Psychological explanation’s of offending behaviour: Cognitive

define cognitive distortion

is a form of irrational thinking. In particular, distortions are ways that reality has become twisted so that what is perceived no longer represents what is actually true.

define hostile attribution bias

When a person automatically attributes malicious intentions to another.

define minimisation

Underplaying the consequence of an action to reduce negative emotions such as feeling guilty.

define moral reasoning

Thinking in a consistent and logical way about right and wrong, with reference to socially agreed principles.

what are two examples of cognitive distortions which are particularly relevant to crime?

1. hostile attribution bias

2. minimalisation

what is hostile attribution bias most likely kinked to in crime?

increased levels of aggression

what can minimalisation explain in terms of criminal behaviour?

can explain how an offender may reduce any negative interpretation of their behaviour before or after a crime has been committed. This helps the individual accept the consequences of their own behaviour and means that negative emotions can be reduced.

what was Kohlberg’s theory of moral reasoning study?

Kohlberg interviewed 71 chicago aged 7-16 years followed up for 3 year intervals for 20 years about the reasons for their moral decisions on the 10 moral dilemmas and constructed a stage theory of moral development. Each stage represents a more advanced form of moral understanding, resulting in a more logically consistent and morally mature form of understanding.

what were Kolhbergs findings?

found reasons changed as boys got older 3 stages emerged, people can only progress through each stage in order and at biologically appropriate time not everyone reaches higher levels

what are the three levels of moral reasoning?

1. pre conventional

2. conventional

3. post conventional

what % of adults reach the post conventional level?

10%

what is the most common level of moral reasoning?

conventional

what occurs in the pre conventional level?

(around age 9) Children accept the rules of authority figures and judge actions by their consequences. Actions that result in punishments are bad; those that bring rewards are good.

what’s the conventional level?

(around age 9-10) Individuals continue to believe that conformity to social rules is desirable, but this is not out of self-interest. Maintaining the current social system ensures positive human relationships and social order.

what’s the post conventional level?

individual moves beyond unquestioning compliance to the norms of the social system, the individual defines morality in terms of abstract moral principles that apply to all societies and situations

what was Aiste’s study?

showed emotionally ambiguous faces to 55 violent offenders in prison and compared their responses to matched control 'normal participants. The faces showed angry, happy or fearful emotions, in varying levels of intensity of the target emotion.

what were the results of Aiste’s study?

The offenders were more likely to interpret any picture that had some expression of anger as an expression of aggression.

what are the real world application for the cognitive explanation?

Understanding cognitive distortions can be used in treatment.

what did Heller study in relation to real world applications?

worked with a group of young men who were mainly from disadvantaged groups in Chicago. They used cognitive behavioural techniques to reduce judgement and decision-making errors (cognitive distortions).

what were Hellers findings?

Those participants who attended 13 one-hour sessions had a 44% reduction in arrests compared to a control group.

what’s a major issue with the moral reasoning theory?

concerns the fact that Kohlberg's research was based only on male samples, a gender bias. Furthermore, Carol Gilligan suggested that the theory and criteria is focused on a male perspective an ethic of justice rather than an ethic of care

what’s a real world application of kohlberg’s theory?

He observed that children raised on Israeli kibbutzim were morally more advanced than those not raised on kibbutzim, which led him to suggest that belonging to a democratic group and being involved in making moral judgements facilitated moral development. With Carol Gillian, he set up a number of Cluster Schools (also called just communities) in a number of schools, and even one in a prison. Members had the power to define and resolve disputes within the group, encouraging moral development.

evaluation of Kohlberg

• strength: Kenny young offenders reasoning tended to be primarily self centred

• limitation: thinking explained but not cause of behaviour

• limitation: lack of ecological validity for dilemmas lacks real life pressure

• limitation: carol gilligan

evaluation of cognitive explanations:

• strengths: real life applications (CBT Heller)

• supporting evidence: hostile attribution bias/cognitive distortions (aiste)

• supporting evidence: minimisation (Barbree crimes in sexual assault)

• limitation: doesn’t explain cause of behaviour

what did Kenny do?

Kenny, repeated the procedures of Kolhberg with young offenders and non offenders found that young offenders reasoned lower levels of moral development compared to non-offenders particularly those who had committed violent crimes and reasoning was primarily self centred

what did Barbree do?

interviewed male sexual offenders and how they explained and justified their actions

what were Barbree’s findings?

downplayed their actions stating that victim consented or victim wasn’t seriously harmed blamed behaviour on environmental factors like drugs and alcohol, victim provoked the situation and emotional stress