L6 - Cognitive Explanations

Question 1

What are cognitive distortions?

Answer 1

• Cognitive distortions are faulty and irrational ways of thinking that make people perceive themselves, other people and the world inaccurately, and often negatively.

Question 2

Moral reasoning

Answer 2

• Kohlberg (1973) proposed that the quality of people’s judgments of right and wrong can be summarised by a stage theory of moral development.
• the process by which an individual draws upon there own value system to decide what’s right/wrong

Question 3

How does moral reasoning affect criminal behaviour?

Answer 3

• studies show criminals have lower levels of moral reasoning to non-criminals
• Offenders are more likely to have their moral reasoning classified at the pre- conventional level.
• This means that a person is punishment orientated
  (reasoning based on whether or not the act will lead to punishment) and reward orientated (reasoning based on what can be gained).
• This is immature reasoning which typically lasts from ages 3-7. Teenagers and adults who still reason in this way may commit crime if they can get away with it and/or gain rewards (money, respect etc.).

Question 4

Levels of moral reasoning

Answer 4

1 - pre-conventional - individual shows concern for self-interest & external rewards & punishments
2 - conventional - individual does what is expected of them by others
3 - post-conventional - individual shows concern for self-interest & external rewards & punishments

Question 5

Evaluation of moral reasoning

Answer 5

+ Palmer and Hollin (1998) compared moral reasoning between 210 female non- offenders, 122 male non-offenders and 126 convicted offenders using 11 moral dilemmas, such as not taking things that belong to others. The offenders showed less mature moral reasoning than the non-offenders.

• The level of moral reasoning may depend on the type of offence. Thornton and Reid (1982) found that individuals who committed crimes for financial gain, such as robbery, were more likely to show pre conventional reasoning than those convicted of impulsive crimes (such as assault), where no reasoning was evident

Question 6

Cognitive distortions

Answer 6

An offender’s biased/dysfunctional thinking about their offence serves to help them legitimise their behaviour and maintain a positive self-image

Question 7

Hostile attribution bias

Answer 7

• when offender’s misinterpt social cues and justify
  their actions to themselves by attributing the cause of their offence to their victim.
• An unprovoked act is justified on the grounds that the victim did something to initiate the violence. Offenders tend to judge ambiguous situations, or the actions of others, as aggressive and/or
  threatening when in reality they are not.
• They may misread non-aggressive cues as aggressive and this may trigger a disproportionate, often violent, response

Question 8

Minimalisation

Answer 8

• when offenders justify their offence to themselves by playing down the significance of their actions.
• They may suggest that injuries inflicted in a vicious assault were mild. This bias acts to reduce an offender’s feeling of guilt.
• Offenders often use euphemisms for their offences, e.g. a burglar may say they have been ‘doing a job’. Sex offenders are in particular prone to
  minimalisation

Question 9

Evaluation of Cognitive Distortions

Answer 9

strengths
- treatment of criminal behaviour
weaknesses
- can’t be observed/measured
- don’t know source
- don’t know initial cause
- explains aggressive behaviour

Question 10

Treatment of criminal behaviour

Answer 10

• Understanding the nature of cognitive distortions has proven beneficial in the treatment of criminal behaviour.
• The dominant approach in the rehabilitation of
  sex offenders is cognitive behavioural therapy. This encourages offenders to ‘face up’ to what they have done and establish a less distorted view of their
  actions.
• A reduced incidence of cognitive distortions in therapy is highly correlated with a reduced risk of offending

Question 11

Explains aggressive behaviour

Answer 11

• Hostile attribution bias can explain reactive aggressive behaviour better than pre-medicated and planned aggression.

Question 12

Doesn’t explain initial cause

Answer 12

• Minimalisation can describe how an offender rationalises/interprets their actions after the even but does not necessarily explain the initial cause of the offending.

Question 13

Doesn’t explain source of thoughts

Answer 13

• One key failing with the cognitive approach is that, whilst it explains thinking, it cannot account for the source of these thoughts.
• Are people born with cognitive distortions (nature) or are they the result of trauma (nurture)?

Question 14

Can’t observe/measure cognitive distortions

Answer 14

• Cognitive distortions cannot be observed or measured.
• Psychologists have to rely on self-report or their own inferences to determine what someone is
  thinking. This means the cognitive explanation of criminal behaviour is not scientific