Psychological Explanations - cognitive theory Flashcards
The cognitive theory suggests
Suggests offending behaviour is caused by cognitive processes which differ from general population
2 main theories
Cognitive distortions
Moral reasoning
Cognitive distortions def
Errors or biases in individuals information processing system known as faulty thinking
Def distortion
Ways reality has become twisted
2 main distortions
Hostile attribution bias
Minimalisation
Hostile attribution bias description
When someone always attributed behaviours to negative things
Minimalisation descriptions
An individual will downplay the consequence of their behaviour
Description of moral reasoning
3 levels of moral development and people move through these stages in a fixed order
Level 1 of moral reasoning name
Preconventtional morality
Level 2 moral reasoning name
Conventional morality
Level 3 moral reasoning name
Postconventionak morality
How many stages in each level of moral reasoning
2 - 6 stages over all 3 levels
Name of stage one
Punishment orientation - rules are obeyed to avoid punishment
Stage 2 name
Instrumental orientation or personal growth - rules are obese for personal gain
Stage 3 name
Good boy or good girl orientation - rules are obeyed for approval
Stage 4 name
Maintenance of the social order - rules are obeyed to maintain the social order
Stage 5 name
Morality of contract and individual rights - rules are obeyed if they are impartial: democratic rules are challenged if they infringe on the rights of others
Stage 6 name
Morality of conscience - the individual establishes his or her own rules in accordance with a personal set of ethical principles
4 evaluation points
Strength - use in real world
Weakness - depends on type of offence
Strength - supportive research
Weakness - lack of generalisability
Elaboration strength - use in real world
- explanations for how individual experience faulty thinking
- allow for treatments to be formulated to support faulty thinking
- eg CBT encouraging owning up behaviours to reduce minimalisation
Elaboration weakness - depends on type of offence
- howitt and sheldon conducted research gathering questionnaire responses from sexual offenders
- opposes what researchers had predicted finding non-contact sexual offenders use more cognitive distortions than cognitive sexual offenders
- limits validity because not all cognitive distortions are used in the same way
Elaboration strength - supportive research from Palmer and hollin
- using offenders and non-offenders to ask a mix of moral dilemma related to questions to see if there was a difference between criminals and non-criminals
- criminals showed less mature reasoning
Elaboration weakness - poor generalisability
- kohl berg didn’t study moral reasoning with women, only men and boys
- genders behave in different way, less generalisable
