Lecture 1: Introductions

Question 1

What does a forensic psychologist do?

Answer 1

• 1-1 Assessments
• Develop, implement and review treatment rehabilitation programmes
• Research to evaluate situations affecting prisoners
• Deliver training to support staff
  *Provide expert eyewitness testimony in court
• Contribute to policy and strategy development to ensure improvement

Question 2

What is assessed in risk assessments?

Answer 2

Risk of:
reoffending
suicide
self harm
other high risk behaviour

Question 3

Examples of offender treatment rehabilitation programmes

Answer 3

Anger management
Drug and alcohol addiction
Social and cognitive skills training

Question 4

What do forensic psychologists research? (+ Examples)

Answer 4

Research anything to do with crime, criminals, prisons etc.
For example:
The impact of bullying on staff in prisons
Effectiveness of anger management programmes

Question 5

Examples of things forensic psychologists train prison staff to do?

Answer 5

Anger management
How to cope with understanding bullying in the prison
Techniques for crisis negotiation

Question 6

What is the public and professional view of criminal profilers?

Answer 6

Public and other professionals = strong belief in their effectiveness
86% of mental health professionals endorse that it is useful tool for law enforcement (Torres et al., 2006)

Question 7

Example of ‘ bad’ criminal profiling

Answer 7

October 2002, Washington = series of shooting over 23 days, left 10 people dead. Appeared random.
Consensus= male, white, worked alone, mid 20s, no military training, no children
Real = two people (age 41 and 17), African American, 4 children and former soldier

Question 8

Kocisis et al (2002): criminal profiling study design

Answer 8

Real murder cases.
Ppts given extensive background info on the case
Asked to evaluate aspects of the perpetrator (physical, cognitive, offence, social history and habits)
Ppts = profilers, homicide detectives, senior police, trainees, chemistry undergraduates

Question 9

Koscisis et al (2002) criminal profiling study results

Answer 9

People better than if no info given at all
Chemistry students consistently outperformed
No relationship with experience and accuracy

Question 10

Snook et al (2008) study and results: criminal profiling

Answer 10

Meta analysis of available studies to this time
Conclude: CP = pseudoscience

Question 11

Why do people believe in criminal profiling?

Answer 11

1. Physicians phallacy = only report when they go well
2. Barnum Effect = (cognitive bias) people pick out of parts of a profile that seem to fit even if they fit ‘everybody’ and ignore the details that do not much
3. Expertise heuristic - people believe training must do something to improve the accuracy of criminal profilers

Question 12

If criminal profiling doesnt work, what can forensic psychologists do that does help?

Answer 12

Try and understand why the person has committed the crime
Learn about the psychology behind violence throughout development
Can this info be used to develop prevention programmes?

Question 13

What assessment techniques do forensic psychologists use?

Answer 13

Interview
Psychometric tests
Projective tests
Objective tests (neuropsychology)
Physiological and neurophysiological tests

Question 14

What else needs to be considered during assessments?

Answer 14

Criminal records
Medical records - inc mental health
School and employment records
Other reports from professionals

Question 15

What is spoken about in clinical / forensic interviews?

Answer 15

Childhood attachments, attitudes, sexual fantasies

Question 16

Key features of clinical / forensic interviews:

Answer 16

Normally semi structured
There are particular standardised interviews for some diagnoses (e.g PCL-R)
Requires clinical skills

Question 17

What are the DIFFERENCES between a therapeutic assessment (clinical) and a forensic assessment?

Answer 17

Primary aim of therapeutic = treat presenting problems
Primary aim of forensic = report to the court on these problems and possible consequences of the problem
Client has a lot to gain from therapeutic but a lot to lose in forensic
Confidentiality - therapeutic assessment is mainly confidential, forensic mainly not

Question 18

What are the SIMILARITIES between a therapeutic assessment (clinical) and a forensic assessment?

Answer 18

Both seek to understand the current problems and behaviours
They may try to diagnose any mental health problems

Question 19

What is important in both clinical and forensic assessments?

Answer 19

Clinical skills
Form rapport to make sure client is aware they are trying to help them
If client is not open about why things have happened, cannot understand and help them in the future

Question 20

What clinical skills are required in assessments?

Answer 20

Opening statements - confidentiality, risk, note taking
Rapport
Nonverbal communication
Active listening skills
Summarising

Question 21

What are psychometric assessments?

Answer 21

Standard and scientific methods use to measure individuals mental capabilities and behavioural style

The tests that gain a score that have meaning - e.g. Becks Depression Inventory Score

Question 22

What are the key aspects of psychometric assessments?

