Psych Chapter 7

4 types of child abuse

Neglect → most common (2/3s)

Physical abuse

Sexual abuse

Emotional abuse

Day care center cases

1980s-1990s, several workers were accused of sexually abusing children in their care

No physical or medical evidence to support claims

Abuser characteristics

Men→ emotionally immature and cannot handle emotions properly

Women → High levels of depression and anxiety

Anatomically detailed dolls

Research on their effectiveness is negative, they should only be used after a child has made disclosure of abuse

Wee Care and Macmartin care cases

Interviewing began with the belief that abuse had occurred

Children underwent suggestive and leading questioning

Repeated questioning study

Found that 58% of children were able to give detailed info about an event that they initially said never happened and 25% managed to create false memories after repeated questioning

University of Texas Study

56% of 4-6 year olds and 81% of 3 year olds said yes to something that did not happen after undergoing coercive questioning

3 year olds are significantly more suggestable

NICHD investigative interview revised protocol

Procedure designed to reduce bias and suggestive questioning

Uses 3 phases: introductory, building rapport, and substantive

3 ground rules

If not known, just say i dont know

Oath to tell the truth,

Statement that interviewer doesn't know what happened

Facilitator

Prompt that causes child to continue ongoing response

Invitation

Open ended request for child to recall info about incident

Cued invitation

Refocuses child's attention on details they mentioned to further free recall

Directive

Focuses child's attention on info already mentioned and requests additional info

Child sexual abuse accomodation syndrome

Children will:

Delay disclosure of abuse, Deny that abuse occured, Recant the allegations of abuse

Research on Child sexual abuse accomodation syndrome

Research shows that delay is common but denial and recantation are not

Younger children are…

More likely to be believed when testifying than adolescents

Testimonial load

The cognitive and emotional demands placed on a child by the courtroom environment

Hearsay testimony

Testifying about what someone else said, permitted in child abuse cases

Maryland v craig

Ruled that child victims were allowed to use closed-circuit television to testify

Closed circuit television

Enables defendant, judge, and jury to see testimony while child and attorneys are in another room

Recovered memories

Memories recovered by adults of being sexually assaulted years or decades earlier

Usually occured after hypnosis, guided imagery and dream interpretation by therapist

Source monitoring

The process of remembering the source/origin of a memory

Brain regions for imagining and perceiving an event overlap

Ms Science study

Found that 4/10 preschoolers in study recalled mr science doing things that did not happen

Modified stroop task

Intrusive cognition test

People with PTSD show larger impairments on stroop tests related to trauma

Elizabeth loftus

Got 25% of participants to remember an implanted memory of being lost in the mall

Highlighted important of visual imagery in creating false memories

1/4th to 1/3rd of people came to accept a false memory was real

Transience of memory

Forgetting that occurs with the passage of time