Psychological Explanations
of Crime
Personality Theories and
Disorders
Psychoanalytic Perspective
Sigmund Freud
Human Nature:
Role of basic instincts in
the development of
personality
 Eros
 Thanatos
Psychoanalytic Perspective
Structure of Personality
1. The id
•
Ego
Pleasure Principle
Unconscious
mind
2. The ego
•
Reality Principle
Superego
3. The superego
•
•
Conscience
Ego Ideal
Conscious mind
Id
Psychoanalytic Perspective
Id and superego both
press the ego to satisfy
their demands.
The ID
EGO
SUPEREGO
These conflicting demands produce
anxiety.
Psychoanalytic Perspective
Humans are naturally “id” driven and antisocial, “criminal”.
Natural tendency toward crime is controlled by society as
represented in the “superego”.
Overdeveloped “superego” may contribute to criminal
activity (i.e., may commit crimes because of
unconscious desire to be punished).
Repressed instincts can “break through” resulting in crime.
Crime is a product of an “imbalanced conflict” between
id-ego-superego.
The BIG FIVE Personality Features
• Defining Personality types
• OCEAN
• Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness,
Neuroticism and Openness to Experience
• Lots of scientific support for this model and
similar models (see McCrae)
5 Factor Model of Personality
• Neuroticism (worrying, insecure, selfconscious, temperamental) - negative affect,
negative emotionality
• Extraversion (sociable, fun-loving,
affectionate, friendly, talkative) – lively
sociability
• Openness to experience (original, imaginative,
broad interests, daring) – intelligence?
5 Factor Model of Personality
• Agreeableness vs antagonism (set themselves
up against others, manipulative, aggressive,
perfectionism, arrogant, vindictive,
narcissistic)
• Conscientiousness (hardworking, ambitious,
energetic, persevering) - governed by
conscience or careful
Risky Sport Participation
• Research suggests that participants who are
higher in N become more aroused when faced
with an emotion-inducing stimulus and prefer
lower levels of arousal
• Risky sports participants:
• Lower N levels
• Higher openness to experience levels
• Less Consciousness (less thinking before they act)
• Higher Extraversion
•
Tok, (2011) The Big Five Personality Traits and Risky Sport Participation, Social Behavior
and Personality 29 (8) 1105-1112
Criminal Personality
The Criminal Personality (Yochelson & Samenow,
1976, 1977).
Criminality is a attribute of a person’s personality.
Study of 255 Offenders: 52 “errors of criminal
thinking” that form the criminal personality
Criticisms:
No Control Group (are they really different from
normal people?)
Questionable validity of method to identify
personality traits
Yochelson and Samenow (1976)
Criminal thinking patterns
Recognition of the possibility for change “our work has shown
that it is possible to reach the criminal and change him”
(1976:484).
52 thinking styles “ It is the direction of this pattern toward
specific ends and in combination with other thought patterns
that constitutes the very essence of the criminal mind
(1976:252).
The violator does not consider his belief system flawed and in
dire need of revision.
Something distinctive about their thinking patterns which causes
them to suspend the social controls most people have to limit
their behaviour.
These ideas continued with Albert Ellis and Rational Thinking
Approaches
Styles and errors of thinking
Concrete thinking: Closed thinking not receptive to feedback from others, not self
critical;
Failure to empathize with others
Lack of perspective of time – does not learn from the past, inability to delay
gratification;
Does not consider consequences – positive filters
Focusing on the negative – negative filters
Lack of interest in responsible performance – responds only if there is an
immediate payoff;
Victim stance views self as a victim and blames others;
Views self as a good person fails to acknowledge own destructive behavior,
builds self up at others' expense;
Lack of effort unwilling to do anything perceived as boring, has an "I can't"
attitude;
The fear of fear denies fear in self and attacks fear in others;
The power thrust: uses intimidation to control others;
Uniqueness: different from and better than others, rules do not apply to them;
and
Ownership: perceiving all things and people as objects to possess.
