Answer 8

mean the individual will feel less guilt about anti social actions and less inhibition about acting on the id’s selfish or aggressive urges

Question 9

how does psychoanalysis relate to crime - a too harsh and unforgiving superego

Answer 9

creates deep-seated guilt feelings in the individual, who then craves punishment as a release from these feelings. The person may engage in compulsive repeat offending in order to be punished.

Question 10

how does psychoanalysis relate to crime - a deviant superego

Answer 10

is one where the child is succesfully socialised but into a deviant moral code. A son may have a perfectly good relationship with his criminal father and so he internalises his fathers criminal values as a result his superego would not inflict guilt feelings on him for contemplating criminal acts.

Question 11

Psychodynamic theories - Freud - Key idea

Answer 11

Freuds phsychoanalytic theory explains criminal behaviour in terms of faulty early socialisation preventing the individual resolving unconscious conflicts between the id and superego

Question 12

Psychodynamic theories - Freud - strengths

Answer 12

1) The theory points to the importance of early socialisation and family relationships in understanding criminal behaviour.
2) Psychoanalytic explinations have had some influence on policies for dealing with crime and deviance

Question 13

Psychodynamic theories - Freud - limitations

Answer 13

1) crtitics doubt the existance of an ‘unconcious mind - how could we know about it if its unconcious
2) pstchoanalytic explanations are unscientific and subjective - they rely on accepting psychoanalyst’s claims tha they can see into the workings of an individuals unconcious mind to discover their inner conflicts and motivations

Question 14

Eysenck’s personality theory

Answer 14

Hans Eysenck developed a theory of criminality based on his theory of personality. He argues that criminality is the result of a particular personality type.

Question 15

What are the 2 personality types Eysenck argues criminality is a result of?

Answer 15

1) extraversion vs introversion (E for short)
2) Neuroticism vs emotional stability (N for short)

Question 16

Eysenck’s personality theory - extraverted

Answer 16

extraverted personalities are outgoing, sociable, excitement-seeking, impulsive, carefree, optimistic, often aggressive, short tempered and unreliable

Question 17

Eysenck’s personality theory - introverted

Answer 17

introverted personalities are reserved, inward looking, thoughtful, serious, quiet, self controlled, pessimistic and reliable

Question 18

Eysenck’s personality theory - neurotic

Answer 18

neurotic personalities are anxious, moody, often depressed and prone to over reacting

Question 19

Eysenck’s personality theory - emotional stable

Answer 19

calm, even tempered, controlled and unworried

Question 20

Eysenck’s personality theory - what did he do to come up with theory

Answer 20

Eysenck devised the Eysenck personality questionare to measure peoples personality traits ranking them on an E scale and an N scale.

Question 21

Eysenck’s personality theory - what did he do to come up with theory - example

Answer 21

people with a high E score are very extraverted whereas people with a low e score are very introverted

Question 22

Eysenck’s personality theory - what did he find

Answer 22

Eysenck found that most people have personalities around the middle on both scales. By contrast, the criminal personality scores high on both E and N, in other words criminals tend to be highly extroverted and neurotic.

Question 23

Eysenck’s personality theory - why is this - conditioning

Answer 23

some psychologists argue that through experience we learn to seek pleasure for rewards and avoid pain or punishment. Eysenck argues that we learn through conditioning but that some individuals inherit a nervous system that causes them to develop a criminal personality and he argues that this works as follows: extraverts, neurotics

Question 24

Eysenck’s personality theory - why is this - conditioning - extraverts

Answer 24

have a nervous system that needs a high level of stimulation from their environment so they are constantly seeking excitement. This leads to impulsive, rule breaking behaviour which is likely to lead to punishment.

Question 25

Eysenck's personality theory - why is this - conditioning - neurotics

Answer 25

neurotics are harder to condition into following societys rules because their high anxiety levels prevent them learning from punishment for their mistakes

Question 26

Eysenck's personality theory - why is this - psychoticism

Answer 26

in his later research Eysenck added psychoticism (P) as a\ further personality dimension. People with a high P score are more likely to engage in criminality. They tend to be solitary misfits who are cruel, insensitive and lacking empathy. High P can overlap wirh serious psychiatric illnesses such as pchizophrenia.

