Cognitive Explanations

Question 1

What are the two examples of cognitive distortions?

Answer 1

Minimilisation and Hostile Attribution Bias

Question 2

What is Hostile Attribution Bias?

Answer 2

When an individual misinterprets the action of another person

Question 3

What is minimilisation?

Answer 3

An attempt to deny or downplay the seriousness of an offence.

Question 4

What is the pre-conventional level characterised by?

Answer 4

A need to avoid punishment and gain rewards. Child-like reasoning.

Question 5

Where are criminals likely to be classified on Kohlberg’s model?

Answer 5

Pre-conventional level

Question 6

What did Howard Barbaree find amongst 26 incarcerated rapists?

Answer 6

54% denied they committed an offence.
Further 40% minimised the harm they caused to the victim.

Question 7

What did Pollock and Hashmall report about the minimilisation of child molester crimes?

Answer 7

35% of a sample of child molesters argued the crime was non-sexual.

36% argued the victim consented.

Question 8

What research did Dodge and Frame conduct and what did they find?

Answer 8

Showed children video clip of an ‘ambiguous provocation’.

Children identified as ‘aggressive’ and ‘rejected’ prior to study interpreted the situation as more hostile than those classed as ‘non-aggressive’ and ‘accepted’.

Question 9

What did Schonenberg and Justye find after presenting 55 violent offenders with images of emotionally ambiguous facial expressions?

Answer 9

Violent offenders were significantly more likely to perceive the images as angry as hostile (compared to non-aggressive matched control group)