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2.2 - Individualistic theories of criminality; - Coggle Diagram

- - - - A weakly developed superego;means the individual will feel less guil about anti-social actions and less inhibition about acting on the id's selfish or aggressive urges.
        
        A too harsh and unforgiving superego; 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.
        
        A deviant superego;is one where the 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 father's criminal values. As a result, his superego would not conflict guilt feelings on him for completing criminal acts.
- - - - Extroverts; 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. In turn, this is likely to lead to punishment.
      - Neurotics; are harder to condition into following society's rules because their high anxiety levels prevent them learning from punishment for their mistakes.
- - - - Therefore, whether they imitated the behaviour depended on the consequences they had observed for the model. They learned by observing someone else's experience. This can be applied to criminal behaviour. If an individual observes a model (eg; a peer) getting rewarded for their criminality, the theory predicts that the behaviour is more likely to be imitated.