TERM PAPER

IN
Introduction to Criminology
“Psychological Theory”

Presented to

The Department of Bachelor of Science and Criminology

University of Eastern Philippines

In Partial Fulfilment

Of the Requirements for the Subject

Submitted By:

Sales, Rina A.

Sauro, Ailyn L.

Regulacion, Pauline Marie T.

Enecillo, Kathleen Mae G.

Submitted to:

Gabon, Jose E.
Introduction

Human development is one of the stunning processes in life. The hall mark of
such process is change. We all change as we age, and many accounts of these changes
were studied by great thinkers and various professionals like those in the field of
education, social science, and medicine. Given that humans are multifaceted beings,
there are various theories that focus on different aspects. But this paper will only focus
on the domain of psychology that explains how development takes place in man’s life.

Most people would say that they do not want to talk about themselves but in
actuality, most people like hearing life stories of another person as a chance to talk
about them or to relate self to others.

Why do individuals commit crime? And at the same time, why is crime present in
our society? The criminal justice system is very concerned with these questions and
criminologists are attempting to answer them. In actuality, the question of why crime is
committed is very difficult to answer. However, for some centuries, people have been
searching for answers (Jacoby, 2004). It is important to recognize that there are many
different explanations as to why individuals commit crime (Conklin, 2007).

The term theory is used with surprising frequency in everyday language. It is

often used to mean a guess or supposition. You may hear some people dismiss
information because it is just only a theory yet it is very important for us to note that
the study of psychology and other scientific topics. A theory is based on a hypothesis
that is backed up by evidence. Theories also allows scientist to make predictions, an
explanation of some aspect of natural world, based on a facts that is confirmed through
observation and experiment.

Today Psychology is defined as the scientific study of behavior and mental

processes. it is scholarly study of the mind and behavior. It emphasizes the study of
overt behavior of an individual. In psychology, theories are being used to give or
provide an information for understanding human thoughts, emotions and behavior.

There are many theories regarding psychological causes of crime and the
development of such behavior and that includes Intelligence Crime, Psychoanalytic
Theories, Psychoanalysis, and Humanistic Psychological Theory.

Let’s tackle about what we called Intelligence Crime. Crime is an act committed
or omitted in violation of a public law forbidding or commanding it. The idea that crime
is the product primarily of people with low intelligence has been popular occasionally in
the United States but a study in 1931 showed no correlation between intelligence and
criminality. Some common beliefs are that criminals and delinquents possess low
intelligence and that this low intelligence causes criminality. As criminological research
has advanced, scholars have continued to suggest that the Holy Grail is causality. The
ability to predict criminals from noncriminal is the ultimate goal. The ideology or
concept of IQ and crime has crystallized into the nature-versus-nurture debate (Jacoby,
2004).

It is primarily given that people with low intelligence have the tendency to do
such things because people with the right mind will never commit such things especially
if there’s someone affected, innocent people are affected. The behavior just not only
justifies your ignition to commit crime but also your appearance. According to Dr.
Cesare Lombroso, such appearance can be the bases if you have committed crime or
not.

The second theories of psychological causes of crime are the Psychoanalytic

Theories. These psychoanalytic theories of crime are related to the work of Sigmund
Freud, psychologist, who believed that people who had unresolved deep-seated
problems were called psychopaths. These are proponents that suggest that an
individual’s personality is controlled by unconscious mental processes that are grounded
in early childhood. This theory was originated by Sigmund Freud, the founder of
Psychoanalysis. Imperative to this theory are the three elements or structures that
make up the human personality: 1. the id, 2. the ego, 3. the superego.

Psychopaths are persons characterized by no sense of guilt, no subjective

conscience, and no sense of right and wrong. They have difficulty in forming
relationships or socializing with other people; they cannot empathize or understand
other people. They are also called sociopaths or antisocial personalities.

Next one is the Psychoanalysis. The principal policy implication of considering

crime symptomatic of deep-seated problems is to usually provide psychotherapy or
psychoanalysis in order to resolve the symptoms associated with the problems. The
problems with the idea that criminals are biologically or psychologically “sick” are: 1.
the bulk of research on the issue suggests that most criminals are no more disturbed
than the rest of the population. Meaning, these criminals are no longer scared
regardless of the crimes they had committed, they no longer care. 2. Many people with
psychological disturbance do not commit crimes. 3. Psychoanalytic theory ignores the
environmental circumstances. And much of the theoretical structure of psychotherapy is
scientifically untestable.

