Sample Undergraduate Psychology Essay

Flashback to 2006, it’s the midst of fall and recess have just begun. The red and whites of the Danish flag blows in the cool wind and inside a girl from second grade puts on her cozy red coat, anticipating the joy of playing in the colorful falling leaves and inhaling the crisp autumn air, but before opening the door, a boy approaches her and says “Your boots are ugly.”  The girl takes a second to think and then replies the boy with a cold “thank you,” she then proceeds to go on with a smile on her face, as if nothing had just happened to her. This girl with the rather unconventional reply was me, and the reason this story is so significant is not necessarily due to what an observer would have witnessed that day, but instead the thinking that led me to do what I did.

Ariel Corporan is a twenty-two-year-old man with a history of delinquent and criminal behavior. Corporan was born in the Bronx and had a strained relationship with his mother and step-father before he began committing crime. He went to a juvenile corrections facility after hitting a kid in high school where his life of criminal behavior began to escalate. Criminologists have come up with various theories over the past decades to try and explain crime. There are several theories of crime that could be used to analyze and explain Corporan’s story. General strain theory, rational choice theory, attachment theory and control-balance theory all emphasize different parts of Corporan’s story to explain why he began committing crime.

Psychodynamic (Psychoanalytical) theory was developed by Sigmund Freud in the late 1800’s and has gained increasing popularity in the history of criminality (Siegel, 2005). Freud believed that every individual carries “[the] residue of the most significant emotional attachments of our childhood, which then guides our future interpersonal relationships” (Siegel). Freud theorized that the personality is a three-part structure made up of the id, ego, and super ego. These three components work together in creating a behavior. The id creates the demands, the ego put the demands created by id into a larger context using reality, and finally the superego suppresses the id and attempts to make the ego behave morally, rather than realistically. Psychodynamic theory is significant to criminology because it explains “criminal” or “abnormal” behavior is the result of irregular development of the psyche.

| Recognise patterns and triggers which may lead to inappropriate behavioural responses and take action to pre-empt, divert or diffuse potential flash points

In the video “The Lost Children of Rockdale County” produced by Dretzin and Goodman in 1999, portrays the life of teenagers engaging in peer delinquency, sexual behavior, and drugs and alcohol consumption. The video portrays the life of Nicole a 14 year old female who had engaged in sexual behavior, delinquent activity and lived under lack pf parental supervision. The General Theory of Crime and Delinquency is defined as “Motivations for crime include reinforcements for criminal activity, exposure to successful criminal models, learnijng beliefs favorable to crime” (Frailing & Harper, 2013. p.156). Robert Agnew’s theory can be related into Nicole’s life, because the environment in which she grew clearly affected the five domains explained in the theory. The family domain was affected because Cindy’s (Nicole’s mother) lack of parental attachment during Nicole’s infancy affected the relationship. Nicole argues that she started to engage in a risky behavior because she wanted to obtain her mother’s attention because her mother worked full time and didn’t had time to monitor her behavior.

Title: An investigation into the impact of group pressure on an individual’s estimate of the amount of beads in a pot (ginger granules in a jar).

When it comes to juvenile delinquency an adolescent personality is usually impacted from different factors such as early child hood experiences of witnessing a crime, seeing a violent act, being the victim of a crime, or being around others or family who engaged in criminal activity, these factors can either create an adolescent with a positive or negative attitude, or an anti-social behavior which could create a path for a delinquent behavior (Wilson, p. 34). A study has shown that family interactions accounts for about 40 percent of the cause of an adolescent with an anti-social behavior, the study also shown that aggressiveness which is a common trait of adolescent who engage in delinquent acts is usually created from peer influences (Wilson, p. 34).

