PAPER 3 - FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGY - psychological explanations of offending behaviour (Eysenck, Cognitive explanations, differential association theory, psychodynamic explanations)

Question 1

What is personality?

Answer 1

• A mix of biological tendencies combined with learning experiences
• Eysenck proposed that criminals have a specific mix that causes otterains benaviour, therefore criminality can be explained by specific personality traits

Question 2

What are the 3 diversions that Eysenck believed contributed to criminality?

Answer 2

• extraversion
• neuroticism
• psychoticism

Question 3

What is extraversion?

Answer 3

• opposite of intraversion
• extraverts are characterised by outgoing, having positive emotions but may get bored easily, they enjoy risk and danger

Question 4

what are extraverts biologically determined by?

Answer 4

• overall level of arousal in a persons nervous system
• extraverts have less innate cortical arousal so seek external stimulation

Question 5

why does extraversion suggest criminal behaviour?

Answer 5

• less likely to be affected by negative outcomes e.g. punishment
• seek external stimuli e.g. crime, for arousal
• get bored easily and take risks so could risk committing a crime

Question 6

what is neuroticism?

Answer 6

• opposite of stability
• when an individual experiences more negative emotions

Question 7

what is neuroticism biologically determined by?

Answer 7

• sympathetic NS
• tendency to overreact in situations of threat

Question 8

why does neuroticism suggest criminal behaviour?

Answer 8

making rash decisions so individual is more likely to interpret ordinary situations as threatening

Question 9

what is psychoticism?

Answer 9

• opposite of normality
• high levels of testosterone (so more prevalent in men)

Question 10

what is psychoticism biologically determined by?

Answer 10

hormones

Question 11

why does psychoticism suggest criminal behaviour?

Answer 11

• lack of empathy and conscience
• aggression
• impulsivity
• leads to offending behaviour

Question 12

what is the role of socialisation in offending behaviour?

Answer 12

• socialisation is something children are taught to become more able to delay gratification and be more socially oriented
• Eysenck suggested those with high E and N scores had a NS that made them difficult to condition
• therefore they’re less likely to learn anxiety responses to antisocial behaviour and act more antisocial

Question 13

what research support is there for Eysenck’s theory?

Answer 13

• study compared 2070 male prisoners’ scores on Eysenck’s personality questionnaire, with 2422 controls
• prisoners scored higher average scores than controls
• therefore aggress with predictions from the theory that prisoners score higher in all 3 dimensions
  HOWEVER
• Farrigton conducted a meta-analysis of relevant studies and reported that offenders tended to score high on measures of psychoticism, but not extraversion and neuroticism
• there’s also inconsistent evidence for differences on EEG measures between extraverts and intraverts which causes doubts for Eysenck’s theory

Question 14

what is the limitations of ‘too simplistic’ of Eysenck’s personality theory?

Answer 14

• proposes that all offending behaviour can be explained through personality alone
• Moffitt drew distinction between offending behaviour that only occurs in adolescence and that continues into adulthood
• argued personality alone was a poor predictor of how long offending behaviour would go on for, in the sense of whether someone is likely to become a ‘career offender’
• thought personality traits as well as environmental factors influence offending behaviour

Question 15

how are cultural factors a limitation of Eysenck’s theory?

Answer 15

• criminal personality may vary according to culture
• researchers studied Hispanic and African-American offenders in a maximum security prison in New York, and divided them into groups based on offending history and nature of offences
• found that in all groups there were less extraverts than non-offender control group whereas Eysenck would expect them to be more extravert
• suggested this was because sample was a very different cultural group investigated by Eysenck
• may lack generalisability

Question 16

how is ‘measuring personality’ a limitation of Eysenck’s theory?

Answer 16

personality may not be able to be ‘scored’ as in the EPQ and suggests personality is too complex and dynamic to be quantified

Question 17

what was the study by McGurk and McDougal?

Answer 17

• AIM: to investigate link between personality type and criminality
• 100 students classed as delinquents and 100 non delinquents completed EPQ and calculated scores
• results: significant differences in scores of all 3 dimensions between both groups, delinquent group had combination of high P, E and N scores

Question 18

what can be concluded from McGurk and McDougal’s study?

Answer 18

there is a relationship between personality (E, N and P) and delinquent behaviour

Question 19

what are the evaluation points of McGurk and McDougal’s study?

Answer 19

SAMPLE:
✔ use of control group
X only 100 students
X student sample
METHOD:
X correlation
X self report
OTHER POINTS:
X reductionist (only looks at personality explaining offending behaviour)
X deterministic

Question 20

what are the 2 cognitive explanations for offending behaviour?

