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Individualistic TheoriesPsychoanalysis
- According to Freud, our early childhood experiences determine our personality and
future behaviour
- Early experiences determine whether we will go on to act in anti-social ways
- If you have a fixation at the oral stage you are more likely to smoke or bite pens as
an adult
The Id:
- The ‘pleasure principle’
- Present from birth 0-2 years old
- Lots of emotional impulses and desires with a demand for immediate gratification-
pleasure seeking needs (sex, food, sleep)
- Located in the unconscious ‘animal’ part of the mind
- If we acted on the urges they would lead to antisocial and criminal behaviour
The superego:
- Contains our conscience or moral rules
- Learn through interaction with our parents during early socialisation in the family
- For example: punishment for trying to satisfy urges without regard for others
- Through socialisation, the child internalises its parents ideas of right and wrong and
superego develops as an internal ‘nagging parent’
- If we act on our Id it punishes us with feelings of guilt and anxiety
The ego:
- Develops at the age of 2
- Manages desires of the id
- Governs and controls your personality
- Controls your id’s desires
- Predicts your mental health and logic
What causes anti-social behaviour?
- Psychoanalytic theories see anti-social behaviour to be caused by an abnormal
relationship with parents during socialisation, for example due to neglect or strict
parenting
- Results in a weak, over harsh or deviant superego- link to criminality.
A weakly developed superego- individual will feel less guilt about anti-social actions and
less inhibition about acting on the Id’s selfish or aggressive urges.
A too harsh and unforgiving superego- creates a deep seated guilt feeling in an
individual, who then craves punishment as a release from those feelings, the person may
engage in compulsive repeat offending in order to be punished
A deviant superego- child is successfully 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,the sons superego would not inflict feeling of guilt on him for
contemplating criminal acts.
, Bowlby’s maternal deprivation theory
- He argued that there is a link between maternal deprivation and deviant or anti-social
behaviour
- Child requires a close, continuous relationship with primary caregiver (mother) from
birth to 5 years old to develop normally
- If a child does not form the correct attachment at an early stage such as the mother
and child attachment being broken through separation, even if its for a short period of
time this may then lead to the child being unable to form meaningful relationships
- This is called ‘affectionless psychopathy’ which is a sense of no shame or guilt
- In some cases this leads to criminal behaviour
Evidence:
- 88 children (5-16 years old) were referred to a child guidance clinic
- 44 thieves and other 44 were non criminals, he interviewed children and families
about early life experiences
- He found that 39% of thieves had suffered maternal deprivation before the age of 5
- There was a link between early separations and later social and emotional
adjustment
- Severe maternal deprivation leads to affectionless psychopathy
3.2 Evaluate the effectiveness of criminological theories
Psychodynamic theories: Freud
- Freud's psychodynamic theory explains criminal behaviour in term of faulty early
socialisation preventing the individual resolving unconscious conflicts between Id and
superego
Strengths:
- Psychoanalytic explanations have some influence on policies for dealing with crime
and deviance, psychoanalysis brings unconscious to conscious through dream
analysis
- Points to the importance of early socialisation and family relationships in
understanding criminal behaviour, psychoanalysis is a therapy developed from this
theory
Limitations:
- Critics doubt the existence of an ‘unconscious mind’ ; how can we know about it?
- Psychoanalytic explanations are unscientific and subjective rely on accepting the
psychoanalysis claims that they can see into the workings of individuals unconscious
mind to discover their inner conflicts and motivations
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