Psychology explores human behavior and the human mental process figuring ways to improve the thinking and attitude of an individual’s existence. Sometimes, different techniques are used and tried to properly resolve the problem within the multitude of possible behavioral issues. Moreover, Sigmund Freud, an Austrian neurologist, developed many theories, psychodynamic therapy, for clinically treating people with mental health problems through their unconscious mind; Then, Sigmund Freud’s theories or therapy, rather, diverged into other types of therapies such as Biological Psychology or Cognitive Psychology. No doubt, there are various perspectives, both strong and weak, in the field of Psychology using different techniques on different

This essay will compare and contrast some psychological and sociological approaches to studying juvenile delinquency and disorder behaviour. The question is what makes people behave disorderly. Youth disorderly behaviours are studied using different approaches including psychological and sociological approaches. Both psychological and sociological approaches to studying juvenile delinquency are necessary. This essay starts with outlining and defining disorderly behaviour and juvenile delinquency. Then, it will look at the work of Eysenck, the Cambridge Study of Delinquent Development research which was a longitude study and the Integrated Cognitive Antisocial Potential theory by Farrington, all fit in psychological approach; studying the connection between personality and disorder. It will then look at Sociological approach by looking at the work of Howard Becker, Stan Cohen and Stuart Hall. This essay will be analysing and comparing their theories and separating the differences and noting the similarities in their ideas. This essay will provide evidence for each theory. It will then conclude by specifying significant similarities and differences in the light of the evidence presented.

The concern about life is a main human characteristic. No matter if his concern is concentrated in himself or in persons or things that surround him and constitute his environment, everybody wants to know why people, himself included, behave the way they behave. Everybody, also, wants to improve his behavior, so as to live in harmony with himself and the society.

Throughout the years, the association between a criminal offense and a criminal have become more relevant. Although there are many theories that try to illustrate the concept of why crimes happen, no theory has a profound influence of understanding an individual’s nature, relationship, development, and a society itself (Coleman & Ganong, 2014). To further explain, “theories of crime are defined in relation to modernity, spanning their development from the enlightenment to the present, with the advent of postmodernism” (Miller, 2012, p. 1798). In other words, theories of crime are an approach to understanding an individuals behaviour and actions in their environment, society, and themselves that may lead to crime. Nevertheless, within this paper, it will be comparing the case of

When studying criminality of deviant behaviors, there are a lot of concepts introduced that shine light on certain practices that hold levels of significance. As it relates to the modeling and attachment theories, both ideas must be respected as an explanation for aggressive or criminal behavior. The attachment theory which is founded on the relationship between the mother figure and child which fosters healthy development. This method was introduced by child psychiatrist John Bowlby who observed children at the London Child Guidance Clinic after World War II. He was intrigued by children who lacked a stable relationship with a maternal figure. He believed that a child should experience a continuous, warm and intimate relationship with the

When looking at criminal activity and the direct connection to the criminal behavior we see that there have been many research trials that have taken place over the history of humankind (Mishra & Lalumiere, 2008). Two of these research areas that have been developed to attempt to understand the causes of criminal behavior are known as biological and psychological perspectives of crime causation. These two sectors have their principles that are held in their theories as a standard scientific understanding of the basics that each evaluation of criminal behavior is built on (Dretske, 2004).

My hypothesis on conduct disorder in children can lead to criminal activity in adulthood. The research that was conducted from this question was that of Memorial University of Newfoundland, the Department of Psychology. Sampson and Laub (1997) discussed conduct disorder as not being a single cause of adult criminal behavior, but instead the start to what they termed as a life of “cumulative disadvantage”. The conduct disorder might indeed be the initial cause of problems, but may be replaced by the effects of disapproving, negative reactions from others.

She had very dysfunctional relationships with her immediate family. More precisely, she never met her father, her mother abandoned her, she was engaging in sex with her older brother, and was frequently molested and abused by her grandfather. These relationships with parents and guardians are essential to adequate development because the family is the primary agent of socialization (Ioannou, 2010). Unfortunately, Aileen never experienced healthy relationships or proper socialization because of disconnect between her and her family. Research suggests that parenting plays a crucial role in the propensity towards crime (Henson, n.d.). Parents are responsible for increasing violence or aggression through the development of low self-esteem, which Aileen had, and modeling, which Aileen never got to experience (Henson, n.d.). Her parents were not good role models, in that, all she knew about her father was that he was a “crazy” child molester and that her mother did not want her. If her parents were nurturing and demonstrated compassion during her early years, she would have been less likely to exhibit antisocial behaviors that lead to violence (Henson, n.d.).