Chapter EXPLAINING THE PSYCHOLOGICAL

THEORIES OF CRIME CAUSATION

5
INRODUCTION

Psychological Theories expressed that criminal behaviour, was the product of

“unconscious” forces operating within a person mind. Conflicts occur at various psychosexual
stages of development might impact an individual’s ability to operate normally as an adult and
that if aggressive impulse is not controlled, or is repressed to an usual degree, some aggression
can “leak out” of the unconscious and a person can engage in random acts of violence.

Charles Goring (1870-1919)

- Published a book. Entitled “The English Convict: A statistical Study,” concluded that
there is no such thing as physical criminal type. Instead he found out using the 3,000
convicts as respondents that defective intelligence rather than physical characteristics
was the main factor why a person commits crime. This is the core reason of Goring was
able to refute Dr. Cesare Lombroso’s theory born criminal.

Gabriel Tarde (1843 - 1919)

- In his theory of imitation believed that people learn from another through process of
imitation.

Lesson 1: Psychodynamic Theory and Psychosexual Stages

of Human Development
Learning Outcomes

At the end of the lesson, you should be able to:

1. Discuss the theory of psychodynamic theory and psychosexual theory, stages of

human development; and
2. Illustrate the concept of psychodynamic theory.

Psychoanalytic Theory (Psychodynamic) – Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

Sigmund Freud
✓ Recognized as the Father of Psychoanalysis.
✓ An Austrian neuro-psychologist who founded the psycho-analytic theory of criminality.
✓ He believed that the man carry with him residue of the most significant emotional
attachments of his childhood, which then guide the future interpersonal relationship.
 ✓ he attributed delinquent and criminal behavior to a conscience that is overbearing
which arouses feelings of guilt or a conscience that is so weak that it cannot control the
individual’s impulses and the need for immediate gratification

Psychoanalytic Theory
- Human personality is controlled by unconscious mental processes that develop early in
the childhood and involve the interaction of id, ego, and superego. This theory,
personality is comprised of three (3) components:

a. Id – is driven by pleasure principles, which

strives for immediate gratification of all desires,
wants, and needs. This pleasure seeking part of
human personality is concerned about
gratification of one’s wishes.

- This stands for instinctual drives. It

represents our unconscious biological needs for
food, sex, and other life sustaining necessities
including aggression as well as primitive needs
that are present at birth.

b. Ego - based on reality principles.

- This forms part of man’s physical
organization between his sensory stimuli on one
hand and his motor activity on the other. The
ego operates on the basis of expediency. This
puts into action the desires or wishes of the id
and the questions of right or wrong, safe or
dangerous, permitted or prohibited do not play
an important role.

c. Super Ego - This is the moral aspect of

people’s personalities. This develops as a result
of incorporating within the personality the moral
standards and values of parents, community and
significant others. This is also known as the
conscience of our personality. ( Moral Standard)
Psychosexual Theory of Human Development
Freud proposed that personality development in childhood takes place during five psychosexual
stages, which are the oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital stages. During each stage sexual energy
(libido) is expressed in different ways and through different parts of the body.
 Activity 1: Cut and Paste
Cut som picture to the news paper showing the theory of psychodynamic theory and explain
why you choose that or how it relates to the above-mentioned theory. However, write your caption
first.

Lesson2: BEHAVIORAL THEORY

Learning Outcomes

At the end of the lesson, you should be able to:

1. Paraphrase the theory of behavioural; and

2. Give example based on real life situation showing the concept of behavioural.

Behavioral Theory – created by JHON B. WATSON (1878-1958)

` - popularized by BURRHUS FREDERIC SKINNER (1904-1956)

- This theory concerned with the study of observable behaviour rather than unconscious
processes.
- It focuses on particular stimuli and how do people response towards that stimuli. It
maintains that human actions are developing through learning experiences; that
behaviour is learned when it is rewarded and extinguished by negative reaction of
punishment.

Activity
1. Based on your own understanding, what is behavioural theory?

2. Basing from the advertisement that you have watched on television, give at least one
example among those endorsement that would show the concept of behavioural
theory.
Lesson 3: SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY - created Albert S. Bandura

Learning Outcomes
At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:
1. Rephrase the theory of social learning; and
2. Evaluate the concept of social learning.

Social learning is a branch of behaviour theory most relevant to criminology. Albert Bandura argued that
people are not actually born with the ability to act violently but that they learn to be aggressiveness through
their life experience. The experience include personally observing others acting aggressiveness to achieve
some goal. Bandura claimed that people learn to act aggressively when, as children they modelled their
behaviour after the violent acts of adults.

