Forensics - Psychological explanations

Question 1

What are the 4 psychological explanations for offending behaviour?

Answer 1

• Eysenck’s criminal personality theory
• Cognitive explanations: moral reasoning and cognitive distortions
• Differential association theory
• Psychodynamic explanations

Question 2

What is Eysenck’s general personality theory?

Answer 2

Behaviour could be represented along two dimensions: introversion/extraversion (E) and neuroticism/stability (N). They combine to form a variety of personality traits.

Question 3

What 3 features did Ersenck say together made up the criminal personality?

Answer 3

Neuroticism, extraversion and psychoticism.

Question 4

What are the biological nervous systems of extraverts and neurotics like?

Answer 4

Extraverts: Have an underactive nervous system, so constantly seek excitement, stimulation and are likely to engage in risk-taking behaviours and do not learn from their mistakes.

Neurotics: Tend to be nervous, jumpy and over-anxious and their general instability means their behaviour is often difficult to predict.

Question 5

What is the role of socialisation that Ersenck theorised?

Answer 5

The type of nervous system a person develops can make them hard to condition so they never become properly socialised.

Question 6

In what way is criminal behaviour immature?

Answer 6

Selfish and concerned with immediate gratification - impatient.
In the usual process of socialisation in a child, they are taught to be able to delay gratification and be more socially orientated.

Question 7

What scale tests somebody’s personality?

Answer 7

Eysenck’s Personality Inventory (EPI)
‘E’ score measures how extravert you are
‘N’ score measures how neurotic you are
‘Lie’ score measures how socially desirable you are

Question 8

What are the strengths of Eysenck’s Criminal Personality Theory?

Answer 8

• The methodology of the EPI questionnaire

- Research support for the explanation

Question 9

Why is the methodology of the EPI questionnaire a strength?

Answer 9

• Lie scale reveals when a person is responding to with social desirability bias
• Full, clear instructions so answers from participants are correct
• Questions are mixed up so this reduces demand characteristics
• Forced choice answer options give more useful data, no ‘I don’t knows’
• Questions are in both directions so balances out acquiescence bias (agreeing to something even if it’s not true)

These mean that internal validity is high for the EPI and the theory

Question 10

What research supports Eysenck’s Criminal Personality Theory as an explanation of offending behaviour?

Answer 10

• Eysenck and Eysenck
• Studied over 2000 male prisoners and over 2000 male controls
• They measured them on E, N and P
• Found that criminals were higher on all 3
• This suggests the theory is valid
• However, Farrington reviewed several studies and found criminals were higher on only P

Question 11

What are the limitations of Eysenck’s Criminal Personality Theory?

Answer 11

• The inventory is based on the assumptions that ‘personality’ is stable and measurable
• The explanation may be oversimplified

Question 12

Why is EPI being based on the assumptions that ‘personality’ is stable and measurable a limitation?

Answer 12

• Mischel argues ‘personality’ does not exist - we change the way we behave according to the situation and from day to day.
• By self-report, bias will affect accuracy (lie scale will detect this but then that data isn’t useful). Also, the scores are ordinal level data as the points on the scale are not mathematically related.

Question 13

Why is EPI being based on the assumptions that ‘personality’ is stable and measurable a limitation?

Answer 13

• Mischel argues ‘personality’ does not exist - we change the way we behave according to the situation and from day to day.
• By self-report, bias will affect accuracy (lie scale will detect this but then that data isn’t useful). Also, the scores are ordinal level data as the points on the scale are not mathematically related.

Question 14

Why may the explanation of Eysenck’s Criminal Personality Theory for offending behaviour be oversimplified?

Answer 14

Digman says there are at least 5 personality factors including extraversion and neuroticism, as well as agreeableness (altruism, nurturing), conscientiousness and openness to new ideas.
So high E and N alone will not necessarily result in offending.

Question 15

What is level of moral reasoning?

Answer 15

Idea that offenders may be different to non-offenders in terms of their moral development.

Question 16

Explain Kohlberg’s study on level of moral reasoning.

