Cognitive explanations of criminal behaviour

Question 1

What is the original study by Kohlberg

Answer 1

That there are 3 levels of reasoning
Level 1 = preconventional reasoning (action is morally wrong if act is punished, right behaviour = best interest)
Level 2 = conventional reasoning (right behaviour = other people think +vely of you)
Level 3 postconventional reasoning (right course of action that promotes greatest good for all greatest number of people)

Question 2

What were Kohlberg’s et al findings 1973

Answer 2

Found criminals have a lower level of moral reasoning than others
Criminals do not progress from the pre-conventional level of moral reasoning - they seek to avoid punishment and gain rewards and have child-lime reasoning
Non-criminals tend to reason at higher levels and sympathise with the rights of others, exhibiting honesty, generosity and non-violence (post-conventional moral reasoning)

Question 3

What is hostile attribution bias

Answer 3

Attribution = what we think we observe someone’s actions and inferring what their actions mean
Attribution bias = when someone has a leaning towards always thinking the worst. In the case of criminals, such as -ve interpretations can be linked to their aggressive or violent behaviour
Offenders misinterpret social cues and justify their actions by attributing cause to victim

Question 4

What is hostile faces
Wegryzen et al 2017

Answer 4

62 males - 30 violent crimes. 15 history of sexual abuse in children and 17 controls
Shown 20 ambiguous faces: 10 male and 10 female and asked rate fear and anger
Violent criminals = shown to have a hostile attribution bias as they rated the faces as angry more often than control and sexual abuse victims