forensic psychology part 2 - Details

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Eyesneck believed criminals were likely to be..

Neurotic, extraverted and prone to psychoticism

Neurotic people tend to be...

Anxious and restless

Extraverted people tend to be..

Outgoing, talkative, impulsive

Psychotism

- likely to experience psychotic breakdown - hostile, aggressive

Eysneck evaluation

- combines biological, psychological and social approaches which makes it more holistic - criminal personality types are self report method which reduces its reliability as there is a chance of bias

Cognitive distortions

Faulty, biased and irrational ways of thinking that mean we perceive ourselves, others and the world inaccurately and usually negatively.

Hostile attribution bias

Tendency to judge ambigious situations or actions of others as aggressive and/or threatening when in reality they are not. offenders may misreas non-aggressive cues such as being looked at and this may trigger a violent reaction

Minimalization

Type of deception involves downplaying the significance of an event or emotion. a common strategy when dealing with feelings of guilty. e.g burglars may describe themselves as doing a joke. studies show that individuals who commit sexual offences are prone to minimalization

SUPPORT for cognitive distortions

- real life application to therapy - CBT challenges irrational thinking. offenders will be confronted to what they have done and establish less distorted views of actions. this can also help to reduce reoffending

LIMITATION of cognitive distortions

- cognitive distortions are not used the same way for all offenders - previous offenders are more likely to use distortions as justification -non contact sex offenders are more likely to use cognitive distortions than contact offenders

Level moral reasoning

Moral reasoning refers to the way a person thinks about right or wrong. this thinking applies to moral behaviour. higher the level, the more that behaviour is driven by sense of what is right and the lower the level the less its driven by just avoiding punishment

Moral reasoning and criminality

- offenders are more likely to be classified at the pre-conventional level of kohlberg's model whereas non-offenders have generally progressed beyond the conventional level. - pre-conventional level is characterized by need to avoid punishment and gain rewards. is associated with being less mature and childish - adults who are at this level may commit crime if they can get away with it or gain rewards like money or respect

STRENGTH for level of moral reasoning and crime

- Palmer and Hollin compared moral reasoning of non-offendors and convicted offenders - the offender group showed less mature moral reasoning

LIMITATION for level of moral reasoning and crime

- may depend on the offence - people who commit crimes for financial gain were more likely to show pre-conventional moral reasoning tends to be associated with crimes in which offenders are more likely to get away with it

Psychodynamic explanation

Perspective that describes the different forces (mostly unconscious), that operate on the mind and direct human behavior and experience

Inadequate superego

- superego works on morality principle and exerts its influence by punishing the ego through guilt - superego is deficient or inadequate than offending behaviour

Weak superego

Same gender parent is absent during phallic stage, child cannot internalize a fully formed superego as there is no opportunity for identification. this would make immoral or offending behaviour more likely

Deviant superego

Superego that a child internalizes has immoral or deviant values this would lead to offending behaviour. e.g if the child has a criminal father, they are not likely to associate guilt with wrongdoing

Over harsh superego

If a parent is very harsh in parenting style. this can lead to the child being crippled by guilt and anxiety, driving them to perform criminal acts in order to satisfy the superego's overwhelming need for punishment.

SUPPORT for deficient sueperego

- research conducted showed that all offenders assessed had disturbances in superego formation.

LIMITATION for Freudian theory

Gender biased - girls develop a weaker superego than boys because identification with same-gender parent is not as strong. this suggests than girls should be more likely to offend, however this is not true when looking at rates of imprisonment. - alpha bias is present in freud's theory

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