criminal psychology

Application - punishment

Aims to reduce antisocial behaviour

1) prisons

2) fining

3) community sentences

Application - rehabilitation

Promotes positive behaviour in offenders to reintegrate them into society

1) restorative justice - meetings between offenders and victims to take accountability and make amends

2) positive role models - giving offenders the opportunity to observe and learn from individuals who exhibit positive behaviour

Social learning theory (theory 1)

1) Identify with role model

2) Observe criminal act

3) Vicarious reinforcement (observing reward)

4) Direct reinforcement (imitating behaviour and relieving reward)

5) Internalised (no longer needs to be reinforced)

Social learning theory (theory 1): CRITICISMS

1) doesn’t explain how crime started

2) doesn’t account for those with no criminal role models

3) if correct should be easier to reduce crime

4) ignores nature

Cooper and Mackie (study 1): AIM

To test if playing or watching violent video games leads to aggression

Cooper and Mackie (study 1): SAMPLE

84 children, aged 9-11, schools New Jersey, USA.

Cooper and Mackie (study 1): METHOD

Lab experiment, independent measures design.

Groups played or observed either:

        *   Missile Command (violent)

        *   Pacman (non-violent)

        *   Maze (control)

  Observed playroom behavior: aggressive, active, quiet, skill toys.

    Aggression questions using buzzer for reward/punishment.

Cooper and Mackie (study 1): RESULTS

Results:

    *   Girls in the violent game condition played more with aggressive toys.

    *   Boys played with aggressive toys more, regardless of game.

    *   Game type had no effect on interpersonal aggression (buzzer).

*   Conclusion: Aggressive video games impacted girls' aggressive behavior, but not boys'.

Cooper and Mackie (study 1): EVALUATION

Criticisms

1) lacks construct validity: measuring aggression with a buzzer and toys may nor measure aggression but something else

2) culturally biased

3) lacks ecological validity: lab environment

Positives

1) lab experiment: less extraneous variables