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Individualistic theories of criminality - Coggle Diagram
Individualistic theories of criminality
Psychoanalysis (Freud)
3 elements of personality Freud identified
the superego
contains our conscience or moral rules which we learn through interactions with our parents during early socialisation in the family
this may try to punish us for trying to satisfy our urges without regard to others
through socialisation the child internalises its parents ideas of right and wrong and the superego develops as an internal 'nagging parent'
if we act or even think about acting contrary to the superego it punishes us with guilt or anxiety
the ego
It is driven by the reality principle - learns from experience that in the real world our actions have consequences
the ego seeks to control the id's urges while still finding ways to satisfy them as well as being morally acceptable to the superego
the id
located in the unconscious, instinctive, 'animal' part of the mind
contains powerful, selfish and pleasure seeking needs and drives such as desire for food, sex and sleep
it is governed by the pleasure principle - the blind desire to satisfy urges at any cost
if we acted on this we would often lead to antisocial and criminal behaviour
problems with the superego that can cause crime
to harsh/unforgiving superego
creates deep guilt so they may crave punishment as a release from the feelings. they may engage in repeat offending in order to be punished
a deviant superego
the child is successfully socialised but into a deviant moral code. the son may have a good relationship with his criminal father so he internalises his father's criminal values. as a result his superego would not inflict guilt for contemplating criminal acts
weakly developed superego
means a individual will feel less guilt about anti social behaviour and less inhibition about acting on the id's selfish or aggressive urges
according to freud our early childhood determines our personality and future behavior - whether we will go on to act in an antisocial ways
Bowlby's maternal deprivation
according to Bowlby maternal deprivation causes antisocial behaviour even if it is a for a short period of time
in Bowlby's view a child needs a close, continuous relationship with its primary carer from birth to 5 years old
consequences of not forming the correct attachment from a early age
it can leave a child unable to form meaningful emotional relationships with others. Bowlby describes this as 'affectionless psychopathy'
evidence of Bowlby's theory
he based his study on a study of 44 juvenile thieves who had been referred to a child guidance clinic. he found that 39% of them had suffered maternal deprivation before the age of 5, compared with 5% of a control group of non-delinquents
Eysenck personality theory
Eysenck believed that criminality is the result of a particular personality type
extraversion vs introversion
neuroticism vs emotional stability
dimensions of personality identified by Eysenck
extraversion
personalities are outgoing, sociable, excitement seeking, impulsive, carefree, optimistic
introrversion
personalities are reserved, inward looking, thoughtful, serious, reliable, self controlled
neurotic
personalities are anxious, moody, often depressed, prone to over reacting
conditioning
that through experience we learn to seek pleasure (rewards) and avoid pain (punishment)
if we misbehave and are punished we learn o stop doing it to avoid the punishment
Eysenck personality questionnaire
used to measure people's personality traits ranking them on a E and N scale. high E = very extraverted
criminal personalities are ranked high on both E and N scales so they are both strongly extrovert and neurotic.
Eysenck's argument to genetic inheritance causing a criminal personality
neurotics
they are harder to condition into following societies rules because their high anxiety levels prevent them learning from punishment for their mistakes
extraverts
they have a nervous system that needs a high level of stimulation from their environment, constantly seeking excitement. this lead to impulsive, rule breaking behaviour, likely to lead to punishment
psychoticism
people with a high P score are more likely to engage in criminality
they tend to be solitary misfits who are cruel, insensitive, aggressive and lacking empathy.
it can overlap with serious psychiatric illnesses e.g. schizophrenia
Social learning theory (Bandura)
according to Bandura we learn much of our behaviour by imitating other people
models
they are called this because we model our behaviour on how we see them behaving
we don't just copy anyone's behaviour, we are more likely to imitate it if they are of higher status than us
consequences
whether we imitate behaviour depends on the consequences
if we see the model being rewarded we are more likely to imitate it than if we see them being punished for it
Bobo doll experiment
the three groups used
group 2 - model was being punished
group 3 - the behaviour was neither rewarded or punished
group 1 - models where being rewarded
result/responses from the groups
they imitated the behaviour
they were least likely to imitate the aggressive behaviour
they imitated the model but were less likely to than group 1
through this experiment bandura was curious to learn whether we learn through observing others behaviour (whether the children would imitate the behaviour they had just viewed
bobo doll
inflatable doll which adults would beat up/ be violent with on a video, this video was then shown to 3 different groups of children.
criticisms
that the children had never seen a bobo doll before so they assumed that is what was supposed to be done
because of this criticism he made children watch the same video but instead of putting the children in the room with the doll they put them in a room with other children to see if the group exposed to the violent behaviour being rewarded were more aggressive
Sutherlands differential association theory
operant learning theory