Psychological explanations:Psychodynamic explanations -A-Level Psychology

Psychodynamic explanations of offending:

The inadequate superego:

-the superego,id,ego make up the tripartite structure of personality

-the superego is formed at the end of the phallic stage of development when children resolve the oedipus complex

-works on the morality principle and punishes the ego through guilt for wrongdoing and rewarding it with pride for moral behaviour.

-Ronald Blackburn argued that if the superego is somehow deficient or inadequate then criminal behavior is inevitable as the id is not properly controlled.

Three types of inadequate superego:

The weak superego-if the same-sex parent is absent during the phallic stage,the child can not internalise a fully formed superego as identification can not occur making immoral/criminal behaviour more likely.

The deviant superego-if the superego that the child internalises has immoral values this would lead to offending behaviour.
The over-harsh superego-a healthy superego has rules but is also forgiving of transfressions.An overly-harsh superego means the individual is crippled by guilt and anxiety.This may (unconsciously) drive the individual to perform criminal acts in order to satisfy the superego’s overwhelming need for punishment.

The maternal deprivation theory:

Bowlby argued that the ability to form meaningful relationships in adulthood was dependent upon the child forming a warm,continuous relationship with a mother figure.The maternal bond was seen by Bowlby as vital to a child’s well being and development.Failure to establish such bond during the critical period means the child will face a number of damaging and irreversible consequences in later life.Affectionless psychopathy is characterised by lack of guilt,empathy and feelings for others.Maternally deprived individuals are likely to engage in acts of delinquency and  can not develop close relationships with others as they lack the necessary early experience to do so.
44juvenile thieves-Bowlby found through interviews with thieves and their families that 14 of the sample had affectionless psychopathy.Of this 14,12 had experienced prolonged separation from their mothers during infancy.Bowlby concluded that the effects of maternal deprivation had caused affectionless and delinquent behaviour among the juvenile thieves.

Evaluation:

Contradictory evidence-There is very little evidence that children raised without a same-sex parent are less law-abiding as adults.This contradicts the weak superego argument.Similarly,if children who are raised by deviant parents go on to commit crime themselves,this may be down to genetics or socialisation rather than a deviant superego.The idea that criminal behaviour reflects an unconscious desire for punishment seems implausible,as most offenders go to great lengths to conceal their crimes which suggests that they want to avoid punishment.

Methodological issues with Bowlby’s research-Bowlby had research bias as his preconceptions may have influenced the responses of his interviewees.Bowlby failed to distinguish between privation and deprivation in his research.Many of the thieves he had studied had experienced privation which may have been more damaging than deprivation.