Psychoanalysis is a method of treating mental disorders, shaped by

psychoanalytic theory, which emphasizes unconscious mental processes and is
sometimes described as “depth psychology.” The psychoanalytic movement originated
in the clinical observations and formulations of Austrian psychiatrist Sigmund Freud,
who coined the term psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis was focused on understanding the
unconscious motivations that drive behavior while behaviorism studied the conditioning
processes that produce behavior.

Human Psychological Theory is the next one. It emerged during the 1950s as a
reaction to the psychoanalysis and behaviorism that dominated psychology at the time.
Abraham Maslow and Seymour Halleck developed theories that are similar to Sigmund
but it is based on the assumptions that human beings are basically good. Maslow
believed that human beings are usually motivated by five basic levels of needs and that
people chose crime because they cannot (or will not) satisfy their needs legally. Halleck
views crime as one of several adaptations to the helplessness caused by oppression.
Neither Maslow and Halleck were confused.

The psychology of self focuses on the representation of an individual based on

his/her experiences. These experiences are either from home, school and other groups,
organizations or affiliations he/she engaged in. seemingly, the “self” is one of the most
heavily researched areas in social and personality psychology, where concepts are
introduced that beyond our physical attributes, lies our psychological identity. According
to Pajares & Schunck, 2002, “Drawing on caves suggests that sometime during the
down of history, human beings began to give serious thought to their nonphysical,
psychological selves. With the advent of written history, writers would describe this
awareness of self in terms of spirit, psyche, or soul.”

The different theories presented show behavior and development is and it should
be noted that these various theories are inspired by the different explanations of
popular men like Sigmund Freud, Abraham Maslow, Seymour Halleck respectively. With
regards to human behavior, there are also different theories that came out to explain it,
and concepts continuously evolve up to this day.
Discussion

Psychology is a relatively young science with its experimental roots in the 19 th

century, compared, for example, to human physiology, which dates much easier. As
mentioned, anyone interested to the mind generally did so in a philosophical context
prior to the 19th century. Two men, working in the 19th century, are generally credited
as being the founders of psychology as a science and academic discipline that was
distinct from philosophy. Their names were Wilhelm Wundt and William James.

Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) was a German scientist who was the first person to
be referred to as a psychologist. Wundt viewed psychology as a scientific study of
conscious experience, and he believed that the goal of psychology was to identify
components of consciousness and how those components combined to result in our
conscious experience. Wundt used introspection, a process by which someone examines
their own experience as objectively possible, making the human mind like any other
aspect of nature that a scientist observed. This version of introspection used only very
specific experimental conditions in which an external stimulus was designed to produce
a scientifically observable experience of the mind. The first stringent requirement was
the use of “trained” observers, who could immediately observe and report a reaction.
The second requirement was the use of repeatable stimuli that always produced the
same experience in the subject and allowed this subject to expect and thus be fully
attentive to the inner reaction. These experimental requirements were put in place to
eliminate “interpretation” in the reporting of internal experiences and to counter the
argument that there is no way to know that an individual is observing their mind
accurately, since it cannot be seen by any other person. This attempt to understand the
structure or characteristics of the mind was known as structuralism. Wundt established
his psychology laboratory at the University at Leipzig in 1879.

William James (1842-1910) was the first American psychologist who espoused a
different perspective on how psychology should operate. James was introduced to
Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection and accepted it as an explanation of
an organism’s characteristics. Key to that theory is the idea that natural selection leads
to organisms that are adapted to their environment, including their behavior.
Adaptation means that a trait of an organism has a function for the survival and
reproduction of the individual, because it has been naturally selected. As James saw it,
psychology’s purpose was to study the function of behavior in the world, and such as,
his perspective was known as functionalism. Functionalism focused on how mental
activities helped an organism fit into its environment. Like Wundt, James believed that
introspection could serve as one means by which someone might study mental
activities, but James also relied on more objective measures, including the use of
various recording devices, and examinations of concrete products of mental activities
and of anatomy and physiology (Gordon, 1995)

The five major perspectives in psychology are biological, psychodynamic,

behavioral, cognitive and humanistic. Since Wilhelm Wundt opened the first psychology
lab in 1879, psychologist has studied various aspects of human behavior, such as
personality, brain functions and socio-cultural influences. As psychology progressed, it
began to tackle the question of why do we do what we do from different angles.

Biological approach is the Bio psychologists look at how your nervous system,
hormones and genetic makeup affect your behavior. Biological psychologist explores the
connection between your mental states and your brain, nerves and hormones to
explore your thoughts, moods, and actions are shaped. So what does it mean? It
means that for the biological approach, you are the sum of your parts. You may think
the way you do because of the way your brain is built and because of your body’s
needs. All of your choices are based on your physical body. This attempts to understand
the healthy brain, but also examines the mind and body to figure out how disorders like
schizophrenia develop from genetic roots.

