Biological, Psychological, and Sociological Theories of Crime
Biological Theories of Crime and Deviance
Biological theories attempt to explain crime and deviance by examining biological characteristics.
Theory of the Born Criminal: Broca and Lombroso
Broca and Lombroso believed that the types of offenders could be identified by the shape of the skull. They accepted the influence of learning in criminal behavior but believed that most criminals were biologically degenerate or abnormal. Subsequently, theories were developed to explain the family tree and the hereditary
Read MoreSociology Terms and Concepts: A Comprehensive List
Sociological Terms and Concepts
Autonomous State
A theoretical model of the state that interprets the state as developing interests of its own, independent of other interests.
Sexual Behavior
Functional for society because it prevents the instability and conflict that more liberal sexual attitudes supposedly generate.
Rationalization
The process whereby some nationality is assigned what are perceived to be race characteristics.
Semiperipheral Countries
Semi-industrialized countries that represent a kind
Vascular Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease: Symptoms, Stages, and Care
Vascular Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease
Understanding Vascular Dementia
Vascular dementia is an anatomoclinical syndrome resulting from cerebral arterial lesions with different pathophysiological mechanisms, such as ischemia, hypertension, cardiac disorders, hematologic disorders, and bleeding. Symptoms typically have a sudden onset and a fluctuating course. Patients often present with extensive neurological deficits, but their personality may be partially or totally conserved.
Alzheimer’s Disease:
Read MorePsychiatry Review: Key Concepts and Disorders
Psychiatry Review
Disorders of Consciousness: Delirium
The essential features of delirium are:
- Alterations of the level of consciousness and attention.
- Changes in cognitive functions in relation to the individual’s previous level.
- Abrupt onset and fluctuating course.
- Suspicion of an organic cause in its etiology.
Hallucination vs. Delusion
A hallucination is a perception that occurs without an external stimulus, unlike an illusion, and is not derived from the patient’s ideas or processes.
The Concept of
Read MoreChild Development: Affective, Identity, and Social Growth
Week 1: The Affective Domain
- Domains of Development: Cognitive, Social-Emotional, Physical (interrelated).
- Social Cognitive Theory (Bandura): Learning through observation.
- Key Components:
- Self-efficacy: Belief in ability to control behavior.
- Behavioral capability: Skills to perform behavior.
- Expectations: Outcomes of behavior change.
- Observational learning: Watching others.
- Reinforcement: Incentives for behavior change.
- Ecological Systems Theory (Bronfenbrenner): Development influenced by environment:
- Microsystems,
Psychological Theories: Freud, Behaviorism, Cognitive & Humanistic
Psychoanalytic Theory
- Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), Jacques Lacan
- Theory of personality and defense mechanisms.
- The relationship between the self, and the id, ego, and superego (reality principle and pleasure).
- Theory of the instincts.
- The new theory of instincts: Eros and Thanatos.
- Theory of Sexuality.
- Phases: oral, anal, phallic (Oedipus complex), latency, puberty.
- Dreams.
- Theory of culture.
Behaviorism
- John B. Watson: One of the most important American psychologists.
- Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (1849-1936): Classical