PS1014 - Snowden (Forensic Psychology) Flashcards
What was the motivation for the study?
- Attended a social psych talk, heard about a new technique for measuring attitudes - the implicit association test (IAT)
- wanted to use this for child sexual attraction (to produce tests that can be used to protect certain people and make the world safer)
What is the IAT used for
to measure social cognitions indirectly - flower, good and insect, bad
How was the research question translated into an experiment?
- Completed IAT of 2 experimental groups (paedophiles and non-paedophiles)
- adapted to IAT to children and sex
How did the experiment run?
Sex/adult and no-sex/children - ppt shown a photo/word and had to press a button to say which category the word/photo belonged to
What was the design?
Independent groups
Why was the design chosen?
researchers wanted to see if there was a difference between paedophiles and non-paedophiles
Summary stats - results of the control task (flower/insect)
Paedophiles show normal IAT for flowers vs insects
Shows they can do the task
Summary stats - results of the child/adult sex task
- paedophiles associated children with sex
- non-paedophiles associated adults with sex
- paedophiles make significantly more errors
Did the results support the hypothesis?
Yes - paedophiles subconsciously associate children with sex
Was it a strong effect?
Paedophiles made significantly more mistakes suggesting a strong effect
Limitations of the study
- Sample didn’t contain purely paedophillic ppts (some were imprisoned wrongly)
- Paedophiles tested were personally disordered offenders so may not be representative
Consequences of the findings
- meta-analysis
- findings used around the world
Does it have an impact for policy, behaviour etc?
Used in the home office
What might you do next if asked to run another study?
reproduce this with a subliminal version to see if the results are the same
