Module 2

Expected Outcomes:

At the end of this topic, the learners could be able to:

a. Understand the concept of human development, abnormal and criminal behaviors, and
mental disorder;

b. Compare criminal behavior from abnormal behavior;

c. Explain the relationship of mental disorders to crime;

d. Outline the relationship of intelligence to criminal behavior or criminality;

e. Evaluate or critique the application of intelligence in the administration of criminal justice.

Psychological Studies in Relation to Crime and Delinquency

1. August Aichorn

· Aichorn in his book entitled Wayward Youth (1925) said that the cause of crime and
delinquency is the faulty development of the child during the first few years of his life.

· The child as a human being normally follows only his pleasure impulse instinctively.
Soon the child grew up and found some restriction to these pleasure impulses which he
must control. Otherwise, he suffers from faulty ego-development and becomes
delinquent.

· He then concluded that many of the offenders with whom he had worked had
underdeveloped consciences.

Aichorn identified two further categories of criminal;

a. those with full developed consciences but identified with their criminal parents

b. those who had been allowed to do whatever they like by over-indulgent parents.
2. Cyril Burt (Young delinquent, 1925)

· Burt gives the theory of General Emotionality. According to him many offenses can
be traced either in excess or a deficiency of a particular instinct which accounts for the
tendency of many criminals to be weak willed or easily led.

· Fear and absconding may be due to the impulse of fear. Callous types of offenders
may be due to the deficiency in the primitive emotion of love and an excuse of the
instinct of hate.

3. William Healy (Individual Delinquency, 1916)

· He claimed that crime is an expression of the mental content of the individual.

Frustration of the individual causes emotional discomfort; personality demands removal
of pain and pain is eliminated by substitute behavior, that is, crime delinquency of the
individual.

· Healy and Bonner conducted a study of 105 pairs of brothers where one was a
persistent offender and the other a non-offender. It was found that only 19 of the
offenders and 30 of the non-offenders had experienced good quality family conditions.

· These circumstances within a household may be favorable for one child but not the
siblings. It then proposed that the latter had not made emotional attachment to a “god
parent”’ hence im the development of superego.

4. Walter Bromberg (Crime and the Mind, 1946)

· He noted that criminality is the result of emotional immaturity. A person is

emotionally mature if he has learned to control his emotions effectively and who lives at
peace with himself and harmony with the standards of conduct which are acceptable to
society.

· An emotionally immature person rebels against rules and regulations, engages in

usual activities and experiences a feeling of guilt due to inferiority complex.

B. Psychosocial Theory of Development (Erik Erickson)

Erickson’s Stages of Human Development

Developmental psychologist Erik H. Erickson was best known for his theory n social
development of human beings, and for coining the phrase identity crisis.

The theory describes eight stages through which a healthy developing human should pass from infancy to
late adulthood. In each stage the person confronts and hopefully masters new challenges. Each stage
builds on the successful completion of earlier stages. The challenges of stages not successfully completed
may be expected to reappear as problems in the future.
C. Cognitive Development Theory (Jean Piaget)

Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development suggests that children move through four different
stages of mental development. 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.

D. Socio- Cultural Theory (Lev Vygotsky)

Vygotsky’s Social Development Theory is the work of Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky.
Vygotsky’s work was largely unknown to the West until it was published in 1962. Vygotsky’s theory is
one of the foundations of constructivism. It asserts three major themes regarding social interaction, the
more knowledgeable other, and the zone of proximal development.

Social development theory argues that social interaction precedes development; consciousness
and cognition are the end product of socialization and social behavior.

E. Bio Ecological Theory (Urie Bronfenbrenner)

This is known as the Human Ecology theory, the Ecological systems theory states that human
development is influenced by the different types of environmental systems. Formulated by famous
psychologist Urie Bronfenbrenner, this theory helps us understand why we may behave differently when
we compare our behavior in the presence of our family and our behavior when we are in school or at
work.

