Forensic Psychology Exam 1 (Modules 1-4)

Who is regarded as the father of modern psychology?

Wilhelm Wundt

Hugo Munsterberg

• experimental psychologist who studied under Wundt

• wrote On the Witness Stand in 1908 to turn people’s attention to the relationship between psychology and law; met with poor reception

• begrudgingly acknowledged as the founding father of psychology and law

• first to identify psychological aspects of many things that have become thriving areas of research (witness memory, false confessions, and jury decision making)

Muller v. Oregon (1908)

The Supreme Court ruled that the workday of any woman employed in a laundry or factory should be limited to 10 hours

What were the two events of 1908 that triggered broad recognition among psychologists that their ideas might be used to transform the legal system?

Munster’s Book On the Witness Stand and the case of Muller v. Oregon

Roles of psychologists in the legal system (3)

1. advisors (trial consultants)

2. evaluators

3. reformers (advocate for change based on research)

Amicus Curiae Briefs

means “friend of the court”

presented to judge by someone who is not part of the case at hand but still wants to offer expertise/advice

Commission vs Omission

commission: form of lying where someone says things that are not true

omission: form where someone leaves out relevant information 

When was the polygraph most popular?

During the 60s-80s (ESPECIALLY the 80s); lucrative business

resurgence after 9/11

Polygraph Protection Act of 1988

prohibits most private employers from requiring polygraph testing for pre-employment screening or during employment

Control Question Test/Comparison Question Test (CQT)

compares responses to relevant questions (ex: did you shoot your wife) with control questions that have to do with past misdeeds (ex: have you ever betrayed someone’s trust)

the theory is that if the reaction is greater to control questions, the person is not lying

Positive Comparison Test (PCT)

uses the crime relevant question as its own comparison

asks suspect the question twice and instructs them to lie once and tell the truth once, directly comparing the results

Guilty Knowledge Test (GKT)

MCQ test administered during polygraph with questions concerning knowledge only the guilty person would know

measures the responses to the correct answer choice vs the response to the other plausible but incorrect answer choices

Daubert v Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals 

1993 SCOTUS case that held that the admissibility of scientific evidence should be determined on a case-by-case basis during evidentiary hearings

Criteria-based Content Analysis (CBCA)

truthfulness assessment through systematic analysis of written statements

high acceptance in European courts, but validity is questioned

Reality Monitoring (RM)

reliance on written accounts of alleged crimes; real memories tend to have more sensory info and contextual details while imagined memories include more info on mental/cognitive processes taking place

correct classification rate of 69%

Lie-Detection Wizards

42 identified wizards notice more lying cues 

these are people who have an unusually high lie detection rate

~80% accuracy

Facial Action Coding System

1970s, set up by Paul Ekman and Wallace Friedman

identifies 43 sets of muscles that often work in tandem to facially express emotion

use micro-expressions that may show up when trying to suppress and emotion

fMRIs

can be used to detect brain activity where lying occurs

can be hard to determine if activity is actually from lying or from a high cognitive load 

fMRIs vs EEGs

fMRIs show WHERE lying is happening

EEGs just show that lying is happening

Brain Fingerprinting

uses an EEG to measure suspects’ brain waves when shown information related to the crime

suspect is presented with a series of images or words, some having to do with the crime and some not

What percentage of those exonerated since 1989 until August 2022 falsely confessed?

11.67%

What percentage of suspects give a full confession?

39-48%

What percentage of suspects give damaging statements or partial confessions?

13-16%

What percentage of police-interrogated suspects make self-incriminating statements?

68%

Colorado v Connelly

1986 Colorado Supreme Court case that determined that the US Constitution requires a court to suppress a confession when the mental state of the defendant at the time he made the confession interfered with his rational intellect and free will

Fundamental Attribution Error

the tendency to attribute other peoples’ behavior to dispositional causes (like traits or personality) and to dismiss the situational pressures acting on that person

When did police violence stop being allowed?

it was allowed up until 1930

in 1931, a report on lawlessness and law enforcement changed it to more covert forms of abuse, including deprivation, isolation, and intimidation

psychological abuse is much more common now

Miranda v Arizona

1966 case that resulted in the Miranda Rights

required police to read the rights to suspects prior to any type of interrogation

What are the Miranda Rights?

