Criminality- Individual differences: Cognitive Flashcards
What are the two cognitive distortions? Explain.
Hostile attribution bias- negative interpretations about how others think of you/feel towards you, which leads to aggressive behaviour.
Minimalisation- consequences of an action are over or under exaggerated. Some criminals explain how an offender may reduce negative interpretation of their behaviour, helping criminal to accept their behaviour.
What is a cognitive distortion?
A form of irrational thinking where reality has become so twisted that what is perceived no longer represents reality.
What is level of moral reasoning? How does it link to offending behaviour?
Kohlberg (1969) proposed 3 levels of moral reasoning which represents deeper moral understanding at each stage.
In a longitudinal study, found 10% of adults reach post-conventional level, meaning the most common in the conventional level. Adults at this stage would break the law if they felt their behaviour was justified.
Why are most criminals thought to be at the pre-conventional level? (Hollin 2002)
They believe breaking the law is justified if the rewards outweigh punishment/costs.
What is the research support for hostile attribution bias?
Schönenberg & Aiste (2014) found offenders were more likely to interpret pictures with any expression of anger as an expression of aggression when shown multiple emotions.
They concluded that such misinterpretation of nonverbal cues may explain aggressive-impulsive behaviour.
What is the research support for minimalisation?
Kennedy & Grubin (1992) found sex offenders often downplayed their behaviour. (victims fault in some way)
What is the research support for level of moral reasoning?
Chen & Howitt (2007) found offenders who showed more advanced reasoning were less likely to be in violent crimes.
Sigurdsson (2007) found 38% of criminals did not consider consequences and 36% were confident in not being caught.
What are the limitations of Kohlberg’s theory? (3)
-Krebs & Denton (2005) suggest moral principles are only one factor in moral behaviour and can be overridden by practical factors (like financial gain).
-Also found that moral principles were used to justify behaviour after it had happened.
-Kohlberg’s research only conducted on males.
