o Explore and are more interested in the individual differences in the propensity to CCJ 3011 Final study guide Psychosocial theories commit crimes o Intelligence o Temperament Two great pillars of differential psychology However many other theories include psychological ingredients within their frameworks Intelligence o One of the two pillars of psychosocial theories o A rational component related to decision making o There are many ways to asses intelligence but the most common is through IQ testing Flynn effect o Most important evidence of environmental effect on IQ o The upward creep in average IQ scores that has been taking place over the last three or four generations in all countries are examined Multiplier effect o By Dickens and Flynn o Gene environment interplay results o Genes are usually matched with environments and multiply what may have been a small genetic advantage or disadvantage into a large advantage or disadvantage over time Intelligence and IQ o There are several things that can affect IQ Schooling nutrition enriching environments Many cite genetics as playing a role can interact with environment to increase or decrease IQ Often measured on a bell curve and composed of verbal and performance aspects IQ works through environments to produce outcomes multiplier effect Flynn effect IQ and Crime o There appears to be a robust link between IQ and crime o Criminal populations are found to have lower verval IQ than performance IQ creates an intellectual imbalance o IQ can also negatively effect other life outcomes works through poor academic achievement and school performance to achieve this o IQ can also interact with personality to produce poor outcomes Intellectual Imbalance o A significant difference between a persons verbal and performance IQ scores Temperament o Second great pillar of psychosocial research o A persons habitual way of emotionally responding to environmental stimuli and is largely a function of genes governing physiological arousal patterns although arousal systems are fine tuned by experience Temperament Components o Mood o Activity level o Sociability o Reactivity o Affect o Personality Temperament and Personality An individuals set of relatively enduring and functionally integrated psychological characteristics that result from his her temperament interacting with cultural and developmental experience o Temperament is tied to the personality o Set of enduring traits that come about from temperament interacting with environment o Big 5 personality traits everyone has these but differs in how strong they are o Some personality traits are related to crime more than others o Personality is genetically influenced and explains why individuals react to the same situation differently Traits o Different components of personality Personality development o Freud was the father of psychoanalysis o Freud proposed that the personality was comprised of three aspects Id Biological raw material of our temperament and personality Represents our drives and instincts for acquiring life sustaining necessities as well as life pleasures Obeys pleasure principle Ego Formed from the raw material of the Id in the process of socialization Aspect of personality we think of as me or I Obeys reality principle because it realizes that the desires and demands of the Id are necessary but they must be satisfied in socially appropriate ways if one is to avoid negative consequences Preforms hedonistic calculus Superego Also formed from the raw material of the Id Represents all moral and social rules internalized by the person during the Strives for the ideal and is just as irrational as the Id process of socialization Is the conscience and tries to suppress all normal urges arising from Id o Imbalances in the personality were often attributed to bad parenting and lack of attachment o Can result in an individual getting stuck at a particular stage of development which overwhelms their personality A child s temperament can influence how a parent reacts to them agreeable babies will be treated differently than difficult ones Can affect the personality and how it develops Personality and Crime o Aside from the Big 5 there are aspects of the personality that are directly related to crime Impulsiveness most related to crime Tendency to act without giving much thought to the consequences Potential risk factor for criminality becomes more potent if negative emotionality is added to the mix Negative emotionality Trait that refers to the tendency to experience many situations as aversive and to react to them with irritation and anger more readily than with positive affective states Central to Robert Agnew s general strain theory Low levels of serotonin underlie high levels of negative emotionality and impulsivity Sensation seeking tied to low self esteem Refers to the active desire for novel varied and risky sensations Tend to be outgoing and relatively impulsive and fearless Empathy The emotional and cognitive ability to understand the feelings and distress of others as if they were your own Emotional component allows you to feel the other persons pain and the cognitive component allows you to understand that persons pain and why they are feeling it Altruism Action component of empathy Lies on a continuum Conscientiousness Primary trait composed of several secondary traits such as well organized disciplined scrupulous responsible and reliable at one pole the most conscientious and disorganized careless unreliable irresponsible and unscrupulous at the other Tendency to be friendly considerate courteous helpful and cooperative with Agreeableness others Better proactive factor than conscientiousness These traits can either be positively related to crime or negatively related to crime depending on the strength of the individual trait Conscience and Arousal o Conscience Complex mix of emotional and cognitive mechanisms acquired by internalizing the moral rules of our social group o Differences in the emotional component of conscience reflect variation in autonomic nervous system ANS arousal patterns o Autonomic nervous system Carries out the body s basic housekeeping functions by funneling messages from the environment to the various internal organs so that they may keep the organism in a state of biological balance o Functioning of the ANS is unconscious but regulates how our body reacts to certain stimuli o Classical conditioning A form of learning that depends more on ANS arousal than
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