CB individual difference explanations Flashcards

Question

evidence to support personality being fixed weakness of Id explanation 1 for CB eysenck

Answer 1

Mischel has supported the situational theory with research. research is asked family friends and strangers to rate 63 students in a variety of situations and found almost no correlation between the traits they've displayed in different environments. Any regularity of behaviour is likely to be due to the fact that we tend to often find ourselves in similar situation.

Answer 2

this means that the notion of a criminal personality is ultimately flawed as it is too simplistic to suggest that people have just one personality.

Answer 3

an additional floor for this perspective on criminality is that the score or label given to any person depends on the answers they provide on a personality questionnaire such as the EPQ. When respondent answers the questionnaire they respond to the demands of the questionnaire they also select traits which apply to them but they responsive may not reflect reality. For example, consider the question 'are you rather lively?' the most people that answer is probably sometimes, but the questionnaire forces the participants to select between yes or no. In addition participants may favourite so socially desirable answer in order to come across as socially acceptable in eyes of the researcher.

Answer 4

moral development

Answer 5

developed theory of moral reasoning through interview and Boyz II Men about the reasons for the moral decisions using a set of dilemmas (including the Heinz dilemma) as a result Covid constructed a stage theory of moral development with each stage represented a more advanced level of moral understanding with more logically consistent and morally mature judgements being made.

Answer 6

according to Colbert people progressed through these stages as a result of their biological maturation and through their experiences which allow them to develop their thinking, e.g. becoming increasingly aware of the perspectives of others.

Answer 7

in a longitudinal study Kohlberg found that's about 10% of adults reach the postconventional level which means that the most common level of moral understanding is the conventional level. Adults at this stage of males development who break the law would feel that the behaviour was justified e.g. because it helps maintain relationships makes up breaking the law to protect a member of His/ her family or to protect other people.

Answer 8

worrying the most criminals are likely to be at the preconventional level (Hollin et al.) they believe breaking the law is justified if the rewards outweigh the cost and punishment can be avoided.

Answer 9

this fits in with the 'age of criminal responsibility'. In England and Wales children under the age of 10 cannot be charged with the crime because it is believed that they don't have any concept of moral responsibility i.e. they were thought to be at the pre-conventional level where they judge write them wrong only in terms of consequences rather than any principles of morality.

Answer 10

an initial strength of the length between Kohlberg's theory of moral development and the criminal behaviour can be seen in the research evidence of available.

Answer 11

use their offending motivation questionnaire to assess 128 male juvenile offenders. They found that 38% did not consider the consequences of what they were doing and 36% were confident that they would not be caught.

Answer 12

it's suggest the individuals in the research at the preconventional level of moral reasoning because they believe that breaking the law is justified if the reward outweigh the costs and punishment can be avoided. suggesting the connection between moral reasoning and criminal activity can be confirmed and so it appears valid

Answer 13

A major weakness of Kohlbergs research is that it is gender biased. this weakness was put forward by Gilligan . Kohlbergs Siri is based on principles of justice where is Gilligan argued that women operate quite a different sense of moral principles, 'an ethic of care' it is likely that Kohlbergs scheme was biased towards male morality because the early participants were all males. This bias might explain why Kohlberg claimed that women were less morally developed than males, women would be measured against a male created standard.

Answer 14

Gilligan interview 20 women who are deciding whether or not to have an abortion. (a real life moral dilemma) she followed this up with the interviews with the further 80 men and women, all based on real moral dilemmas instead of hypothetical ones. she found that men and women's morals were different. Most women focused on care based morals but men focused on justice based morals.

Answer 15

this suggests that we can only use Kohlbergs theory to explain why men commit crimes (lack of moral reasoning) but we cannot use the same measure to explain why women commit crimes therefore the theory is flawed.