What is the superego?
The moral part of personality that contains internalised rules, ideals and feelings of guilt.
What is Blackburn’s inadequate superego theory?
The proposal that offending may result from a weak, deviant or over-harsh superego.
What is a weak superego?
A poorly developed conscience that provides insufficient control over antisocial impulses.
What is a deviant superego?
A conscience that has internalised immoral or criminal values from a significant role model.
What is an over-harsh superego?
An excessively punitive conscience that creates intense guilt and may encourage offending as an unconscious route to punishment.
What did Bowlby mean by maternal deprivation?
Prolonged disruption of a warm, continuous attachment to the mother or mother-substitute during early childhood.
What is affectionless psychopathy?
Bowlby's term for low guilt, low empathy and difficulty forming close relationships.
What did Bowlby find among the 14 affectionless psychopaths in his thief sample?
Twelve had experienced prolonged separation from their mothers during the first two years of life.
Why is the inadequate superego theory difficult to test scientifically?
Its key concepts are unconscious and difficult to observe or falsify directly.
Why does Bowlby’s theory have limited temporal validity?
It was developed from 1940s British families and reflects historical assumptions about mothers, childcare and gender roles that do not fully match modern family structures.