The Five Environmental Systems

The ecological systems theory holds that we encounter different environments throughout our
lifespan that may influence our behavior to varying degrees. These systems include the micro system, the
mesosystem, the exosystem, the macro system, and the chronosystem.

1. The Micro System –

· The microsystem is the first level of Bronfenbrenner's theory, and are the things that have
direct contact with the child in their immediate environment, such as parents, siblings, teachers
and school peers.

· Relationships in a microsystem are bi-directional, meaning the child can be influenced by

other people in their environment and is also capable of changing the beliefs and actions of other
people too.

· Furthermore, the reactions of the child to individuals in their microsystem can influence how
they treat them in return.

· The interactions within microsystems are often very personal and are crucial for fostering and
supporting the child’s development.

· If a child has a strong nurturing relationship with their parents, this is said to have a positive
effect on the child. Whereas, distant and unaffectionate parents will have a negative effect on the
child.

2. The Mesosystem

· The mesosystem encompasses the interactions between the child’s microsystems, such as the
interactions between the child’s parents and teachers, or between school peers and siblings.

· The mesosystem is where a person's individual microsystems do not function independently,

but are interconnected and assert influence upon one another.

For instance, if a child’s parents communicate with the child’s teachers, this interaction may influence the
child’s development. Essentially, a mesosystem is a system of microsystems.
 · According to the ecological systems theory, if the child’s parents and teachers get along and
have a good relationship, this should have positive effects on the child’s development, compared
to negative effects on development if the teachers and parents do not get along.

3. The Exosystem

· The exosystem is a component of the ecological systems theory developed by Urie

Bronfenbrenner in the 1970s. It incorporates other formal and informal social structures, which do
not themselves contain the child, but indirectly influence them as they affect one of the
microsystems.

Examples of exosystems include the neighborhood, parent’s workplaces, parent’s friends and the mass
media. These are environments in which the child is not involved, and are external to their experience, but
nonetheless affects them anyway.

· An instance of exosystems affecting the child’s development could be if one of the parents
had a dispute with their boss at work.

· The parent may come home and have a short temper with the child as a result of something
which happened in the workplace, resulting in a negative effect on development.

4. The Macrosystem

· The macrosystem is a component of Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory that focuses

on how cultural elements affect a child's development, such as socioeconomic status, wealth,
poverty, and ethnicity.

· Thus, culture that individuals are immersed within may influence their beliefs and
perceptions about events that transpire in life.

· The macrosystem differs from the previous ecosystems as it does not refer to the specific
environments of one developing child, but the already established society and culture which the
child is developing in.

· This can also include the socioeconomic status, ethnicity, geographic location and ideologies
of the culture.

For example, a child living in a third world country would experience a different development than a
child living in a wealthier country.
5. The Chronosystem

· The fifth and final level of Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory is known as the
chronosystem.

· This system consists of all of the environmental changes that occur over the lifetime which
influence development, including major life transitions, and historical events.

· These can include normal life transitions such as starting school but can also include
non-normative life transitions such as parents getting a divorce or having to move to a new house.

F. Moral development (Lawrence Kolhberg)

The Theory of Moral Development is a very interesting subject that stemmed from Jean Piaget’s
theory of moral reasoning. Developed by psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg, this theory made us
understand that morality starts from the early childhood years and can be affected by several factors.

Kohlberg ideas started from the research he performed with very young children as his subjects.
He found out that children are faced with different moral issues, and their judgements on whether they are
to act positively or negatively over each dilemma are heavily influenced by several factors. In each
scenario that Kohlberg related to the children, he was not really asking whether or not the person in the
situation is morally right or not.

Levels of Moral Development

Level 1: Preconventional Morality

The first level of morality, preconventional morality, can be further divided into two stages:
obedience and punishment, and individualism and exchange.

Stage 1: Punishment – Obedience Orientation – related to Skinner’s Operational Conditioning, this

stage includes the use of punishments so that the person refrains from doing the action and continues to
obey the rules.