Psychodynamic approach is the approached that was promoted by Sigmund

Freud, who believed that many of our impulses are driven by sex. Psychologists in this
school of thought believed that unconscious drives and experiences from early
childhood are at the root of your behaviors and that conflict arises when societal
restrictions are placed on these urges.

Behavioral approach is behavioral psychologists believed that external

environment that external environmental stimuli influence your behavior and that you
can be trained to act a certain way. Behaviorists like B.F. Skinner don’t believe in free
will. They believe that you learn through a system of reinforcements and punishments.
This approach is really effective when you don’t care what someone thinks, as long as
you get the desired behavior. The influence of this approach affects us every day and
throughout our lives, impacting everything from why we follow the rules of the road
when driving to how advertising companies build campaigns to get us to buy their
products.

Cognitive approach in contrast to behaviorists, they believe that your behavior is

determined by your expectations and emotions. Cognitive psychologist, Jean Piaget
would argue that you remember things based on what you already know. You also
solve problems based on your memory of past experiences. So with this approach, we
turn away from people as machines without free will and delve back into thoughts and
feelings. How you act is based upon internal processes, and there is much more stress
upon individuals. From a cognitive approach, your expectations of an upcoming party
will affect how you feel and act while you’re there and will color your memory of the
night after you return home.

Humanistic approach believes that you’re essentially good and that you’re
motivated to realize your full potential. It focuses on how you can feel good about
yourself by fulfilling your needs and goals. The prominent psychologist Carl Rogers
called his patients client’s and offered a supportive environment in which clients could
gain insights into their own feelings. This approach works on individual empowerment.
Whether you are right or not, in a larger sense, you are motivated to be the best
person that you can be. All your choices come from trying to improve your life. So, if
you’re trying to cut back on your nightly wine consumption, a humanistic therapist
would be encouraging and supportive but won’t directly advise you to quit or try to
analyze why you drink in the first place.
Conclusion

I therefore conclude that the relationship between psychology and criminal

behavior is significant. For centuries, scholars have been attempting to explain why
someone commits a crime.

This paper examined the role of psychodynamic theory as developed by Sigmund

Freud. It also included here the role of the id, ego, and the superego in criminal
behavior. This was followed by a discussion of Wilhelm Wundt that viewed psychology
was to identify components of consciousness and how those components combined to
result in our conscious experience. Next was James own perspective, he saw
psychology’s purpose was to study the function of behavior in the world, and such as,
his perspective was known as functionalism. Functionalism focused on how mental
activities helped an organism fit into is environment. Like Wundt, James believe that
introspection could serve as one means by which someone might study mental
activities, but James also relied on more objective measures, including the use of
concrete products of activities of anatomy and physiology.

The biological psychologists explore the connection between your mental states
and your brain, nerves and hormones to explore how your thoughts, moods and actions
are shaped next. The psychodynamic approach was promoted by Sigmund Freud, who
believed that many of our impulses are driven by sex and the other one is Behavioral
approach that believes that external environments stimuli influence your behavior and
that you can be trained to act a certain way and the next one is the Cognitive approach,
they believe that your behavior is determined by your expectations and emotions. And
last is the Humanistic approach that believes that you’re essentially good and that
you’re motivated to realize your full potential.
Recommendations

From the findings and conclusion of this paper, the following recommendations
were made:

1. People with the right mind should understand the mind and behavior of every
individual.
2. Must provide predictions to overt behaviors of individuals.
3. It is important to note that this Psychological Theory is significant and people
must study it thoroughly to know its different concepts.
4. A popular person that provides different perspective about psychology must
describe and elaborate their study clearly.

References:

Jacoby, J. (2004). Classic of criminology (3rd ed.) Long Grove, IL Waveland Press

Understanding the Self, Salvacion L. Villafuerte, Ph. D., RPm, RPsy, Al F. Quillope, Ph.
D., Rudjane C. Tunac, MA, Estels I. Borja, MAEd.

https://courses.lumenlearning.com/wsu-sandbox/chapter/history-of-
psychology/#CNX_Psych_01_02_Freud

https://courses.lumenlearning.com/wsu-sandbox/chapter/history-of-
psychology/#CNX_Psych_01_02_James

http://mrmcnabb.weebly.com/5-major-perspective-in-psychology.html

https://en.m.historyofpsychologytheories.Org

https://www.simplypsychology.Org

https://www.verywellmind.com

https://www.historyofpsychology.org

https://www.psychologytheoty.com