Forensic Psychology Quiz Questions

What is the difference between legal psychology and forensic psychology?

Legal Psychology is a broader understanding of psychology that understands the law and legal institutions.

Forensic Psychology is a subfield of legal psychology with basic applied psychological science that is applied to help resolve any legal matters

what did hugo munsterberg contribution to forensic psychology?

Known as the father of legal psychology. He published “On the Witness Stand” that prove that psychology belongs in the courtroom and also wanted to turn the attention of witnesses that were no accurate when recounting on their memories that was finalized as not as a true confession but his idea recieved an icy reception instead.

explain the difference between Natural Law and Legal Realism.

the difference is that the Natural law is a judicial decision that reflects the principles of nature. That the task of the judge was to deduce single correct decision in each case through logic.

While legal realism is when the judge construct law through interpretations of evidence.

What was Llewellyn’s 3 ideas of law?

1. Because society is in a flux, laws must be continually reexamined to ensure they serve society

2. Law is a means to social ends, not an end in itself

3. law must be evaluated in terms of its affects

Why was Brown v. Board of Education important for the field of psychology and law?

This marked the first time in the US Supreme Court explicitly cited psychological research and social science data (32 scientists signed) in a ruling to demonstrate that racial segregation causes psychological harm to minority children.

ex: the doll experiment

Explain the reasons why psychology and law clashes

Psychology: Approximate truth, group emphasis, empiricism(evidence through research), revision(cognitive outlook), and objectivity(observable facts)

Law: Approximate justice, individual emphasis, authority(legal power to act), precedent, advocacy(skills of lawyers).

What are the 5 pathways for influencing the Legal system

1. Having Expert Testimony

• The conduit-educator: strives to present a full/ accurae picture of current state of psychological knowledge

• The philosopher-advocate:provide formal philosophical grounding and credibility to the personal and lived experiences of marginalized or oppressed groups

• The hired gun: essentially ‘sells out’ and capitulates to the adversarial demands of the courtroom

2. Having Cross-Disciplinary Training

3. Amicus Curiae: interested and knowledgavle parties that dont have direct knowledge of the case. APA often has filed this in a wide range of cases that provide expertise on diverse issues which is often written by a team of researchers and reviewed by a professional organization

4. Broad Dissemination of Research

5. Influencing Legislation with a Public Policy(research papers)

Explain differen types of roles psychologist supports during a controversial outcome

• Instrumental position: should assist in achievement of values that are espoused by law

• Natural law position: should promote values that are perceived by psychologists as in some sense of natural or absolute

• Positivist position: would not attempt to further values of any sort but simply array the facts as they are found

Questions of Theory

Theory-testing research: Provides useful frameworks that inform future research and policy development but can also be farther removed from real-world scenarios.

Behavior-predicting research: Can map onto real word legal scenarios but can be so nuanced that the implications are limited to very specific scenarios.

Questions of Method

Simulation research: Allows researchers to construct controlled scenarios in the lab setting. Have limited ecological (external) validity as they can only share so many characteristics with the real world

Field studies: Allow researchers to examine what happened when legal actors are facing pressure and consequences. Experimenter control is much more limited and cannot conduct experiments that allow for testing cause and effect.

Explain the legal principles that decide what informations a court can use during trial

1. Judges are the ultimate trial gatekeepers. if a judge decides a jurror already knows what the expert has to say they can refuse to allow the testimony. \

2. Federal Rules of evidence (702): If any specialized knowledge will assist the trier of fact to understand the evidence or determine a fact in issue, a witness qualified as an expert may testify in the form of an opinion otherwise

Dauber Trilogy

1. Daubert v Merrel Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (93): Made jduges responsible for evaluatiing research methods and statistics that provides basis for expert testimony

2. General Electric Co. v Joiner (97): Held that the appellate courts shouldnt second guess a trial judges decision to exclude expert testimony

3. Kumho Tire Ltd. v Carmichael(99): Courts gatekeeping responsibilities extend to all expert opinion not just the scientific variety

As known that Judges are gatekeepers but are some reasons that why they admit unreliable evidence

• Dauber obligated judges to become amateur scientists since they have diffuculty understanding the criteria necessary to evaluate methodoloy. Resulting unreliable evidence being admitted.

What is the current standard of evidence (Daubert)

evidence is admissible if relevant and “reliable”

T.A.P.E

• has it been Tested

• Has it generally been Accepted by other experts in the same field

• Has it been Peer-reviewed by experts in the same field

• What is the Error rate?

Safeguards against Junk Science

1. Cross Examination

2. Opposing Expert Witnesses

Forensic Identification

the process of linking a piece of physical trace evidence to an individual person(usually criminal suspect)

• tire prints

• finger prints

• DNA

Why was the Orginization of Scientific Area Committees formed?

To adress a lack of discipline specific forensic science standards. Its mission is to strengthen the nations use of forensic science by facilitating the development of technically sound standards / guidelines

Name the 8 best practice for evaluating the quality of forensic psychological assessments

1. Foundational validity of the assessment

2. validity of the assessment as applied

3. management and mitigation of bias

4. attention to quality assurance

5. appropriatelt qualified expression of results and opinion

6. explicit consideration of limitations and assumptions

7. weighing alternatives view or disagreements

8. adherence with ethical obligations, codes of conduct, and rules of evidence