Example: We follow the law because we do not want to go to jail.

Stage 2: Instrumental Relativist Orientation – in this stage, the person is said to judge the morality of
an action based on how it satisfies the individual needs of the doer.
 Example: A person steals money from another person because he needs that money to buy food
for his hungry children. (In Kohlberg’s Theory, the children tend to say that this action is morally right
because of the serious need of the doer).

Level 2: Conventional Morality

The second level of morality involves the stages 3 and 4 of moral development. Conventional
morality includes the society and societal roles in judging the morality of an action.

Stage 3: Good Boy – Nice Girl Orientation – in this stage, a person judges an action based on the
societal roles and social expectations before him. This is also known as the “interpersonal relationship”
phase.

Example: A child gives away her lunch to a street peasant because she thinks doing so means
being nice.

Stage 4: Law and Order Orientation – this stage includes respecting the authorities and following the
rules, as well as doing a person’s duty. Society is the main consideration of a person at this stage.

Example: A policeman refuses the money offered to him under the table and arrests the offender
because he believes this is his duty as an officer of peace and order.

Level 3: Postconventional Morality

The post-conventional morality includes stages 5 and 6. This is mainly concerned with the
universal principles that relation to the action done.

Stage 5: Social Contract Orientation – in this stage, the person is look at various opinions and values of
different people before coming up with the decision on the morality of the action.

Stage 6: Universal Ethical Principle Orientation – the final stage of moral reasoning, this orientation is
when a person considers universally accepted ethical principles. The judgement may become innate and
may even violate the laws and rules as the person becomes attached to his own principles of justice.
Segment 2: Abnormal Behavior

What is abnormal behavior?

· Abnormal behavior may be defined as behavior that is disturbing (socially unacceptable),

distressing, maladaptive (or self‐defeating), and often the result of distorted thoughts
(cognitions).

· Abnormal Behavior is behavior that is deviant, maladaptive, or personally distressful over a

long period of time.

· The American Psychiatric Association defines abnormal behavior in medical terms as a

mental illness that affects or is manifested in a person’s brain and can affect the way a person
thinks, behaves, and interacts with people.

· It may be abnormal when it is unusual, socially unacceptable, self-defeating, dangerous or

suggestive of faulty interpretation of reality or of personal distress.

What is Psychopathology?

Psychopathology is a term which refers to either the study of mental illness or mental distress or
the manifestation of behaviors and experiences which may be indicative of mental illness or
psychological impairment.

It is also defined as the origin of mental disorders, how they develop, and the symptoms they
might produce in a person.

The 4 D’s

A description of the four Ds when defining abnormality:

1. Distress - This is when a behavior causes anxiety, bad feelings or other negative feelings for
either the person or others who come in contact with them.
Example: Mary is feeling down, doesn't feel like she can even get out of bed, hasn't bathed in
four days and won't respond to texts from her friends.

2. Danger - Behaviors are detrimental to the person or people around them. This term involves
dangerous or violent behavior directed at the individual or others in the environment.

Example: During his manic phases of bipolar disorder, Juan will often go to the casino and bet
his rent money on roulette, not caring that if he loses he won't be able to pay for his apartment.

3. Deviance - There are two different types: statistical and social. Statistical deviance means
that the behavior does not occur often in society. Social deviance means that most people in the
community find the behavior to be "odd". Neither of these by themselves is enough for
something to be abnormal.

Example: Only one out of every hundred people will get an advanced (doctoral) degree, making
them statistically deviant. However, we wouldn't call that abnormal. However, one out every
thousand people howl at the moon (this is made up!), and that fact would add to the abnormality.

4. Dysfunction - This is the point at which a person has a significant impairment in a life area,
such as work, home, interpersonal or social life is impaired. In the addictions world, this is often
called "hitting rock bottom". A person can deal with a lot of danger and deviance, but once they
become dysfunctional, they often see (or others can see) that they need outside help.
Prepared by: Jover, Marizzelle RC.