For example: the boy who sees his father repeatedly strikes his mother with impunity is the one most likely
to grow up to became a battering parent and husband.

Social learning theory - emphasizes the importance of observing, modelling, and imitating the behaviors,
attitudes, and emotional reactions of others.

Social Learning and Violence

Aggressive acts are usually modelled after 3 principal’s sources:
1. Family members. Bandura reports that family life showing children who use aggressive tactics
have parents who use similar behaviors when dealing with others.
 2. Environmental Experiences. People who resides in areas where violence is a daily occurrence
are more likely to act violently than those who dwell in – low crime areas whose norm stress
conventional behavior.
3. Mass Media. Films and television shows commonly depict violence graphically. Moreover, violence
is often portrayed as an acceptable behaviour, especially for heroes who never have to face legal
consequences for their actions.

Activity 3:

Among the three (3) principal sources of aggressive acts; which do you think plays the greatest impact of
the lives of an individual? Which placed the second? Which is on the third place? Defend your answer.

Lesson 4: Cognitive Theory

Learning Outcomes
At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:
1. Discuss the concept of cognitive theory; and,
2. Be able to debate the issues regarding cognitive theory.

CONCEPTS

Cognitive Theory by Jean William Piaget

Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development suggests that children move through four
different stages of learning. His theory focuses not only on understanding how children acquire
knowledge, but also on understanding the nature of intelligence.
Piaget believed that children take an active role in the learning process, acting much like little
scientists as they perform experiments, make observations, and learn about the world. As kids
interact with the world around them, they continually add new knowledge, build upon existing
knowledge, and adapt previously held ideas to accommodate new information.
Activity:
1. Discuss the concept of cognitive theory.

2. Debate
Topic: Resolve whether quick thinkers are the one who can avoid antisocial behaviour
choices based on the concept of cognitive theory.
The teacher will select (3) students for the positive side and (3) students for negative
side. The rest of the class will serve as audience and they will rate the debating team
based on the rubrics given by their teacher.
 Lesson 5: MORAL DEVELOPMENT THEORY by LAWRENCE A.
KOHLBERGE
Learning Outcomes

At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

1. Discuss the concept of moral development theory; and,

2. Relate the stages of moral development to one’s own self.

Concepts

MORAL DEVELOPMENT THEORY

- In this theory found out that criminal were found to be lower in their moral judgement
development than non-criminals of the same social background.
- Suggest that people who obey the law simply to avoid punishment or who have
outlooks mainly characterized by self-interest are more likely to commit crimes than
those who view the law as something that benefits all of society and who view the law
as something that benefits all society and who honor the rights of others.
Activity 5
1. Explain the concept of moral development theory. Write your answer on the space
provided.
 2. You as described by your parents (guardian and older brother/sister)
This is a bring-home activity. Interview your parents, if no parents available (guardian
and older brother/sister) regarding the stages of moral development by Kohlberg and
ask if every stage cited was experience by you as a person. Write your answer on the
space provided.

Stages Age Range Experience as Explained by

your Interviewee
Obedience/Punishment Infancy

Self-interest Pre-school

Conformity and Interpersonal School age

Accord

Authority & Social Order School age

Social Contract Teens

Universal Principles Adulthood

Lesson 6: Intergeneration Transmission theory

Learning Outcomes

At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

1. Discuss the concept of intergeneration theory; and,
2. Dramatize its concept.

Concept

Intergeneration transmission refers to the socialization and social learning that helps explain the ways in
which children growing up in violent roles and, subsequently, may play out the roles of victim or victimizer in
their own adult families.
Intergenerational transmission is defined as the continuity of a pattern of behaviour of interest over
subsequent generations, that is, how members of one generation (i.e., children) are similar to members of
another generation (i.e., their parents) with respect to the particular behaviour pattern
Intergeneration transmission theory stated that criminal and antisocial parents tend to have delinquent
and antisocial children, as shown in the classic longitudinal surveys by Joan Maccord in Boston and Lee
Robins in St. Louis.
Activity
1. State the concept of intergeneration transmission theory based on your own understanding.

2. Role Play
The teacher will divide into four (4) groups and each group will create a scenario portraying the
concept intergeneration transmission theory. Every group will rate the performance of other group
based on the rubrics provided by the teacher.

Lesson 7: Alternative Theory

Learning Outcomes

At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

1. Explain the concept of alternative theory; and
2. Analyse why female offenders tend to attract male offenders.

Alternative theory – focuses on assortative mating; female offenders tend to cohabit with or get married to
male offenders.