Answer 20

• cognitive distortions
• levels of moral reasoning (Kohlberg, 1969)

Question 21

what are cognitive distortions?

Answer 21

• forms of irrational thinking means individual has distorted perception of reality which often reinforces negative thoughts and emotions
• offenders interpret behaviour of others and justify their own actions

Question 22

how do cognitive distortions explain offending behaviour?

Answer 22

cognitive distortions can allow an offender to perceive their behaviour as non-criminal, by denying or rationalising their crimes

Question 23

what are 2 exampled of cognitive disortions?

Answer 23

• hostile attribution bias
• minimalisation

Question 24

what is hostile attribution bias?

Answer 24

• individual perceives everything as hostile/ the worst
• negative interpretations
• interpretations lead to hostile behaviour
  LINK TO OFFENDING BEHAVIOUR: aggression in offenders

Question 25

what is minimalisation?

Answer 25

• reduces effects/interpretation of consequences to offending behaviour both before and after crime
• individual can then accept those consequences and reduce negative actions
  LINK TO OFFENDING BEHAVIOUR: lack negative emotions towards negative actions e.g. robbing wealthy household

Question 26

what is Kohlberg’s level of moral reasoning?

Answer 26

• Kohlberg constructed a stage theory of moral development which suggests children’s cognition develops in stages
• each stage is more sophisticated and represents a more advanced form of moral understanding
• people progress through the stages as a result of social learning and biological maturity
  STAGES: pre-conventional level, conventional level, post-conventional level,

Question 27

what is in the pre-conventional level of moral reasoning?

Answer 27

(actions judged by consequences)
STAGE 1 - punishment and obedience: doing what is right due to fear of punishment, rules kept to avoid punishment
STAGE 2 - instrumental purpose: ‘right’ behaviour is what brings rewards

Question 28

what is the conventional level of moral reasoning?

Answer 28

STAGE 3 - good boy/girl: doing what is right according to what others expect, good behaviour is what pleases others
STAGE 4 - doing what is right because it is your duty and helps society, obeying laws is important

Question 29

what is the post-conventional level of moral reasoning?

Answer 29

STAGE 5 - social contract: doing what is morally right even if it is against the law
STAGE 6 - universal ethical principles: doing what is right because of inner conscience/self-chosen principles

Question 30

what did Kohlberg suggest about who reached what level of moral reasoning?

Answer 30

suggested 10% of adults reach post-conventional so most reach conventional level

Question 31

what is the research support for hostile attribution bias to offending behaviour (cognitive distortions)?

Answer 31

• researchers found offenders were more likely to interpret a picture of a face that looked slightly angry as an expression of aggression (example of hostile attribution bias)
• researchers concluded misrepresentation of non-verbal cues could explain aggressive, impulsive behaviour and therefore criminality
  HOWEVER
• sample of many supporting studied mostly consists of males so may not generalise to women

Question 32

how is ‘real world application’ a strength for cognitive distortions?

Answer 32

• Heller used behavioural techniques to reduce cognitive distortions in young men from disadvantaged groups in chicago
• those who attended 13 one-hour sessions had a 44% reduction in arrests compared to control group
• findings suggest that understanding of cognitive distortions allows for successful treatment and reduces criminal behaviour

Question 33

how is Kohlberg’s sample a limitation of his theory?

Answer 33

• only used male participants
• Gilligan suggested this caused stages to reflect a male perspective focused on justice rather than female principles of caring and compassion
• may represent male definition of morality

Question 34

how is the fact that Kohlberg’s theory only considers moral thinking rather than behaviour, a limitation?

Answer 34

• Krebs and Denton suggested moral principles are only one factor in moral behaviour and may be overridden by more practical factors e.g. personal financial gains
• also found principles were only used to justify behaviour after it had been performed

Question 35

what is differential association (DA) theory (Sutherland, 1939)?

Answer 35

• explains criminal behaviour in terms of social learning
• mathematically predicts likelihood of offending, depending on frequency and intensity of interactions with others who view crime as favourable/unfavourable
• is a social approach. shows how behaviour can be passed on through observation and reinforcement

Question 36

what is learned in DA theory?

Answer 36

• types of acceptable and desirable crimes
• pro-crime attitudes
• methods of carrying out the crime (techniques)

Question 37

who is DA learned from and how is it learned?

Answer 37

• family, friends, community
• occurs through relationships and associations with others
• pro-crime attitudes outweigh anti-crime attitudes
• direct & indirect operant conditioning (praised for doing crime/observing role models)

Question 38

what was the study by Farrington et al on the DA theory?

