Psychodynamic Psychological Explanations

Psychodynamic Explanations: A perspective that describes the different forces (dynamics), most of which are unconscious, that operate one the mind and direct human behaviour and experience.

Ronald Blackburn (1993): argued that if the superego is deficient then offending behaviour is inevitable

Types of Inadequate Superego: Weak superego, deviant superego, over-harsh 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, making immoral or offending behaviour more likely.

The Deviant Superego: If the Superego that a child internalises has immoral or deviant values, due to being raised by someone with immoral or deviant values, this would lead to offending behaviour.

The Over-Harsh Superego: This superego is developed as a result of an overly harsh parenting style which leads a child with an over-harsh Superego who is crippled by guilt and anxiety. This could (unconsciously) drive the individual to perform criminal acts in order to satisfy the Superego’s need for punishment.

The Role of Emotion: The inadequate Superego allows someone’s moral behaviour to be guided by their allow, emotional demands. The lack of guilt thanks to a deficient superego is relevant to understanding offending behaviour, as in the case of maternal deprivation theory which we are able to consider.

Affectionless Psychopathy: Characterised by a lack of guilt, empathy and feeling for others due to maternal deprivation. Individuals with affectionless psychopathy are likely to engage in acts of delinquency and cannot develop close relationships with others.

44 Thieves: 44 teenagers accused of stealing were interviewed for affectionless psychopathy and their families were interviewed about whether they suffered maternal deprivation in their childhood. 14/44 thieves were described as affectionless psychopaths. 12/14 had experienced maternal deprivation in the first 2 years of their lives. Only 5 of the remaining 30 had experienced separation. Only 2/44 in the control group suffered maternal deprivation.

Research Support: Goreta (1991) conducted a Freudian-style analysis of ten offenders referred for psychiatric treatment, all had disturbances in Superego diagnosed. Each offender experiences unconscious feelings of guilt and the need for self-punishment, a consequence of an over-harsh Superego.

Counterpoint to Research Support: However the central principles of the inadequate Superego theory are not supported, evidence suggests parents who rely on harsher forms of discipline tend to raise children who are rebellious and rarely express feelings of guilt or self criticism (Kochanska et al 2001).

Gender Bias: Freud’s theory dictates that girls develop a weaker Superego than boys because identification with the same gender is not as strong due to a lack of intense emotion associated with castration anxiety. This would predict that women should be more prone to offending behaviour than men however rates of imprisonment show that men are 20 times more likely to offend than women.

Other Factors: Hinda Lewis (1954) analysed data drawn from interviews with 500 young people and found that maternal deprivation was a poor predictor of future offending and the ability to form close relationships in adolescence. There is not a causal relationship between maternal deprivation and offending in later life. There are countless other reasons for this apparent link such as growing up in poverty.