psychological formulation Flashcards
when should psych formulation be used?
- when offender presents with complex problems and treatment is unclear
- it is an unusual crime/ lack of awareness of the crime
- standard treatments have failed
- offenders not benefitting from the current treatment due to low motivation and other factors
what are the 5 rules?
- individualised : focus on the person not the general population
- testable : measurable so effectiveness can be assessed
- diachronic : from past to present to future
- narrative : qualitative data that is easy readable
- ampliative : does more than just describe - analyses the offence
what is the first phase?
offence analysis : find criminogenic factors that may help to understand the occurance of the crime such as education, employment, life style, drug misuse, attitude, and thinking
what is the second phase?
risk assessment and perspectives : look at the behaviour (past and present) of the person and decide what perspective to take - cognitive: how offenders process info around them, behavioural: learning from others such as SLT, psychodynamic: freuds psychodynamic approach
what is the third phase?
application of the treatment : different treatments such as psychotherapy, CBT, token economy programme. this should reflect on how the offender started, wether they have mental health issues, the risk of recidivism, and how likely the offender is likely to stick to the programme
a supporting study?
McNight (1984) effective in predicting the right treatment and also which treatments would not work.
a refuting study?
Schulte et al (1992) found formulation based theory was less effective than flooding
a strength?
Helps to reduce recidivism but also improves offenders life
Holistic - it considers all reasons why the person may be acting like they are acting
a weakness?
uses case studys as research which are low in reliability.
massively qualitative which is subjective data and could be interpreted differently to different researchers.
