WJEC Criminology, Unit 2, Freud's Theory - Individualistic. Exam 2023

What type of theory did Freud come up with? - Answer- Psychodynamic Theory. What was Freud's main idea? - Answer- Freud believed that the best way to understand behaviour is to examine early childhood experiences. Freud also believed that our unconscious mind controls our behaviour including criminality. Freud developed a structure of the mind containing our personality into what 3 parts? - Answer- Freud developed our personality into the: id; which controls our selfish & animalistic urges, ego; which seeks rational & sensible control and superego; which is our moral conscience. What does Freud think is needed for a healthy personality? - Answer- Freud thinks that for a healthy personality there should be a balance of the 3 parts of our personality however, when there is unresolved conflict there is criminal behaviour as a result of this. What was the other way that Freud believed individuals could become criminal as a result of? - Answer- Children need to progress from the pleasure principle, being id dominated and therefore needing instant gratification, to the reality principle, where the ego is dominant - criminals are those children who don't make this transition. What are the strengths of this theory? - Answer- One strength is that psychodynamic theories have contributed to research about crimes and behaviour - in particular the focus on childhood experiences and the importance of them on future behaviour. Another advantage is that the id, ego and superego relate to different parts of the brain, and their functions and development - the limbic system is the brain's emotion centre, like the id, and the pre-frontal cortex is like the ego. What are the limitations of this theory? - Answer- One limitation is that psychodynamic theories of offending are no longer accredited by psychologists due to the difficulty of testing concepts such as the unconscious mind. Another disadvantage is that there is a lack of quantitative data from Freud's case studies and he knew his patients and therefore couldn't be objective.