Thinking errors
This concept continues today as a main part
of how treatment functions for offenders
Thinking errors, stinking thinking, drunk
thinking….
Personality Disorders (PD)
What is a personality disorder?
An enduring pattern of inner experience and
behaviour that deviates markedly from
normal expectations.
General characteristics
Pervasive and inflexible.
Onset in adolescence or early adulthood.
Stable over time.
Leads to distress or impairment.
Personality Disorder (PD)
Behavior impacts
• Cognition
• Affectivity (emotional response)
• Interpersonal functioning
• Impulse control
• It is inflexible!
• Stable over time
• Leads to distress OR impairment
Personality Disorders (PD)
Cluster A
Cluster B
Odd/Eccentric
Dramatic/Emotional
Paranoid Personality
Antisocial Personality
Disorder
Disorder
Cluster C
Anxious/Fearful
Obsessive-compulsive
Disorder
What personality disorders mean to
you…
What happens when you interact with someone
who has a personality disorder?
Difference between someone that is great at their job
and just good… ability to detect personality disorders
Your strategy NEEDS to change
You must interact differently or you lose them
You must interact differently or YOU get REALLY annoyed
You want to change the way you approach them,
(e.g. expectations for change)
Cluster A: Odd/Eccentric
Type
Characteristics
Paranoid
Suspicious and mistrust
Schizoid
Hermitlike lifestyle, aloneness
Schizotypal
Similar to but less severe than those
features of schizophrenia
18
Personality Disorders (PD)
Cluster A Personality Disorder
Paranoid Personality Disorder
Pattern of distrust & suspiciousness
View self as blameless
Hypervigilant for perceived attacks by
others
“King of the Hill” neighbour
Not clearly psychotic
Paranoid Personality Disorder
• 1. Suspects that others are harming them
• 2. Is preoccupied with unjustified doubts about
other people’s loyalty to them
• 3. Is reluctant to confide in others in case the
information is used against them
• 4. Reads hidden meanings into benign remarks or
events
• 5. Persistently bears grudges
• 6. Perceives attacks to their character that are not
apparent to others, quick to react angrily
• 7. Has recurrent suspicions about fidelity of spouse
Schizoid Personality Disorder
• 1. Does not desire or enjoy close relationships
• 2. Almost always chooses solitary activities
• 3. Has little interest in sexual experiences with
others
• 4. Takes pleasure in few activities
• 5. Lacks close friends other than 1st degree
relatives
• 6. Appears indifferent to the praise or criticism
of others
• 7. Show emotional coldness, detachment or
flattened affect
Schizotypal Personality Disorder
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
1. Ideas of reference (not delusions)
2. Odd beliefs or magical thinking
3. Unusual perceptual experiences (bodily illusions)
4. Odd thinking or speech
5. Suspiciousness or paranoid ideation
6. Inappropriate affect
7. Behavior that is odd, eccentric or peculiar
8. Lack of close friends outside of 1st degree
relatives
• 9. Excessive social anxiety that does not decrease
with familiarity = paranoid fears
Cluster B: Dramatic/Erratic
Type
Characteristics
Antisocial
Disregard of others without guilt
Borderline
Problems with self-identity,
interpersonal relationships, mood
shifts, and self-destructiveness
Narcissistic Over-evaluation of self, arrogance and
indifference to the criticism of others
Histrionic Dramatic behaviors, attention seeking,
and superficiality
23
Cluster B Personality Disorder
Antisocial Personality Disorder
A pervasive pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of
others occurring since age 15 years, as indicated by three (or
more) of the following:
1. Failure to conform to social norms
2. Deceitfulness
3. Impulsivity or failure to plan ahead
4. Irritability and aggressiveness
5. Reckless disregard for safety of self or others.
6. Consistent irresponsibility
7. Lack of remorse.
Antisocial Personality Disorder
Relationship with criminal behaviour
A study of 451 randomly selected federal inmates of
federal inmates in Quebec.
