Psychological Explanations: Cognative Explanations Flashcards Preview

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Flashcards in Psychological Explanations: Cognative Explanations Deck (41)
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1
Q

Kohlberg proposed that people’s decisions and judgements about right and wrong can be identified in his theory of

A

Moral development

2
Q

The higher the stage

A

The more sophisticated the reasoning

3
Q

Kohlberg et al date

A

1973

4
Q

Kohlberg et al used a moral dilemma technique and found

A

Criminal offenders tend to be at the preconventional Level

5
Q

The preconventional Level

A

A need to avoid punishment and gain rewards,

Less mature, childlike reasoning.

6
Q

Non criminals progress to the

A

Conventional level and beyond

7
Q

Offenders may commit crimes if they can

A

Get away with it or gain rewards

8
Q

what are the rewards?

A

money or respect

9
Q

research shows that offenders are often

A

self-centered (egocentric) and display poorer social perspective-taking skills

10
Q

individuals who reason at a higher level tend to

A

sympathies more and exhibit behaviors such as honesty, generosity and non-violence

11
Q

cognitive distortions are

A

errors or biases in peoples information processing systems characterized by faulty thinking

12
Q

we all occasionally exhibited

A

faulty thinking

13
Q

although we all exhibit faulty thinking, research shows this is a

A

much more typical way for criminals to interpret their behavior and justify their actions

14
Q

Schonenberg and Justye date

A

2014

15
Q

Schonenberg and Justye found that violent offenders were more likely then non offenders to percieve

A

ambiguous facial expressions as angry and hostile

16
Q

Schonenberg and Justye findings

A

offenders misred non agressive cues and this can trigger a disproportionate and violent responce

17
Q

minimalisation reduces a persons

A

sense of guilt

18
Q

minimalisation example: burglars may describe themselves as

A

“doing a job” or “supporting my family” as a way of minimalising the seriousness of their actions and their sense of guilt.

19
Q

Pollock and Hashmall date

A

1991

20
Q

Pollock and Hashmall found that

A

35% of a sample of child molesters say their crime was non-sexual

21
Q

Pollock and Hashmall also found that

A

36% of offenders stated the victim consented

22
Q

Palmer and Hollin date

A

1998

23
Q

Palmer and Hollin used a scale of

A

11 moral dilemma-related questions

24
Q

Palmer and Hollin findings

A

offenders showed less mature moral reasoning than a non-offending control group

25
Q

Palmer and Hollin is in line with

A

Kohlberg’s pradictions

26
Q

blackbern date

A

1993

27
Q

Blackbern argues delinquants may show

A

poor moral development due to a lack of role playing during childhood

28
Q

Blackbern suggests that role playing opportunities should be provided to

A

develop moral reasoning

29
Q

Gibbs date

A

1979

30
Q

Gibbs revised visions of Kohlbergs theory has

A

mature (guided by consciousness) and immiture (guided by reward and avoidance of punishment)

31
Q

Gibbs argued that Kohlbergs post-conventional Level should be

A

Abandoned because it is culturally biased towards western culture and didn’t represent a ‘natural’ maturational stage of cognitive development

32
Q

Gibbs theory was supported by

A

Piagets theory of moral development

33
Q

Piagets theory of moral development suggests

A

Child like criminal reasoning is egocentric and gives way to empathy as children get older

34
Q

Understanding cognitive distortions helps treat criminal behaviour as CBT

A

Helps offenders to face up to their behaviour with a less distorted view of their behaviour

35
Q

Studies suggest reduced denial and minimisation in therapy is correlated with

A

Reduced reoffending risk - acceptance of ones crimes is a key feature of anger management

36
Q

Thornton and Reid Date

A

1982

37
Q

Thornton and Reid found those committing crimes for financial gain

A

Were more likely to show preconventional reasoning than those committing compulsive crimes

38
Q

Preconventional reasoning was also associated with

A

Offenders who believed they could evade punishment

39
Q

While the cognitive approach may be good at describing the criminal mind

A

It’s less successful when it comes to explaining it

40
Q

Cognitive explanations are

A

After the fact theories

41
Q

Cognitive explanations are useful when predicting offenders but

A

They give us little insight into why the offender committed the crime in the first place