1. right to remain silent (anything you say can and will be used against you)

2. right to an attorney present during questioning

3. right to have an attorney appointed to you if you can’t afford one

the suspect must acknowledge these rights (“do you understand these rights as I have read them to you?”)

What percent of suspects waive their rights? Why?

80%!

police may read the rights quickly and understate their importance

suspects may be upset when getting arrested and are unable to think clearly/rationally

innocent people are more likely to waive their rights because they believe they have nothing to hide; this puts them at risk of false confession if the interrogation ends up being lengthy and difficult

Reid Technique

9-step technique that represents the general flow of many interrogations

includes 4 psychologically powerful strategies

1. loss of control

2. social isolation

3. certainty of guilt

4. minimization of culpability

these are meant to be used AFTER gathering evidence

RT - loss of control

the purpose is to make the suspect uncomfortable, make it harder to lie by increasing cognitive load, and increase stress

RT - social isolation

takes away any emotional support/advocacy, so suspect is more likely to be persuaded

RT - certainty of guilt

interrogators convey through words and actions that they believe the suspect is guilty anyway

couple with real or fake evidence ploys

RT - minimization of culpability 

lessening the weight of the guilt/wrongdoing

phrases like “I can see why you would do that” or “I’m sure other people would understand”

Naive Model of Suspect Decision-Making

simplified, incomplete model that assumes a suspect’s decisions are based purely on a cost-benefit analysis

no benefits to false confession

costs: arrest, prosecution, punishment

Interrogation-Induced Model of Suspect Decision-Making

views suspects as rational decision makers who must decide how to respond to police pressures during interrogation

benefits of FC: appease interrogators, escape interrogation room, receive more lenient treatment from legal system, avoid harshest punishment 

cost: harsh treatment by legal system

What percentage of known wrongful convictions can be attributed to false confessions?

26%

When do false confessions most often occur?

in murder cases

Who is most at risk of falsely confessing?

young people/juveniles

especially when adult techniques are used on them

Why are youth more at risk of false confessions?

the brain is not fully developed, so they are psychologically immature

What causes false confessions generally?

short-sightedness: if the interrogation is long and arduous, the person being questioned might just confess to be let go

innocent people tend to falsely confess because they think they will be able to straighten the details out later since they know they are innocent; not always the case

Types of false confessions (what are the two domains)

1. instrumental or internalized

2. voluntary or coerced

four types across these two dimensions 

instrumental coerced

most common type of FC

confessing to a crime the suspect didn’t commit

FC given to achieve a specific outcome, such as ending a stressful interrogation

instrumental voluntary

also given to achieve a specific outcome, but with little to no outside pressure

usually to gain something

suspect deliberately chooses to lie for their own benefit or for the benefit of another (maybe protecting someone else)

ex: suspect admits to involvement in a high-profile case to gain notoriety/fame

internalized voluntary

suspect suffers from delusions and confesses with little to no pressure from the interrogation procedure

internalized coerced

the suspect is convinced of their own guilt after long, hard interrogation

may state they don’t remember doing it but believe they did anyway

Visionary Serial Killer

usually psychotic; have visions or believe they hear voices from God or spirits instructing them to kill certain people

Mission-Oriented SK

less likely to be psychotic; motivated by a desire to kill people they regard as evil or unworthy

Hedonistic SK

kill for thrills and take sadistic sexual pleasure in torturing their victims

Power/Control Oriented SK

get satisfaction from capturing and controlling the victim before killing

anchor point

one point in geoprofiling that represents the location from which an offender leaves to attack

buffer zone

an area in which a criminal is less likely to act (like near their home)

principle of distance decay

the probability of an attack decreases as distance from past crime location increases 

temporal sequencing

offsets the principle of distance decay

states that over time the geographical range of a serial offender’s crimes will increase

equivocal death

term used in psychological autopsies

death that cannot be quickly categorized using the NASH system and requires further investigation

NASH system

N: Natural death

A: Accidental

S: Suicide

H: Homicide