The role of the superego & offending behaviour
- The superego is one of the personality structures of Freud’s tripartite theory of personality (part of the psychodynamic approach)
- The tripartite theory of personality is the conceptualisation of three aspects of personality: id, ego and superego, each of which influences behaviour separately or via a conflict in which one aspect wins over the other one (e.g. the id may triumph over the superego when it comes to choosing partying over studying)
- Freud claimed that the superego emerges towards the end of the phallic phase of psychosexual development (around the age of six years old) when the child has gone through the Oedipus/Electra complex
- The role of the superego is parental to some extent: it is the part of the personality that makes judgements about the person’s behaviour, issues admonishments and provides moral and ethical standards to which the person is expected to adhere (the superego operates according to the morality principle)
- The relevance of the superego to offending behaviour is based on the idea that if the superego is deficient or lacking in some way then the wilder, more impulsive (and amoral ) part of the personality - the id - will take over (the id operates according to the pleasure principle)
- There are three types of deficient superego, each of which could be a key contributory factor to a person turning to crime (Blackburn, 1993):
- Underdeveloped or weak superego: if an individual has not gone through the Oedipus/Electra complex they have not identified with the same-sex parent: this could result in them experiencing less guilt and more immorality /amorality than others
- Overdeveloped or harsh superego: this is likely to result in an individual experiencing extreme guilt which may lead them to commit crimes with the intention of being caught and punished, additionally a harsh superego may produce an outburst of antisocial behaviour (too much emphasis on being ‘good’) if someone finds the pressure overwhelming
- Deviant superego: if an individual identifies with the same sex parent who has deviant morals and values (very likely criminal in nature) then these attitudes/behaviours are internalised by the individual; in this way criminal behaviour is presented as the norm so zero guilt is attached to criminal acts
Freud’s tripartate structure of personality.
Exam Tip
Remember that the id, ego and superego are all facets of personality within one person - they are not personality traits, they are part and parcel of the different levels of the conscious, preconscious and unconscious mind. Freud claimed that everyone holds these personality structures in their minds and that one of them will dominate according to the childhood experience of the individual.