Study your flashcards anywhere!

Download the official Cram app for free >

  • Shuffle
    Toggle On
    Toggle Off
  • Alphabetize
    Toggle On
    Toggle Off
  • Front First
    Toggle On
    Toggle Off
  • Both Sides
    Toggle On
    Toggle Off
  • Read
    Toggle On
    Toggle Off

How to study your flashcards.



H key: Show hint (3rd side).h key

A key: Read text to speech.a key


Play button


Play button




Click to flip

63 Cards in this Set

  • Front
  • Back
anal stage
In Freud's schema, the second and third years of life, when the focus of sexual attention is on the elimination of bodily wastes.
Male sex hormones.
arousal theory
A view of crime suggesting that people who have a high arousal level seek powerful stimuli in their environment to maintain an optimal level of arousal. These stimuli are often associated with violence and aggression. Sociopaths may need greater than average stimulation to bring them up to comfortable levels of living; this need explains their criminal tendencies.
attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD)
A psychological disorder in which a child shows developmentally inappropriate impulsivity, hyperactivity, and lack of attention.
behavior modeling
Process of learning behavior (notably aggression) by observing others. Aggressive models may be parents, criminals in the neighborhood, or characters on television or in movies.
The branch of psychology concerned with the study of observable behavior rather than unconscious motives. It focuses on the relationship between particular stimuli and people's responses to them.
biological determinism
A belief that crimogenic traits can be acquired through indirect heredity from a degenerate family whose members suffered from such ills as insanity, syphilis, and alcoholism, or through direct heredity-being related to a family of criminals.
Sociologists who held the view that no serious consideration should be given to biological factors when attempting to understand human nature.
biosocial theory
An approach to criminology that focuses on the interaction between biological and social factors as they relate to crime.
bipolar disorder
An emotional disturbance in which moods alternate between periods of wild elation and deep depression.
California Personality Inventory (CPI)
A frequently administered personality test used to distinguish deviants from nondeviant groups.
cerebral allergies
A physical condition that causes brain malfunction due to exposure to some environmental or biochemical irritant.
chemical restraints
Antipsychotic drugs such as Haldol, Stelazine, Prolixin, and Risperdal, which help control levels of neurotransmitters (such as serotonin/dopamine), that are used to treat violence-prone people; also called chemical straightjackets.
chemical straightjackets
Another term for chemical restraints; antipsychotic drugs used to treat violence-prone people.
cognitive theory
The study of the perception of reality and of the mental processes required to understand the world we live in.
conduct disorder (CD)
A psychological condition marked by repeated and severe episodes of antisocial behaviors.
One of two parts of the superego; it distinguishes between what is right and wrong.
contagion effect
Genetic predispositions and early experiences make some people, including twins, susceptible to deviant behavior, which is transmitted by the presence of antisocial siblings in the household.
A personal trait of the individual as distinct from a crime, which is an event.
defective intelligence
Traits such as feeblemindedness, epilepsy, insanity, and defective social instinct, which Goring believed had a significant relationship to criminal behavior.
Any type of psychological problem (formerly labeled neurotic or psychotic), such as anxiety disorders, mood disorders, and conduct disorders.
The part of the personality, developed in early childhood, that helps control the id and keep people's actions within the boundaries of social convention.
ego ideal
Part of superego; directs the individual into morally acceptable and responsible behaviors, which may not be pleasurable.
Electra complex
A stage of development when girls begin to have sexual feelings for their fathers.
electroencephalograph (EEG)
A device that can record the electronic impulses given off by the brain, commonly called brain waves.
View that all individuals are equal at birth and are thereafter influenced by their environment.
The instinct to preserve and create life; eros is expressed sexually.
An adult that exhibits behavior traits characteristic of those encountered during infantile sexual development.
humanistic psychology
A branch of psychology that stresses self-awareness and getting in touch with feelings.
A condition that occurs when glucose (sugar) in the blood falls below levels necessary for normal and efficient brain functioning.
The primitive part of people's mental makeup, present at birth, that represents unconscious biological drives for food, sex, and other life-sustaining necessities. The id seeks instant gratification without concern for the rights of others.
identity crisis
A psychological state, identified by Erikson, in which youth face inner turmoil and uncertainty about life roles.
inferiority complex
People who have feelings of inferiority and compensate for them with a drive for superiority.
information processing
A branch of cognitive psychology that focuses on the way people process, store, encode, retrieve, and manipulate information to make decisions and solve problems.
inheritance school
Advocates of this view trace the activities of several generations of families believed to have an especially large number of criminal members.
A developmental stage that begins at age 6. During this period, feelings of sexuality are repressed until the genital stage begins at puberty; this marks the beginning of adult sexuality.
latent delinquency
A psychological predisposition to commit antisocial acts because of an id-dominated personality that renders an individual incapable of controlling impulsive, pleasure-seeking drives.
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)
A widely used psychology test that has subscales designed to measure many different personality traits, including psychopathic deviation (Pd scale), schizophrenia (Sc), and hypomania (Ma).
moral development
The way people morally represent and reason about the world.
Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ)
A test that allows researchers to assess such personality traits as control, aggression, alienation, and well-being. Evaluations using this scale indicate that adolescent offenders who are crime prone maintain negative emotionality, a tendency to experience aversive affective states such as anger, anxiety, and irritability.
nature theory
The view that intelligence is largely determined genetically and that low intelligence is linked to criminal behavior.
A part of the human brain; the left side of the neocortex controls sympathetic feelings toward others.
Allergies that affect the nervous system, and cause the allergic person to produce enzymes that attack wholesome foods as if they were dangerous to the body. They may also cause swelling of the brain and produce sensitivity in the central nervous system conditions linked to mental, emotional, and behavioral problems.
The study of brain activity.
People who fear that their primitive id impulses will dominate their personality.
nuture theory
The view that intelligence is not inherited but is largely a product of environment. Low IQ scores do not cause crime but may result from the same environmental factors.
Oedipus complex
A stage of development when males begin to have sexual feelings for their mothers.
oral stage
In Freud's schema, the first year of life, when a child attains pleasure by sucking and biting.
paranoid schizophrenics
Individuals who suffer complex behavior delusions involving wrongdoing or persecution-they think everyone is out to get them.
phallic stage
In Freud's schema, the third year, when children focus their attention on their genitals.
pleasure principle
According to Freud, a theory in which id-dominated people are driven to increase their personal pleasure without regard to consequences.
premenstrual syndrome (PMS)
The stereotype that several days prior to and during menstruation females are beset by irritability and poor judgment as a result of hormonal changes.
psychoanalytic (psychodynamic) perspective
Branch of psychology holding that the human personality is controlled by unconscious mental processes developed early in childhood.
In Freudian theory, people whose id has broken free and now dominates their personality. Psychotics suffer from delusions and experience hallucinations and sudden mood shifts.
reality principle
According to Freud, the ability to learn about the consequences of one's actions through experience.
reciprocal altruism
According to sociobiology, acts that are outwardly designed to help others but that have at their core benefits to the self.
A type of psychosis often marked by bizarre behavior, hallucinations, loss of thought control, and inappropriate emotional responses. Schizophrenic types include catatonic, which characteristically involves impairment of motor activity; paranoid, which is characterized by delusions of persecution; and hebephrenic, which is characterized by immature behavior and giddiness.
A system developed for categorizing people on the basis of their body build.
Incorporation within the personality of the moral standards and values of parents, community, and significant others.
trait theory
The view that criminality is a product of abnormal biological and/or psychological traits.
Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale
One of the standard IQ tests.
Wernicke-Korsakoff disease
A deadly neurological disorder.