Forensic

Question 1

What are the two main types of cognitive explanations for offending behaviour

Answer 1

Cognitive distortions and level of moral reasoning

Question 2

What are cognitive distortions

Answer 2

Thinking that has a bias such that what is perceived by a person does not match reality

Question 3

What is moral reasoning

Answer 3

Thinking in a consistent and logical way about right and wrong, with reference to socially agreed principles

Question 4

What are the two types of cognitive distortions

Answer 4

Hostile attribution bias and minimalisation

Question 5

What is hostile attribution bias

Answer 5

A tendency towards negative interpretations of someone else’s behaviour; may lead to increased aggression

Question 6

What is minimalisation

Answer 6

Under exaggerating the importance of what you have done; helps the offender avoid feeling responsibility so will not consider the bad outcomes of their actions

Question 7

What is the research support for hostile attribution bias (Evaluation)

Answer 7

Schonberg and Aiste (2014) showed emotionally ambiguous faces to 55 violent offenders and found they were more likely to interpret the face as aggressive than the controls

Question 8

What is the research support for minimalisation (Evaluation)

Answer 8

Kennedy and Grubin (1992) found that sex offenders typically downplayed their roles in their crimes

Question 9

What is the real world application of cognitive distortions (Evaluation)

Answer 9

CBT can reduce judgement and decision making errors in offenders; one study led to a 44% reduction in arrests (Heller et al.)

Question 10

Who had the theory of moral reasoning

Answer 10

Kohlberg (1969)

Question 11

What are the tree levels to the theory of moral reasoning

Answer 11

Pre-conventional, conventional and post-conventional

Question 12

What do the three stages of moral reasoning reflect

Answer 12

Progressively more logically consistent and mature form of moral thinking

Question 13

What did Colby et al. (1963) find

Answer 13

That 105 of adults reach post-conventional level; an offender at this level might break the law for a matter of principle

Question 14

What level are most criminals at

Answer 14

Pre-conventional level

Question 15

How do most criminals at the pre-conventional level justify crime

Answer 15

For them the rewards will outweigh the costs

Question 16

Who provided research support for the developmental sequence and universal sequence (Evaluation)

Answer 16

Colby et al.

Question 17

Who performed supporting research of offender at level 1 (Evaluation)

Answer 17

Gudjonsson and Sigurdsson

Question 18

What did Chen and Howitt find as supporting research to the theory (Evaluation)

Answer 18

Offenders who had more advanced levels of reasoning were less likely to commit crimes

Question 19

What is a criticism of Kohlberg’s theory (Evaluation)

Answer 19

Moral principles are used to justify behaviour but do not explain the cause of it.
Also the theory is based on the male perspective of justice and not one of caring

Question 20

What is the real world application of Kohlberg’s theory (Evaluation)

Answer 20

Cluster schools can encourage moral discussions which foster moral development