SOC 2760 Chapter Notes - Chapter N/A: Reinforcement, Psychological Trauma, Homicide

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOC 2760
• Professor: Rob Shearer

Document Summary

Psychoanalytical (or psychodynamic) approaches to violent crime can be traced back to the work of sigmund freud at the end of the nineteenth century. Freud focused on the internal workings of the mind and how they affected behaviour (including criminality) Psychoanalytic theorists view criminal behaviour to be the result of some mental conflict in the unconscious or subconscious mind. Freud argued that the human personality is made up of three sets of interacting forces the id, ego, and superego. Freud proposed two different models of criminal behaviour: certain forms of criminal behaviour are the result of mental disturbance or illness developed during psychosexual development", criminal offenders possess a weak conscience. Psychoanalytic approaches are highly deterministic (all actions are seen to be determined by unconscious conflicts or tensions); doesn"t take environmental factors into account. Not easily testable (cannot prove or disprove it) Rorschach tests are not reliable since they are so subjective in nature.