Answer 16

• 72 Chicago boys (7-16) were interviewed, some were followed up to 3-yearly intervals for 20 years
• Each boy was given a 2-hour interview based on the 10 dilemmas
• Kohlberg was mainly interested in the reasons for the decisions, and the reasons tended to change as the children got older
• The theory is that people can only pass through these levels in the order listed at a biologically appropriate time. Kohlberg believed not everyone would achieve all the stages
• Kohlberg found that criminals usually do no progress beyond pre-conventional morality. This explains why someone would offend because they will be motivated to offend for selfish reasons and with no thought for how others might be affected

Question 17

What are the 3 levels of moral development?

Answer 17

Level 1 - Pre-conventional morality
Level 2 - Conventional morality
Level 3 - Post-conventional morality

Question 18

What is pre-conventional morality?

Answer 18

• Most 9-year-olds and younger
• Don’t have personal code of morality
• Moral code is shaped by the standards of adults and consequences of following or breaking rules
• Obedience and punishment: the child is good in order to avoid being punished
• Personal gain: children do what is right for personal reward

Question 19

What is conventional morality?

Answer 19

• Most adolescents and adults
• We internalise moral standards of valued adult role models
• Authority is internalised but not questioned and reasoning is based on norms of the group
• Interpersonal relationships: the individual is good in order to be seen as being a good person by others
• Maintaining the Social Order: the individual becomes aware of wider rules of society so judgements concern obeying rules in order to uphold the law and avoid guilt

Question 20

What is post-conventional morality?

Answer 20

• Only 10-15% of people are capable of the kind of abstract thinking necessary for this level
• Social rules vs personal rights: the individual becomes aware that while rules might exist for the good of society, there are times when they will work against the interest of the individual
• Universal ethical principles: people at this stage have developed their own set of moral guidelines which may or may not fit the law eg. human rights, justice and equality

Question 21

What are the strengths of levels of moral reasoning as an explanation for offending?

Answer 21

• Colby and Kohlberg found the sequence of stages to be universal in a review of 45 studies in 27 countries: this supports generalising
• Palmer and Hollin used the Socio-Moral Reflection Measure based on Kohlberg’s work, but using a scale rather than dilemmas, they compared offenders and non-offenders and offender group scored lower on moral reasoning: this supports Kohlberg’s theory that the moral reasoning of offenders is lower than non-offenders
• Offending Motivation Questionnaire with offenders, 38% stated they did not consider the consequences of their actions, 36% were confident they would not be caught, this shows pre-conventional morality

Question 22

What is the limitation of levels of moral reasoning as an explanation for offending?

Answer 22

American feminist psychologist suggested the theory focuses on a male perspective of morality - one of justice rather than caring, meaning the research is androcentric.
It is subjective that there is more to moral reasoning than an idea of law and justice.

Question 23

What are the two cognitive distortions to explain offending behaviour?

Answer 23

• Hostile attribution bias

- Minimalisation

Question 24

What is hostile attribution bias?

Answer 24

• Perceiving other people’s neutral or behaviour as being due to hostility
• They will assume that another person has an intention to harm them because normal behaviours are perceived as hostile and aggressive
• Hostile attribution bias may be associated with offending behaviour because they may behave aggressively in retaliation

Question 25

What is minimalisation?

Answer 25

• Perceiving something as less than it is - in importance, impact, ect
• Minimalising the impact of their crime may in turn reduce guilt
• This will make offenders more likely to keep committing crimes

Question 26

What are the strengths of hostile attribution bias as an explanation for offending behaviour?

Answer 26

• Schonenburg and Justyle studied 55 violent offenders matched with non-violent controls. They showed them a series of faces with ambiguous facial expressions. The violent offenders were significantly more likely than controls to perceive the images as angry and hostile. This supports the idea that offenders are more likely to show HAB.
• Other studies show that this bias starts in childhood: one study showed children video clips of ‘ambiguous provocation’ where the intent was neither clearly hostile nor accidental. Those children who had been identified as aggressive interpreted the intention as more hostile than controls. It shows an association between being aggressive and hostile attribution bias.

Question 27

What are the strengths of minimalisation as an explanation for offending behaviour?

Answer 27

• Barbaree found that minimalisation was used particularly by sexual offenders; 54% denied offence, 40% minimised the harm they had done to the victim.
• CBT can be used to challenge the distorted thinking of offenders; Heller et al found 13 hours of CBT given to sex offenders reduced re-arrest by 44%.

Question 28

What is Differential Association Theory?