Answer 22

Standardised (know what is normal and abnormal score)
Test-retest reliability
Can be used to track changes in symptoms

Question 23

What are examples of psychometric assessments?

Answer 23

IQ tests
Beck depression inventory
Impact of events scale (measures trauma)
Paulhaus Deception scale
Reactive and proactive aggression questionnaire
Multiphasic sex inventory
Personality tests

Question 24

What are projective tests?

Answer 24

Give a stimulus which is ambiguous - answers are used to infer underlying traits
Often used in children e.g give them a doll see what they do with it
Idea = project their behaviour onto the object

Question 25

What are some example of projective tests?

Answer 25

Rorschach test
Thematic apperception test
House-tree-person test

Question 26

Study evaluation of projective tests

Answer 26

Lilienfield et al (2000, 2001): meta-anlaysis = little support for their use and no more insight than simply asking the person

Question 27

How are neuropsychological assessments distinguished from others?

Answer 27

They are performance based

Question 28

What are some examples of neuropsychological assessments?

Answer 28

IQ: Weschler adult intelligence test (avg=100 - 1SD is 15 points away)
Memory: WMS-IV (used when there is a possible problem in memory)
Frontal lobe function (stroop, DKEFS) (many tests of EF = important in regulating behaviours)

Question 29

What are examples of physiological assessments?

Answer 29

Skin conductance response (SCR) - arousal
Pupillometry - arousal (sympathetic nervous system)
Heart rate
Corrugator (frown)
Genital response

Question 30

Burley, Gray and Snowden (2019) study (psychopathy + pupil dilation)

Answer 30

Method:
Examined pupil dilation to arousing and non-arousing pictures in a sample of male offenders
For most the pupil dilates to both positive and negative pictures

Results:
Those with high scores on psychopathy show reduced dilation to negative images and normal reaction to positive images

Conclusions:
Measures emotional processing, dysfunctional emotional processing in psychopaths

Question 31

What are some problems with assessments? (Honesty)

Answer 31

Honesty -
“Fake bad” e.g to pretend to have a mental illness to gain more lenient sentence (CALLED MALINGERING)

“Fake good” = hide thoughts, intentions - things that will hinder their process

As humans we are not good at spotting lies

Question 32

What are some problems with assessments? (Intelligence)

Answer 32

Have to be sure offenders can understand the question: people with learning disabilities / very low intelligence may not understand words used in assessment / cannot read or write

Question 33

What is the reference group effect? Heine et al., 2002

Answer 33

All people have to norm themselves
E.g people think I have a high opinion of myself = depends who is around them

Question 34

Describe Chesterman et al (2008) malingering study

Answer 34

Review of studies: malingered psychosis is not a rare condition, particularly in forensic populations.
Assessment of malingering in forensic settings should always be based on a range of recently developed instruments that evaluate cognitive as well as psychiatric symptoms

Question 35

How can psychologists tell that malingering has occurred?

Answer 35

Standard tests: (SIRS - structured interview of reported symptoms - identify rare symptoms, unusual symptom combinations, severity of symptoms etc to see if someone is lying)
Suggestibility = likelihood that malingerers will endorse symptoms they believe will make them appear mentally ill
Questionnaires with a lie scale: e.g paulhaus deception scale

Question 36

What are some malingering tests to tell if criminals are faking neuropsychological assessments?

Answer 36

Test of Memory Malingering (TOMM):
Present criminals a v difficult task (e.g remembering 50 pics) but it is acc really easy
Ask ppts to recall the pictures
When someone scores less than chance: it likely means that they know what the correct answer is and purposefully choose ones they know are wrong to make it look like they have poor memory

Question 37

What are lie detectors?

Answer 37

Polygraph
Takes a physiological responses (typically galvanic skin response) as answering Q’s
Abnormal reaction when lying

Question 38

Accuracy of lie detectors?

Answer 38

Wild claims from 100% to 50%
Likely to be somewhere in between

Question 39

Ahlmeyer et al (2000): lie detector study

Answer 39

Compared various measures of disclosure at 4 stages (Presentence report, sexual history diclosure form) and then again with polygraph
The belief they were being assessed by a lie detector was enough to get them to tell the truth

Question 40

Overview of lecture

Answer 40

1. No single way to get info needed for risk assessment
2. You are only as good as the info you have
3. Psychologists rely on good clinical practice
4. IMHO - the use of psychometrics in isolation is not appropriate
5. Assessment is complex due to the nature of the population and possible consequences of disclosure