Psychological Explanations: Cognitive Flashcards
Who is the main psychologist for the cognitive explanation of offending?
Kohlberg
How does the cognitive explanation explain offending?
Criminals have lower levels of moral reasoning than non criminals and believe their crime is justified if the reward outweighs the punishment.
What is meant by cognitive distortions?
Irrational thinking, errors in our logic.
Two main types - hostile attribution bias and minimalisation.
What is meant by hostile attribution bias?
The tendency to view emotionally ambiguous or non-threatening situations as aggressive and threatening.
What is meant by minimisation?
Where offenders downplay the consequences of their crime to decrease guilt or regret.
Use euphemistic labels to disguise their harm.
Outline Kohlberg’s model of moral reasoning
Level 1: Pre-conventional morality - stage 1 + 2
Level 2: Conventional morality - stage 3 + 4
Level 3: Post-conventional morality - stage 5 + 6
Outline level 1 of Kohlberg’s model.
Pre-conventional morality
Stage 1: obey rules to avoid punishment.
Stage 2: obey rules for personal gain.
Outline level 2 of Kohlberg’s model.
Conventional morality
Stage 3: obey rules for approval.
Stage 4: obey rules to maintain social order.
Outline level 3 of Kohlberg’s model.
Post-conventional
Stage 5: challenge rules if they infringe on other people’s rights.
Stage 6: individuals have their own set of ethical principles.
According to Kohlberg, what level of moral reasoning are criminals likely to be at?
Pre-conventional
What are 2 strengths of Kohlberg’s model of moral reasoning and cognitive distortion to explain offending?
Research support: (MR)
Ashkar and Kenny - Compared sex offenders and non sex offenders.
Pre conventional level when asked about their reasoning in similar contexts to their
crimes.
Showed a higher level of MR when asked about a context unrelated to their crimes.
Research support: (HAB)
Schonenberg and Aiste - 55 violent offenders (compared to CG).
Shown emotionally ambiguous faces.
Interpreted any pic with a form of anger as aggression.
Shows that offenders misinterpret non verbal cues leading to violence.
What are two limitations of Kohlberg’s model of MR to explain offending?
Cannot explain all forms of crime
Research - Found offenders who committed crime for financial gain were more likely than those
who committed violent crimes to show pre conventional MR.
PC MR associated with those who believe they can evade punishment.
Level of MR depends on the type of offence.
Kohlberg’s postconventional level should be abandoned because it is culturally biased toward Western culture
