Psychological Explanations: Cognitive Flashcards
Who came up with the levels of moral reasoning explanation?
Kohlberg (1968)
What did Kohlberg propose?
People’s decisions and judgements on issues of right and wrong can be summarised in a stage theory of moral reasoning; the higher the stage the more sophisticated the reasoning.
What do studies suggest about offenders in regards to moral reasoning?
Offenders tend to show lower level of moral reasoning than non-offenders.
What did Kohlberg find in regards to offenders having lower levels of moral reasoning?
Using moral dilemmas, found that a group of violent youths were at a significantly lower level of moral development than non-youths- even after controlling for social background.
What is level 1? (moral reasoning)
Pre-conventional morality.
What is level 2? (moral reasoning)
Conventional morality.
What is level 3? (moral reasoning)
Post-conventional morality.
What is stage 1? (moral reasoning)
Punishment orientation.
-> Rules are obeyed to avoid punishment.
What is stage 2? (moral reasoning)
Instrumental orientation or personal gain.
-> Rules are obeyed for personal gain.
What is stage 3? (moral reasoning)
‘Good boy’ or ‘Good girl’ orientation.
-> Rules are obeyed for approval.
What is stage 4? (moral reasoning)
Maintenance of the social order.
-> Rules are obeyed to maintain social order.
What is stage 5? (moral reasoning)
Morality of contract and individual rights.
-> Rules are challenged if they infringe on the rights of others.
What is stage 6? (moral reasoning)
Morality of conscience.
-> Individuals have a personal set of ethical principles.
What level are offenders most likely to be classified at? (moral reasoning)
Pre-conventional level.
(Stages 1 and 2)
What level are non-offenders most likely to be classified at?
The conventional level and beyond.
What is the level of moral reasoning assumption support by?
Studies which suggest that offenders are often more egocentric and display poorer social perspective-taking skills than non-offender peers.
What does it mean for individuals who reason at higher levels?
They tend to sympathise more with the rights of others and exhibit more conventional behaviours such as honesty, generosity and non-violence.
What are cognitive distortions?
Errors or biases in people’s information processing system characterised by faulty thinking.
What are the 2 types of cognitive distortions?
-Hostile attribution bias
-Minimalisation
What is hostile attribution bias?
The tendency to judge ambiguous situations, or the actions of others, as aggressive and/or threatening when in reality they may not be.
What did Schoenberg and Justye (2014) research consist of? (Hostile attribution bias)
They presented 55 violent offenders with images of emotionally ambiguous facial expressions.
What were the findings from Schonenberg and Jusyte (2014) study? (Hostile attribution bias)
When they were compared with a non-offender matched control group the violent offenders were significantly more likely to perceive the images as angry and hostile.
What was Dodge and Frame’s (1982) research about regarding children? (Hostile attribution bias)
They showed children a video clip of an ‘ambiguous provocation’. Children who had been identified as ‘aggressive’ and ‘rejected’ prior to the study interpreted the situation as more hostile than those classed as ‘non-aggressive’ and ‘accepted’.
What is minimalisation?
A type of deception that involves downplaying the significance of an event or emotion. A common strategy when dealing with feelings of guilt.
What were Barbaree’s (1991) findings in regards to minimalisation?
He found that among 26 incarcerated rapists, 54% denied they had committed an offence at all and a further 40% minimised the harm they had caused to the victim.
What crime has studies shown to be the most prone to minimalisation?
Sexual offences.