Answer 28

• Theory that offending is learnt like any other behaviour
• Sutherland: Through interactions with others, individuals learn the values, attitudes, techniques and motives for criminal behaviours

Question 29

How is criminal learning learnt in intimate personal groups?

Answer 29

• Learning attitudes towards crime; person acquires a set of pro and anti-crime attitudes
• If their pro-crime attitudes outweigh anti-crime attitudes they will commit crime
• Learning techniques for committing crime, such as picking locks, disable car alarms or shoplift without being detected

Question 30

What are the strengths of differential association as an explanation for offending?

Answer 30

• Explanatory power: offenders learn from fellow inmates in prisons, explains re-offending
• Supporting evidence: compared sons of convicted criminal and non-criminal fathers, 40% of sons of criminals had committed a crime by age 18 compared to 13% of sons of non-criminals (however, may be genetics)
• Supporting evidence: studied 411 boys from South London from age 8 to 50, 41% of participants were convicted of at least one crime and one of the biggest risk factors was family criminality (however, could be genetics or maltreatment)
• Supporting evidence: investigated underage drinking and marijuana use in teenagers, differential peer association was the single most important variable

Question 31

What are the limitations of differential association as an explanation for offending?

Answer 31

• Theory doesn’t account for all types of crime; more violent and impulsive crimes such as rape and murder may be less well explained by the theory. These crimes are extreme, committed alone and in secret so others are much less likely to have an influence
• Theory takes no account of biological factors; we inherit our genes from our parents and also learn from them, this can’t be separated and to ignore biology means the explanation lacks validity

Question 32

What are the two psychodynamic explanations of offending behaviour?

Answer 32

• Freud’s theory of inadequate superego

- Maternal deprivation

Question 33

What are the 3 inadequate superegos?

Answer 33

• Weak superego: a child who does not identify with their same sex parent at the resolution of the Oedipus complex won’t internalise their morals and so will have a weak superego
• Deviant superego: Identification with a deviant (criminal) parent leads tp deviant attitudes on the part of the child
• Over-harsh superego: Over-identification with a strict parent would lead to an over-harsh superego. An individual would commit a crime so he would be caught and give the punishment the superego craves

Question 34

Why did Freud believe that women would develop a weaker superego than men?

Answer 34

• Less anxiety during the phallic stage so less pressure to identify with same sex parent
• Little reason for anyone to want to identify with their mother, a low status woman

Question 35

Why is maternal deprivation an explanation of offending behaviour?

Answer 35

Maternal deprivation is a disruption of the attachment bond and loss of the emotional care usually provided by the primary caregiver.
Bowlby suggested affectionless pyschopathy, delinquency and low IQ would result.
Bowlby theorised that disrupted relationship in infancy could lead to unconscious reasons for behaviour and poor outcomes (offending) in adult life.

Question 36

Why is the fact that the superego explanation lacks supporting evidence a limitation?

Answer 36

• Lack of evidence that children raised without a same sex parent fail to develop a conscience.
• Deviant parents may influence their children’s offending by genetics of social learning instead.
• Most offenders go to great lengths to avoid detection and punishment, suggesting the desire for punishment is an implausible idea.

This lack of support suggests the theory may not be valid.

Question 37

Why is the fact that the superego explanation has gender bias a limitation?

Answer 37

Freud believed that women would develop a weaker superego than men. This means more women than men should be criminals.
But evidence shows that women are not more likely to be criminals than men. This suggests the explanation lacks validity.

Question 38

Why is the fact that Bowlby’s maternal deprivation research could lead to interventions a strength?

Answer 38

Eg. mother and baby units in prisons, parental rooms in hospitals which can prevent maternal deprivation and therefore affectionless psychopathy and delinquency.
This will have an effect on reducing crime, so is a useful application.

Question 39

How are there methodological limitations to Bowlby’s study?

Answer 39

The data was gathered RETROSPECTIVELY
Participants were handpicked by him; the study was not blinded.
Bias may have affected the results of the 44 thieves study. As the theory is based on this study the explanation itself may lack validity.

Question 40

Why is lack of supporting evidence a limitation for maternal deprivation explanation?

Answer 40

Lewis - interviewed 500 young people
Found no evidence of a link between maternal deprivation and offending.
The lack of support indicates the theory may lack validity.