cognitive distortions

Question 1

cognitive distortions

Answer 1

irrational way of thinking that means we perceive many things as negatively

Question 2

hostile attribution bias

Answer 2

• the tendency to judge ambiguous situations or actions of others as aggressive and threatening when in reality they may not be
• offenders may misread non-aggressive cues and this may trigger an often violent response

Question 3

columbine 1999

Answer 3

• harris and kledbold shot and killed a number of their fellow students
• described their acts as revenge for bullying, female rejection and public humiliation

Question 4

schönenberg and aiste

Answer 4

• 55 violent offender with images of emotionally ambigious facial expressions
• when compared with a non-ambiguos control group, the violent offender were significantly more likely to perceive the images as angry and hostile

Question 5

minimilisation

Answer 5

• a type of deception that involves downplaying the significance of an event or emotions; common stratergy for dealing with feelings of guilt

Question 6

kennedy and grubin

Answer 6

• found that sex offender accounts of their crimes often downplayed their behaviour. the offenders suggested that the victims behaviour contribution in some way to the crime and even denied it had been committed

Question 7

practical application

Answer 7

• understanding cognitive distortions that cause criminality could yield effecrive ways to reduce criminal behaviour and prevent recidivism
• cbt could reduce minimalisation by helping understand how serious their actions are
• to reduce HAB by challenging the though process

Question 8

limited application

Answer 8

• many types of crime that cognitive distortions dont explain well
• easy to see how HAB could lead to implusive violence
• but hard to see how this bias could explain planned violences such as pre-meditated murder
• only explains some crime and not others