Cognitive Distortions

Question 1

cognitive distortions

Answer 1

• faulty, biased, irrational ways of thinking
• perceive ourself and others negatively- don’t match reality
• perception wrong but think its accurate

Question 2

CD in context of offending behaviour

Answer 2

• allows offenders to deny or rationalise their behaviour - to justify and reduce -ve emotions
• examples: hostile attribution bias and minimalisation

Question 3

hostile attribution bias

Answer 3

• misinterpret others actions as aggressive or threatening when they’re not
• misread aggressive cues triggering violent + disproportionate response
• offender rationalises by victim-blaming e.g. they asked for it

Question 4

minimalisation

Answer 4

• downplay importance of offence, explain consequences as less damaging than actually are
• helps offender accept consequences and reduce -ve motions e.g. guilt

Question 5

strengths: research support

Answer 5

For Hostile Attribution
- Shonenberg and Aiste: showed ambiguous faces to control and offenders- more likely to interpret as anger or aggression

For Minimalisation
- Kennedy and Grubin: sex offenders downplay own behaviour and include victims behaviour when giving accounts of crime suggesting victim contributed to crime

Question 6

strength

Answer 6

Real World Applications
- heller et al: 44% reduction in arrests of young men using CBT over 13 sessions compared to control
- helps rehab people and reduce violent crimes

Question 7

limitations

Answer 7

Contradicting Research
- Howitt and Sheldon: did self reports with sex offenders, non contact used cog distortions more than contact - opposite of what they predicted
- inconsistent findings, results cant be drawn, more common in certain offender types