Cognitive explainations

Question 1

Kohlberg’s levels of moral reasoning

Answer 1

A stage theory of individual moral development, presented people with vignettes and looked at how they reached their decision.

Question 2

The overarching stages

Answer 2

Pre-conventional morality, conventional morality, post-conventional morality.

Question 3

List the stages in order

Answer 3

1. doing what is right for fear of punishment
2. doing what is right for personal gain
3. doing what is right to be a good person
4. doing what is right to help society
5. doing what is right because the law is too restrictive
6. doing what is right because we have unconsciously absorbed justice and equality.

Question 4

What did Kohlberg predict

Answer 4

Lower levels of moral reasoning for offenders as they are concerned with punishment avoidance and gaining rewards.

Question 5

What does blackburn suggest

Answer 5

The reason for poorer moral development in delinquents may be due to a lack of roleplay in childhood so they are more egocentric.

Question 6

What is teh issue with people who are more egocentric

Answer 6

They cannot empathise as well

Question 7

What did chandlar find

Answer 7

Delinquent youths are more egocentric than non delinquent controls. An intervention of role play promoting empathy reduced delinquent behaviour

Question 8

Support for Kohlberg

Answer 8

Suporting evidence- Palmer and Hollin- 126 offenders compared to control of non-offenders and found less developed reasoning in offenders.

Question 9

Limitations

Answer 9

Culture bias- Collectivist cultures will likely stop at stage 4 which suggests the theory is not universal
Gender bias- Alpha bias- Only used boys but concluded they were more advanced than girls at moral reasoning- palmer and hollin found no difference.

Question 10

Cognitive distortions

Answer 10

Errors in information processing due to faulty, negative schema.

Question 11

Hostile attribution bias

Answer 11

Misinterpreting other peoples actions by incorrectly assuming they are confrontonal and misreading non-aggressive cues. results in a disproportionate response

Question 12

Hostile atribution bias - dodge and frame

Answer 12

Dodge and Frame- showed children a video of an ambiguous provocation, children previously catagories as aggressive were more likely to identify the children as hostile (cause and effect?)

Question 13

Hostile attribution bias strength- Schinenberg and Justye

Answer 13

55 violent offenders shown emotionally ambiguous faces and were more likely to classify as angry and hostile than controls.

Question 14

Minimisation

Answer 14

Downplaying the severity of an offence to try justify the behaviour- most common in sex offences

Question 15

Minimisation support- Barbaree

Answer 15

26 jailed rapists, 54% denied committing an offence, 40% tried to minimise harm caused.

Question 16

Minimisation support- Pollock and Hashmall

Answer 16

35% of sample all child molesters believed their crime was non-sexual and said they were being affectionate