History of Applied/Forensic Psychology

Question 1

Criminology

Answer 1

The study of crime

Question 2

Forensic Psychology

Answer 2

The study of psychology as applied to the law.

Devoted to psychological aspects of legal processes in courts. The term is also often used to refer to investigative and criminological psychology.

1. Understanding psychological problems associated with criminal behaviour treatment of and interventions with offenders.
2. Applying psychological theory to criminal investigation.
3. Legal decision making

Question 3

Forensic Psychology definition (Monahan and Loftus, 1982)

Answer 3

All psychology is relevant to substantive law since any aspect of human behaviour may be the subject of legal regulation.

Question 4

Forensic Psychology definition (Goldstein, 2003)

Answer 4

Involves the application of psychological research methods theory and practice and traditional and specialised methodology to provide information relevant to a legal question.

Question 5

Forensic Psychology definition (Howitt, 2018)

Answer 5

Forensic Psychology is psychology applied to the work of courts of law

Question 6

Forensic Practice definition (Blackburn, 1993)

Answer 6

The provision of psychological information for the purpose of facilitating a legal decision

Question 7

Expert Witness

Answer 7

Ability to testify at court hearings

Question 8

Clinical assessments

Answer 8

Mental state of person involved in legal proceedings: at time of offence, at court appearance, at sentencing. Diminished responsibility = reflected in sentence

Question 9

Experimental

Answer 9

Studies to substantiate testimony

Question 10

Actuarial

Answer 10

Probability or likelihood

Question 11

Advisory

Answer 11

Examine evidence, for example analysis of interview

Question 12

Jimmy Saville Case Study

Answer 12

450 victims
214 substantive crimes recorded
34 rapes
5 decades of offending
Age range 8 to 74
73% children or young people
82% female

Question 13

Wilhelm Wundt

Answer 13

Considered the be ‘the’ founding father of psychology
Medically trained physiologist
Studied conscious experience, sensation, and perception (introspection, structuralism)
Laboratory-based research (Leipzig, 1879)
1873 - published the first psychology text, Principles of Physiological Psychology
Trained hundreds of researchers including Cattell and Munsterberg

Question 14

When did ‘applied psychology’ first emerge?

Answer 14

Hugo Munsterberg is generally credited for being the founder of applied psychology
Benjamin (2007) says that applied psychology always existed
Munsterberg published a manifesto on psychology’s role in the justice system called On The Witness Stand: Essays on Psychology and Crime.

Question 15

Munsterberg false memory experiments

Answer 15

Münsterberg presented psychology students with a piece of white cardboard with 50 black squares on it. When asked how many squares there were, the answers ranged from 25 to 200.

Question 16

Buckhout (1974)

Answer 16

Staged an assault on a university campus and then asked bystanders to pick the guilty through a line-up.
60% did not correctly identify the assailant, 2/3 incorrectly chose an innocent bystander who was at the crime scene

Question 17

Conclusions of Munsterberg

Answer 17

Every witness is subjective, and he called for empiricism over common sense especially in courts.

Question 18

Root of individual differences

Answer 18

Phrenology (feeling for head bumps and judging personality) popular in 18th and 19th century
Founded by Franz Gall (1758-1828)

Question 19

Cattell (1860-1944)

Answer 19

Contributed to improving psychology as a science (Benjamin, 2007)
Background in cognitive psychology. Proposed that ‘simple mental processes’ underline intelligence
Work was the original seed of forensic psychology, although eventually replaced by Binet’s IQ testing battery and disproven by Clark Wissler

Question 20

How is forensic psychology applied psychology?

Answer 20

Forensic psychology is applied to the courtroom and legal processes.

Question 21

William Stern (1871-1938)

Answer 21

Coined the term IQ ‘the degree of reactive, general intelligence, that means the capacity to handle definite objectivity determined tasks for thinking’

Question 22

Psychopathology

Answer 22

Early work on abnormality was referred to as hysteria
Considered a ‘female problem’ relating to the restless movements of the womb
Diagnosis of hysteria originated from the work of Jean-Martin Charcot (1825-1893)
Was chief physician at first psychiatric hospital opened in 1879 that held only women

Question 23

Freud (1856-1939)

Answer 23

Conducted studies on hysteria in 1895.
Proposed the concept of the unconscious and its role in psychopathology
The unconscious is made up of cognitive, affective and motivational processes which impact on our behaviour

Question 24

Ego psychology

Answer 24

Abnormality is determined by unconscious conflicts between personal impulses and social rules

Question 25

Defence mechanisms

Answer 25

Employed by the who to relieve unpleasant emotional problems which occur when the unconscious desires of the id approach consciousness

Question 26

Schug and Fradella (2015)

Answer 26

Variants of psychoanalytic theory were applied to understand phobias, OCD and personality pathologies.
Maladaptive unconscious processes lead to criminal behaviour
Oedipus complex - guilt - criminal behaviour engaged in to relieve the feelings of guilt
Other unconscious motivational processes include overcompensation for sense of inferiority and a need to be caught and protected

Question 27

The death instinct (Schug and Fradella, 2015)

Answer 27

An unconscious aggressive drive and thus could underpin aggressive behaviour

Question 28

Narcissistic injury (Schug and Fradella, 2015)

Answer 28

A threat to one’s sense of self where the person responds with rage and aggression

Question 29

John Bowlby (1907-1990)

Answer 29

Drew on psychoanalytic principles and theorised that early childhood experience is key