All study evaluations Flashcards
RAINE - Nature/Nurture
Raine suggests that the NGRI’s are not necessarily born that way, the damage could have also come about through experience and the environment which is linked to brain plasticity
RAINE - Determinism/Free Will
Deterministic - Raine suggested that murderers had certain dysfunctions in areas of the brain linked with aggression that suggested that the brain dysfunctions had led to their criminal behaviour
RAINE - Reductionist/Holistic
The study only looks at brain activity and this could be a very reductionist view of human behaviour. BUT does acknowledge the effect of situational factors as being important in explaining why someone commits crime.
RAINE - Individual/Situational
Raine suggests that the NGRI’s can be explained through the individual and the situation, the damage could have come about through genes or through experience and the environment.
RAINE - Reliability
PET is a reliable brain imaging technique that has been used (with growing success) since the 1970s. It produces objective and replicable results and it can be tested and re-tested to check its reliability.
The CPT also ensures that all the participants were concentrating on the same thing, which should ensure they all had similar types of brain activity. This is a standardised procedure that also adds to reliability. However, Raine admits that there were still problems with the reliability of PET scanning in the 1990s. The results were sometimes unclear and had to be interpreted, which introduces subjectivity and lower reliability.
RAINE - Validity
Bufkin & Luttrell (2005) carried out a meta-analysis, where they analysed the results of 17 studies that use brain imaging to study aggression in humans (Raine et al. is one of the studies they analysed). They found that all the studies point to similar conclusions: impulsivity is linked to deficits in the prefrontal cortex or the amygdala and such people have difficulty coping with negative emotions. This adds to the construct validity of Raine’s study, since it shows the results tie in with the findings of lots of other studies.
The CPT used by Raine could be criticised for being artificial and unconnected to violence or provocation. The participants were all doing an unusual task and in an unusual state of mind when the PET test was carried out. This lowers the ecological validity of the study.
As a natural experiment, this study cannot show cause-and-effect. For example, the NGRIS might have developed their brain deficits after the killing, because of the stress of the event, their arrest and imprisonment and their coming trial.
RAINE - Sample
Raine et al. use a large sample (82), which was the largest at the time for this sort of study. Anomalies, such as participants with unusual brain structure or people who disrupted the test by not focusing on the CPT, should not skew the data too much. This makes the results representative of a wider population.
On the other hand, the NGRIs are unusual offenders. They are people who have killed someone, but either don’t remember doing it or are too confused to stand trial. These people are not representative of “typical” murderers, still less of typical violent individuals. As Raine points out, not all of the NGRIS killed their victims violently.
RAINE - Usefulness
Raine is NOT claiming that PET scanning could identify murderers in advance. Nor is he claiming that PET scans could help decide whether or not someone is guilty of murder. DON’T MAKE THESE CLAIMS FOR THIS STUDY.
Raine does suggest that, if the damage that causes these brain deficits can be prevented, people might be prevented from becoming murderers; they will not develop a murderous predisposition. This involves early intervention with at-risk children in school, programmes to steer young people away from drugs and monitoring people who have received brain injury.
It also might be possible to treat people who suffer from these brain deficits. If the deficient parts of the brain can be stimulated (either through drug therapy or counselling), then they might be less likely to engage in impulsive, aggressive behaviour
RAINE - Ethics
The NGRIS agreed to have the PET tests because it would help their court case, either by showing they were not fit to stand trial or acting as evidence that they weren’t in control of themselves when they committed the crime The Controls all gave their prior consent to be tested and for their imaging data to be used in the study The University of California approved the study. If the NGRIS or the schizophrenic Controls were not competent to consent, then presumptive consent was given by their lawyer or carer.
PET imaging is an invasive procedure, because the participants have to be injected with a radioactive tracer. The NGRIS were having this procedure carried out anyway, for legal reasons, but for the Controls this was a medical procedure they would not otherwise have undergone. It’s not a serious or dangerous procedure, but any unnecessary medical procedure increases the risk of protection from harm. Furthermore, there are ethical concerns with the conclusions for a study like this. It seems to suggest that some people are driven to kill by their brain structure and that their violence is out of their control. It invites us to “screen” prospective job candidates, perhaps even potential partners, to check they don’t have “a murderer’s brain.” Raine and his colleagues make it clear they are NOT drawing these conclusions themselves, but once a study like this is known to the public its conclusions may be misinterpreted. This would go against the social responsibility of ethical research.
RAINE - Science
Raine et al. (1997) provides support for the debate psychology as a science. This is because it is a highly controlled, laboratory study, which has falsifiable measures.
The main methodological strength of this study is the amount of control the researchers had over the procedure. For example they used a control group who were matched on variables such as age and sex and they were screened for their physical and mental health.
It can also be argued that PET scans are useful because we no longer have to wait for a person to die before we can examine their brain. The scan allows for a wide range of non-intrusive studies.
However the study does have methodological weaknesses. For example PET scans are still being developed and therefore the data should be treated with caution.
HALL & PLAYER - Determinism/Free Will
Deterministic- if experts are aware of the case they make mistakes during the fingerprint matching process.
However, during this study it could be argued there are aspects of free will, as some people in the high emotion context said they stayed emotional detached. Therefore, they made the choice to not allow their emotions to affect their work- however to what extent?
HALL & PLAYER - Individual/Situational
These findings support the individual explanation side of the debate. Experts are not influenced by situational factors such as high or low emotional context and regardless of the case accurate decision are made by fingerprint experts.
However, non-experts are influenced by situational factors and misidentification can occur
HALL & PLAYER - Validity
+Internal Validity-The high levels of control in this criminal psychology study contribute to high levels of internal validity. For example, the fingerprints were from the same person and were manipulated in a standardised manner.
+/- Ecological Validity- the fingerprint which was used in this study was superimposed onto a £50 note, which increases the ecological validity as this leads to a task which is a close analog to real life. However, it should be considered that there was only one fingerprint used which is less likely to occur in a real context.
HALL & PLAYER - Ethical
Hall & Player (2008) ensured that their participants identities were protected and their results were anonymous. Further, the there was always a researcher present with the participants, this ensured that the participants were protected from harm and could have any questioned they had answered. This means that Hall and Player’s study was highly ethical and therefore has high replicability
HALL & PLAYER - Usefulness
This study by Hall and Player has high levels of usefulness for forensic applications. However, there is reduced usefulness because of the specific nature of this study; the results are only useful for fingerprint analysis, although the conclusions might prove useful to wider forensic contexts
HALL & PLAYER - Sample
P’s in this study were volunteer fingerprint experts. Therefore, it could be argued that these were a certain type of expert, possibly those who were confident in their ability and were less likely to be influenced by the emotional context of a crime. Furthermore, they all worked for the Metropolitan and may not be representative of all police forces. Therefore this study lacks population validity.
MEMON & HIGHAM - Methodological Issues
Memon - review Cl on children aged 5-8 should do it on adults- however Milne went on to do this
MEMON & HIGHAM - Reductionist/Holistic
Memon -holistic-Cl looks at different ways of interviewing a witness
Fisher - holistic-used Cl as above-potentially reductionist though as looking at just the cognitive side of the interview - what if they have PTSD etc
MEMON & HIGHAM - Determinism/Free Will
Fisher Deterministic - the CI makes the interview a better interview - ignores freewill - some witnesses may not respond to the CI some detectives may still use SI
MEMON & HIGHAM - Individual/Situational
Situation - Fisher-CI got more information out of the respondents than the SI and improved the detectives scores too (up 47%) Individual-some detectives are better at interviewing than others
Situation - Memon and Higham-CR is the best part of the CI
