psychological explanations - cognitive

Question 1

stages of moral development

Answer 1

Kohlberg - proposed that people decisions and judgements on issues of right and wrong can be summarised in a stage theory of moral reasoning
-suggested that offenders tend to show a lower level of moral reasoning than non offenders

Question 2

moral development and criminality

Answer 2

offenders are more likely to be classified at the pre-conventional level of kohl bergs model (stages 1 and 2), wheras non offenders have generally progressed to the conventional level and beyond

Question 3

Pre - conventional morality

Answer 3

BAD = an action that gets punished
GOOD= an action gets rewarded
-actions are chosen according to self-interest

Question 4

conventional morality -

Answer 4

BAD- an action that makes other people think negatively of you
GOOD- an action that makes other people think positively of you
-actions are chosen according to wider societal interests

Question 5

post - conventional morality -

Answer 5

BAD - an action. that violates abstract moral principles
GOOD- an action in accordance with abstract moral principles
-actions are chosen according to abstract moral principles

Question 6

+supporting research - stages of moral d

Answer 6

, Palmer and Hollin (1998) used questionnaires to compare the moral reasoning abilities of 126 male convicted offenders with 122 male non-offenders. The researchers found that the male offenders had significantly poorer moral reasoning compared to the male non-offenders, which supports the idea that underdeveloped moral reasoning contributes to criminal behaviour.

Question 7

methodological issues- cognitive

Answer 7

Kohlberg’s stages of moral development was based entirely on data from boys, with no girls included in his research. As such, the theory may suffer from gender bias (beta bias) and the results may not be valid when applied to female criminal behaviour.

Question 8

cognitive distortions

Answer 8

errors or biases in peoples information processing system characterised by faulty thinking.
2 examples:
Hostile attribution bias and minimalisation

Question 9

Hostile attribution bias -

Answer 9

the tendency to misinterpret the actions of other people - to assume that others being confrontational when they are not

Question 10

+supporting study -Schoenberg and Jusyte

Answer 10

presented 55 violent offenders with images of emotionally ambiguous facial expressions
-when compared with a non- aggressive matched control group, the violent offenders were significantly more likely to perceive the images as angry

Question 11

minimalisation -

Answer 11

an attempt to deny or downplay the seriousness of an offence -
for example, burglars may describe themselves as ‘doing a job’ or ‘supporting my family’ as a way of minimising their offence

Question 12

Supporting study -Barbaree

Answer 12

found among 26 incarcerated rapists, 54% denied they had committed an offence and a furtherr 40% minimised the harm done to the victim

Question 13

-Limited applications- HAB

Answer 13

There are many types of crime that cognitive distortions don’t explain well. For example, it’s easy to see how hostile attribution bias could lead to impulsive violence (e.g. the offender misinterprets an innocent look from someone and assaults them) but it’s hard to see how this bias could explain planned violence (e.g. a pre-meditated murder). This suggests that cognitive biases may only explain some types of crime and not others.

Question 14

Real world application - therapy

Answer 14

cognitive behaviour therapy aims to challenge irrational thinking - in the case of offending behaviour, offenders are encourages to ‘face up’ yp what they have done and establish a less distorted view of their actions