criminal psychology Flashcards

Question

why are extrovert neurotics more likely to be anti social

Answer 1

extraverts are natural reward seekers which makes them less receptive to operant conditioning and less affected by punishment for wrongdoing neuroticism can interfere with efficient learning which may relate to a difficulty taking on social rules

Answer 2

mischel pointed out that peoples behaviour is not consistent across different contexts but is instead situation specific people react to the environmental cues around at the time rather than being guided by an inner self which is consistent across different places at different times

Answer 3

Boduszek investigated prevalence of eysencks personality traits among recidivists - 133 violent and 179 non violent offenders studied Boduszek suggested that criminal thinking style is correlated with high levels of psychoticism, extraversion and neuroticism - suggests eysenkcs theory has external validity

Answer 4

evidence for criminal personality is not conclusive - farrington found very little evidence that eysencks questionnaire was adequate for predicting offending - suggests eysencks original ideas about criminal personality lack validity

Answer 5

the idea that there is only one type of criminal personality more resent models have challenged eysencks e.g. the five factor model in which openness, conscientciousness and agreeableness are added low levels of agreeableness and conscientiousness are related to offending other researchers also suggested impulsivity suggests criminal personality may be more complicated than eysenck thought

Answer 6

that criminal personality may be related to nervous system activity raine took physiological measures from ppts ages 15 and those with a criminal record 24 yrs later had recorded more signs of underarousal in nervous system at 15 (such as lower resting hr) than non criminals - link between biological factors and offending

Answer 7

theory argues that criminal tendencies can be identified in childhood, e,g, lack of response to conditioning and inability to learn from mistakes

Answer 8

it integrates different ways of explaining behaviour it acknowledges genetic and physiological factors as well as individual differences in personality and the influence of early socialisation its a more integrated and interactionist approach to crime and recognises that crime is a complex social activity

Answer 9

method of interviewing that helps witnesses to produce a more accurate recall of a crime scene using psychological techniques

Answer 10

method of interviewing that acknowledges that suspects are human beings and are more likely to cooperate if treated with respect

Answer 11

-report everything -reinstate the context -reverse the order -change perspective

Answer 12

witness encouraged to report every single detail of the event even if it seems unimportant

Answer 13

witness asked to imagine all aspects of the crime scene e.g. what the weather was like , the time of day and how they felt - hoped that these context cues will trigger new information

Answer 14

witness describes what they saw in a different chronological order evdience suggests witnesses are then likely to give a truer account rather than relying on expectations on what they thought had occurred

Answer 15

theory of how we classify ourselves and others using labels which then defines that person in context of crime- a person may be labelled as deviant if they do not conform to rules powerful groups create

Answer 16

that poweful groups create deviance by making up rules and applying them to people they see as outsiders what counts as criminal behaviour only becomes so when labelled by others crime is a social construct

Answer 17

a prediction that directly or indirectly causes itself to become true , by the very existence of the prophecy itself , due to positive feedback between belief and behaviour example - labelled as deviant by society , they then come to see themselves in that way because of the stereotyped response from others to their label , making deviant behaviour more likely they may then seek support from other deviant people or subcultures further making deviance more likely

Answer 18

observational learning- criminal behaviour learnt indirectly by observation and imitation behaviour is attended to , recalled , has motivation and is capable vicarious reinforcement - criminal behaviour seen to be rewarded e.g. aquisition of money, status role models - young offenders may look up to role models e.g. parents , friends who are older in gangs etc as they the high level of respect and lifestyle they have

Answer 19

jahoda studied ashanti tribe of ghana boys named after day they were born - monday boys (Kwadwo) more even tempered compared to wednesday ( kwadku) who were more volatile and aggressive jahoda saw that kwadku boys were 3 times more likely to be involved in crime over a 5 year period

Answer 20

found that boys with a "baby face" were more likely than their mature faced peers to be involved in crime baby faced boys said to be overcompensating for the perception they may look weak or childlike rather than living up to the label

Answer 21

implies that without labelling crime wouldnt exist seems to suggest that someone who has commited an offence but has not been labelled is not a criminal - problematic most people would argue that serious offences such as murder are more than social contstructs and are bad whether labelled or not

Answer 22

although there have been many studies of labelling most have been confined to educational settings (e.g. rosenthal and jacobsen) maybe that student teacher relationship is a very particular one and this is very difficuly to repliacte at a societal level in the context of crime

Answer 23

braithwaite found societies have lower crime rates and reoffending rates when they communicate shame about crime effectivel disintegrative shaming demonises person and they ate likely to reject new way of life and return to old ways reintegrative shaming gives offender support and is helped back into society with guidanve

Answer 24

in the study primary school teachers were told a group of kids were gifted spurters and about to bloom (kids acc chosen at random ) at the end of the school year the "gifted" kids had improved their iq significantly more than standard kids