Question 27

learning theories - social learning theory

Answer 27

The psychologist Albert Bandura argues we learn much of our behaviour including aggressive behaviour by imiatating other people and for this reason his approach is known as observational or social learning theory.

Question 28

Eysenck's personality theory - key idea

Answer 28

Eysenck sees criminality as the result of an extraverted-neurotic (high E and high N) personality. Extroverts seek simulation, leading to rule breaking, while neurotics' anxiety prevents them from learning punishment. Psychotic (highP) personalities also are more likely to offend

Question 29

Eysenck's personality theory - 2 strengths

Answer 29

1) The theory is useful in describing how some measurable tendencies could increase a persons risk of offending 2) Eysenck predicts that high E,N and P scores lead to criminality and some studies support his predictions.

Question 30

Eysenck's personality theory - 3 limitations

Answer 30

1) Farrington examined a range of studies these show prisoners are neurotic and psychotic but not extraverted. 2) The E scale may be measuring 2 seperate things - impulsivness and sociability. Offenders score highly on impulsiveness (lack of control) but not sociability ( they are loners) 3) Eynseck used self report questionares which may not produce valid results - people may lie when answering about themselves.

Question 31

Social learning theory - key idea

Answer 31

Bandura argues that we learn behaviour through observation and imitation of others. If we see a model being rewarded for acting in a deviant way we dont need to experience the reward ourselves in order to copy it

Question 32

Social learning theory - 2 strengths

Answer 32

1) unlike skinner, Bandura takes account of the fact that we are all social beings. We learn from the experiences of others not just from our own direct experience. 2) Bandura shows that children who observed aggressive behaviour being rewarded, imitated that behaviour. This shows the imporance of role models in learning deviant behaviour

Question 33

Social learning theory - 3 limitations

Answer 33

1) The theory is based on labatory studied. Laboratories are artificial settings and finding may not be valid for real life situations 2) The theory assumes peoples behaviour is completely determined by their learning experiences and ignored their freedom of choice. This also conflicts with legal views of crime which assume we have free will to commit crime 3) Not all observed behaviiour is easily imitated. We might see a film in which a safecracker is rewarded with the loot but we lack the skills to imitate this behaviour.

Question 34

Social learning theory - models

Answer 34

Bandura calls these other people models because we model our behaviour on how we see them behaving however we dont copy just anybodys behaviour. whether we imitate their behaviour mainly depends on the consequences that behaviour brings. if we see the model being punished we are less likely to copy it than if they were rewarded.

Question 35

social learning theory - what was the study?

Answer 35

Bandura et al demonstrated this in a series of experiments with 4-5 year olds. They divided the children into 3 groups all 3 were shown a film of an adult model being verbally and physically aggressive towards a bobo doll.

Question 36

social learning theory - what was the study - what did group 1 see

Answer 36

saw a version of the film where the modal was rewarded with praise

Question 37

social learning theory - what was the study - what did group 2 see

Answer 37

saw a version in which the model was being told off

Question 38

social learning theory - what was the study - what did group 3 see

Answer 38

was a control group. in the version they saw the behaviour was not rewarded or punished

Question 39

social learning theory - what was the study - what did group 1 do

Answer 39

group 1 imitated the aggressive behaviour they had seen being rewarded

Question 40

social learning theory - what was the study - what did group 3 do

Answer 40

group 3 the control group also imitated the mode though less so than group 1

Question 41

social learning theory - what was the study - what did group 2 do

Answer 41

group 2 who had observed the model being punished were least likely to immitate aggressive behaviour

Question 42

social learning theory - conclusion

Answer 42

whether they imitated the model depended on the consequences they had observed for the mode they learned by observing someone elses experience.