Inmates diagnosed with APD were more likely to:
1.Have a juvenile arrest record
2.Be younger the first time they were sentenced.
3.Have more total convictions.
Hodgins and Cote (1993)
Conduct Disorder
•
•
•
•
•
Reminder:
Aggression to people and animals
Destruction of property
Deceitfulness or theft
Serious rule violations
• Beware the Borderline client …
– Self harm
– Love or hate
– Emotional jumps
– More common in women but you can see it in
men also
Borderline Personality Disorder
• 1. Frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined
abandonment
• 2. Unstable and intense interpersonal relationships
(alternating idealization and devaluation)
• 3. Identify disturbance
• 4. Impulsivity in areas that are self-damaging
• 5. Recurrent suicidal behavior or self-mutilation
• 6. Affective instability (mood changes)
• 7. Chronic feelings of emptiness
• 8. Inappropriate anger, intense anger
• 9. Stress-related paranoid ideation
Histrionic Personality Disorder
• 1. Needs to be the center of attention
• 2. Inappropriate sexually seductive behaviors
• 3. Rapidly shifting and shallow expressions of
emotions
• 4. Uses physical appearance to draw attention to
self
• 5. Impressionistic style of speech
• 6. Self-dramatization, theatrical, exaggerated
expression of emotions
• 7. Suggestible
• 8. Considers relationships to be more intimate
than they actually are
Narcissistic Personality Disorder
• 1. Grandiose self-importance
• 2. Preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success,
power, brilliance, beauty, ideal love
• 3. Believes he is special and can only be understood
or associate with other special people
• 4. Requires excessive admiration
• 5. Sense of entitlement
• 6. Interpersonally exploitative
• 7. Lacks empathy
• 8. Envious of others and believes that others are
envious of him
• 9. Shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes
Cluster C: Anxious-Fearful
Type
Characteristics
Dependent
Submissiveness, helplessness, fear of
responsibility, and reliance on others
for decision making
Timidity, social withdrawal behavior,
and hypersensitivity to criticism
Avoidant
Obsessivecompulsive
Indecisiveness, perfectionism,
inflexibility, and difficulty expressing
feelings
31
Personality Disorders (PD)
Cluster C Personality Disorder
Dependent Personality Disorder
Pervasive and excessive need to be taken care.
Submissive and clinging behaviour.
Fears of separation.
Dependent Personality Disorder
• 1. Difficulty making everyday decisions
• 2. Needs others to assume responsibility for most major areas of his
life
• 3. Has difficulty expressing disagreement for fear of loss of support
• 4. Has difficulty initiating projects or doing things on their own
• 5. Goes to excessive lengths to obtain nuturance or support from
others
• 6. Feels uncomfortable when alone, exaggerated fears that they
cannot take care of themselves
• 7. Urgently seeks another relationship when one ends
• 8. Preoccupied with fears of being left to take care of himself
Avoidant Personality Disorder
• 1. Avoids occupational activities that involve significant
interpersonal contact for fear of criticism or rejection
• 2. Unwilling to get involved with people unless certain of
being liked
• 3. Shows restraint in intimate relationships for fear of being
shamed or ridiculed
• 4. Preoccupied with being criticized or rejected in social
situations
• 5. Inhibited in new social situations due to feelings of
inadequacy
• 6. Views self as socially inept, unappealing or inferior
• 7. Unusually reluctant to take personal risks
Obsessive-Compulsive Personality
Disorder
• 1. Preoccupied with details, rules, lists, order, organization,
scheduling
• 2. Shows perfectionism that interferes with task completion
• 3. Excessively devoted to work and productivity
• 4. Overconscientious, scrupulous and inflexible
• 5. Unable to discard worn out or worthless objects
• 6. Reluctant to delegate tasks unless they submit exactly to
their way of doing things
• 7. Adopts a miserly spending style (keep for future
catastrophes)
• 8. Shows rigidity and stubbornness
• Can people with personality disorders
change?
• How can you see personality disorders
affecting your work?