There are two main classes of explanation concerning why people tend to get married, cohabit, or become
sexual partners.
• Social Homogamy – convicted people tend to choose each other as mates because of social
proximity; they meet each other in the same schools, neighbourhoods, clubs, pubs, and so on.
• Phenotypic assortment – people examine each other’s personality and behaviour and choose
partners who are similar to themselves.

Activity
1. Explain the concept of alternative theory. Write your answer on the space provided.

2. When can you say that there is phenotypic assortment? Why female offenders tend to attract male
offenders? Defend your answer. Write your answer on the space provided.
Lesson 8: Differential Association – Reinforcement Theory

Learning Outcomes

At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

1. State the concept of differential association – reinforcement theory; and,
2. Give example based on real life situation.

Concepts

Differential Association – Reinforcement Theory

In 1966 Earnest W. Burgess (1886 - 1966) and Ronal d L. Akers combined Bandura’s social
learning theory and Sutherland’s theory of differential association to produce the theory of differential
reinforcement theory.

This theory suggest that

1. The presence of criminal behaviour depends on whether or not it is rewarded or punished.
2. The most meaningful rewards and punishment are those given by groups that are important in an
individuals’ life – peer group, the family, teacher in school and so forth.
Based in this theory, people respond more readily to the reactions of the most significant people in their
lives. If the criminal behaviour elicits more positive reinforcement or reward than punishment; such
behaviour will persist.

For Example:

If the child get zero in his quiz and the mother will still give reward to that child then the child would
think that is it alright not to study and would only cheat out of laziness.

If the pupil in school considers her teacher as the most important person in her life, then if the
teacher would give punishment to the pupil for her wrong doing then there’s a big possibility that the pupil
would take the punishment6 seriously and would change for good.

Activity
1. State the concept of differential association – reinforcement using your own words. Write it on the
space provided.
2. Give a real life example citing the concept of differential association reinforcement theory.
Lesson 9: Eysenk’s Conditioning theory

Learning Outcomes

At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

1. Summarize the concept[t of conditioning theory;
2. Describe the three dimension of human personality.

Concepts

Hans J. Eysenck (1916 -1997)

in his theory of conditioning
claims that all human personality
may be seen in three dimensions
such as:
• Psychoticism – are
aggressive, egocentric and
impulsive.
• Extroversion – are
sensation-seeking, dominant and
assertive
• High measure on
Neuroticism - having low self-
esteem, excessive anxiety and
wide mood swing.

Eysenck prepared
questionaires what he called “Eysenck Personality Questionaire” (EPQ) and found out those criminals
uniformly score higher in any of those mentioned dimensioned than non-criminals.
Another argument made by Eysenck is that human develop a conscience through conditioning; that
criminals become conditioned slowly and appear to care little whether their asocial actions bring
disapproval. He found out that extroverts are much more difficult to condition than introvert.
Conditionability depends on certain physiological factors, the most important of which is cortical arousal,
or the activation of the cerebral cortex of the brain which responsible for higher intellectual functioning,
information processing, and decision-making. In short, people who are conditioned and had conscience
had high level of cortical arousal.

Activity
1. Summarize the concept of conditioning theory. Write it on the space provided,
2. Describe the three (3) dimensions of human personality and examine if what anti-social behaviour
may be portrayed by individual who had that kind of personality. Write it on the space provided.
 Dimension of Personality Description What anti-social behaviour
may be displayed?

1. Psychoticism

2. Extroversion

3. Neuroticism

Lesson 10: Integrated Theory

Learning Outcomes

At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

1. Rephrase the concept of integrated theory; and,
2. Judge the concept of integrated theory.

Integrated Theory by James Q. Wilson and Richard Julius Herrnstein

They explain predatory street crime by showing how human nature develops from the interplay of
psychological, biological, and social factors. The main concept of this theory is that the interaction of genes
with environment that some individual form the kind of personality likely to commit crimes. They stated
that the factors that pushed the individuals to commit crimes are intelligent quotient (IQ), body build, and
genetic makeup, impulsiveness, ability to delay gratification, aggressiveness, and even those mothers who
drink and smoke while pregnant. Lastly, they even argued that if reward (such money) is greater than the
expected punishment (small fine) there is increased likelihood that a crime will be committed.

Activity
1. Rephrase the concept of integrated theory. Write it on the space provided.
2. Will you agree if the reward (such as money) is greater than the expected punishment (small fine)
there is increased likelihood that a crime will be committed? Yes or No. Explain your answer. Write
it on the space provided.