A Detailed Analysis of Two Psychological Theories: Criminology

This essay provides an overview of two key psychological theories, behavioural and psychodynamic, and their application to criminology. The behavioural theory posits that criminal behaviour is learned through conditioning, observation, and social learning, influenced by factors like family, environment, and mass media. The psychodynamic theory, rooted in Freudian concepts, suggests that criminal behaviour arises from conflicts between the ego, id, and superego, often stemming from adverse childhood experiences. The essay highlights the importance of both nature and nurture in shaping an individual's propensity for criminal behaviour, emphasizing the impact of social environment on moral compass, personality, and psychological well-being. It concludes by acknowledging criticisms of psychoanalytic perspectives while underscoring their value in understanding the motivations behind criminal actions.

2 psychological theories

Table of Content.
Psychological theories.....................................................................................................................3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................4

Psychological theories.
The psychological theories are generally the system of thoughts which can effectively
help to describe various aspects of thoughts, emotions and behaviour as well. It is necessary to
recognize that there are various explanations as to why a person can commit crime. In this, one
of the essential description is based on the psychological theories, that can effectively
concentrate on the combining within intelligence, learning, personality as well as the criminal
behaviours. While examining the psychological theories of crime, there should be cognizant of
the some of the main theories such as psychodynamic, behavioural as well as the cognitive
theory. In context with psychodynamic theory, it is generally placed on the thought that a
person's prior childhood experiences can effectively make impact on their possibilities for
committing crimes in future prospects. In context with behavioural theory, the theorist generally
expand the work via the modelling of behaviour and social learning as well. As per the view of
cognitive theory, the major premised of this can efficiently suggest that the perception of a
person as well as how it is manifested can affect their potential to commit the crime. In addition
to this, a detailed form of the mentioned two psychological theories is provided below:
 Behavioural theory: it is generally a form of conditioning, where the behaviour is learned
as well as strengthen by the rewards or the punishments as well. Such that, if an
individual is in the workplace of those who generally condone and even reward their
criminal behaviour, more specifically a figure of authority, then they well significantly
keep to engage in such behaviours. for example, the theorist named Albert Bandura
generally tends to maintain a person who is not born with having an innate ability to act
violently. The theorist rather suggests a person can learn violent behaviour via observing
others as well. More typically, this comes from the three sources such as the family, an
environmental experiences as well as the mass media. In addition to this, a study over the
interactions among the family members specifically exhibit that the children who involve
aggressive behaviours are generally more likely to have been brought up by the parents or
the care takers who are aggressive. In context with the very second source of the
behavioural issues, like the environmental experiences, it mainly suggests that a person
who can reside within the region that are crime prone are generally more likely to exhibit
the aggressive behaviours than those who can reside within the low crime region. In
context with the very third source of the behavioural issues such as mass media. It is

quite challenging to discern the ultimate role of the mass media in correspondence with
crime. It is been suggested that the video games, films as well as the shows on the
televisions significantly shows the violence are dangerous for the children. Finally, the
social learning theories can beckons us in order to accept the fact that the mass media are
greatly responsible for a high deal of the violence in the community (Egan, 2021).
 Psychodynamic theory: The theory is quite specific to the criminology, it is because it
generally describes the abnormal or a criminal behaviour as an outcome of an irregular
development of the psyche. The theory generally sees the criminal behaviour as a conflict
among the ego, id as well as superego. These such conflicts can ultimately lead to the
people producing the dereliction as well as the problematic behaviour. in addition to this,
instead of concentrating on the biological basis of crime, psychologists can concentrate
on how the mental processes can influence a person's propensities for the violence. The
psychologists are frequently interested in the link among learning, intelligence as well as
the personality and their aggressive behaviour. In addition to this, the most significant
criticism of the psychoanalytic perspectives is that it is specifically based on the data or
information mainly derived from the therapists subjective interpretations of the
interviews with having a small number of the patients. At last, the psychodynamic theory
within criminology can specifically suggest that the criminal offenders are generally
aggravated and frustrated as well. It is generally drawn to the last events which has
occurred in their prior childhood. It is because of unhappy, negligent or a miserable
childhood, that is specifically featured by an absence of love or the nurturing, a criminal
offender has an absent ego. Furthermore, the study significantly suggest that consisting a
weak ego is directly associated with an absence of a social etiquette, lack of maturity as
well as dependence on other people. It is also identified that a person having a absence of
ego can be likely to engage in the substance abuse or mistreatment. The Sigmund Freud
generally concluded that the specific behaviours can be effectively illustrated via the
analysis of a person's experiences and the trauma providing the accountability to the
motivation of the actions of an individual. In addition to this, the interpretation of his
findings can be concluded an individual can adopt their behaviour from the childhood
experiences in order to become a part of the hidden consciousness state. The theorist
generally identified the observable behaviours, parts of the personality which are

generally not visible among the nature and on a basic level that cannot be explained
(Foster, 2019).
In this, the sociological as well as the environmental relations to the crime can specifically
represents the nurture component of the term nature vs nurture. A person's social environment
generally involves a mediate impact on an individual's moral compass, the personality traits as
well as the political notions. These such aspects can specifically mould the characteristics of an
individual as well as inflicts the subconscious psychological effects on daily attitudes,
behaviours as well as the criminogenic requirements. In contrast with naturalisation theory, it can
recognizes that the average people is deterred from the crimes as a violent reactions and can go
against the standardized moral standings as it can leaves the people with having feelings of guilt
and shame as well.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Egan, V., 2021. Sexual behaviour as a natural laboratory for understanding individual
differences. Personality and Individual Differences, 169, p.110036.
Foster, A., 2019. Psychoanalytic thinking on the unhoused mind: edited by Gabrielle Brown,
London & New York, Routledge, 2019, 141 pp.,£ 23.99 (pback), ISBN: 978-0-367-
14847-8.
Henfrey, S.A., 2018. Kaizen: working responsively with psychopathic traits. Journal of
Criminological Research, Policy and Practice.
Kita, E., 2019. “They hate me now but where was everyone when I needed them?”: Mass
incarceration, projective identification, and social work praxis. Psychoanalytic Social
Work, 26(1), pp.25-49.