Psychological Explanations - Cognitive Distortions Flashcards
What are Cognitive Distortions?
Faulty, biased and irrational ways of thinking that mean we perceive ourselves, others and the world in a way that does not match reality and is often negative. In the context of offending behaviour, such distortions allow an offender to deny or rationalise their behaviour.
What is Hostile Attribution Bias?
Evidence shows that those who are more likely to be violent are likely to misinterpret the actions of others by assuming they are being confrontational when they are not.
What did Schonenberg and Justye do?
They showed violent offenders emotionally ambiguous faces, finding that participants were more likely to interpret these faces as hostile when matched to a control group.
What is the strength - Dodge and Frame?
They found that children who were identified as ‘aggressive’ or ‘rejected’ were more likely to perceive a video clip of someone displaying neutral/ambiguous behaviour as being hostile. This was in comparison to children who were considered ‘accepted’. This suggests that the root of this behaviour lies in childhood.
What is minimalisation?
Minimalisatie is an attempt to deny or downplay the seriousness of an offence. It can also be seen as denial or self-deception as the downplaying of it is a way of dealing with their emotional guilt and potentially putting some blame on the victim.
What were Kennedy and Grubin’s findings?
A majority of convicted sex offenders blamed the victim, and 25% of the sample believed that the abuse was a good thing for the victim.
What is the strength - Real-World Application?
Understanding the nature of CogDis has proven beneficial in the treatment of criminal behaviour. The dominant approach for sex offenders is CBT where they encourage the offender to ‘face up’ to their actions and establish a less-distorted view of their actions. This is a strength because it allows for offenders to begin the rehabilitation process by admitting wrongdoing.
What is the limitation - Howitt and Sheldon?
They argue that the CogDis theory depends on the type of offence. They gathered questionnaire responses from sexual offenders and found that non-contact sex offenders (online) used more cognitive distortions than contact sex offenders who had physically abused children.
What is the limitation - lack of predictive validity
CogDis are good at describing the criminal mind and cognitive concepts may be useful for therapy, however they do not explain or help in predicting future offender behaviour - just because someone has distorted thinking doesn’t mean they will offend.