Answer 38

• 411 8 year olds in longitudinal study from 1961 in deprived area in London
• 41% went on to be convicted of at least one offence between 10 and 50
• most important childhood risk factors at age 8-10 for later offending were family criminality, risk-taking, low school attainment, poverty and poor parenting

Question 39

how can Farrington’s study be used to support DA theory?

Answer 39

due to deprived area, many have favourable attitudes to offending behaviour compared to unfavourable attitudes

Question 40

what were Sutherland’s 9 key principles? (don’t need to learn all 9)

Answer 40

1. behaviour is learned
2. learning through association with others
3. association with intimate personal groups
4. techniques, attitudes & motivations learned
5. learning is directional (for/against crime)
6. if favourable crime attitudes outweigh unfavourable, individual becomes an offender
7. individual’s learning varies in frequency & intensity
8. criminal behaviour is learned in same way as behaviour
9. just ‘need’ (eg money) not enough to explain crime as most need but dont become a criminal

Question 41

what is the real world application of Sutherland’s work? (DA theory)

Answer 41

• changed peoples views about origins of criminal behaviour
• shifted from blaming individual factors to pointing to social factors
• introduced ‘white collar crimes’ e.g. fraud suggesting criminals can come from any background
• shows learning environment can change but genes cannot be changed

Question 42

what supportive evidence was there on DA theory from Osborne & West?

Answer 42

• found that when a father has a criminal conviction, 40% the sons had also committed a crime by 18 compared to 13% from non-criminal fathers
• supports DA theory but effects of genetics cannot be disentangled

Question 43

what are the methodological problems of DA theory?

Answer 43

• data is correlational
• critics argue data is not testable due to difficult separating learned and observed influences
• cant establish causality, so cannot test experimentally (validity unclear)

Question 44

what is a limitation of the applicability of DA theory to types of crime?

Answer 44

• social learning influences are probably confined to smaller crimes rather than violent and impulsive crimes
• e.g. in England and Wales, there were 500 homicides but 400,000 burglaries (2014)

Question 45

what is psychodynamic theory to explaining offending behaviour?

Answer 45

• Freud’s psychodynamic theory
• relating to offending behaviour didnt come from him, came from Blackburn
• 2 areas used: maternal deprivation theory, the superego

Question 46

how can MDH be used to explain offending behaviour?

Answer 46

• theory suggested frequent/prolonged separations between infant and carer during critical period (0-2.5/5 years) results in latter emotional maladjustment
• based on 44 thieves study (study suggested children diagnosed with affectionless psychopathy had developed condition due to lack of consistent care)

Question 47

what is the Id, ego and superego?

Answer 47

ID - innate, pleasure principle, basic instincts & wants, demands instant gratification
EGO - mediates between demands of Id and Superego, reality principle, anchored in real world
SUPEREGO - morality principle, selfless, gives feelings of guilt, determines acceptable behaviour

Question 48

how does an underdeveloped superego contribute to offending behaviour?

Answer 48

WEAK/UNDERDEVELOPED - lack of resolution in phallic stage of development when children go though Oedipus (boys)/Electa (girls) complex = lack of morality & behaviour driven by Id

Question 49

how does an overdeveloped superego contribute to offending behaviour?

Answer 49

HARSH/OVERDEVELOPED - strong identification with same-sex parent leads to excessive guilt and anxiety so commits crime to get caught and be punished

Question 50

how does a deviant superego contribute to offending behaviour?

Answer 50

DEVIANT - identification with criminal parent means child takes on deviant attitude of parent

Question 51

what are the strengths of the psychodynamic explanation for offending?

Answer 51

considers emotional factors in offending behaviour
- cognitive explanations miss out how emotions affect behaviour, psychodynamic addresses issue of anxiety &/or rejection contributing to offending
- also recognises role of biological influences & early childhood experiences moulding adult personality
real world application - Bowlby suggested preventative measures
- Bowlby suggested it’s preferable to try prevent the problem of threatening emotional problems in young delinquents by avoiding early separations
- demonstrated that key was emotional separation rather than physical, suggested children coped relatively well with separations of emotional care was provided

Question 52

what are the limitations of the psychodynamic approach for offending?

Answer 52

can’t assume causal relationship in 44 thieves study
- separation wasn’t manipulated, only demonstrated association between separation and emotional problems
- affectionless character may have caused separations of vice versa
research shows delinquency can be due to complex set of factors e
- e.g. poverty, bad housing & lack of emotional facilities
- Farrington found importance of risk factors e.g. family history, risk taking, low school attainment, poverty etc.
vulnerable to alpha bias in gender
- exaggerates differences between men and women
- Freud proposed women should develop weaker superego as they don’t identify as strongly to same sex parent as boys
- may be due to resolution of electra complex being less satisfactory or that women were of a lower status so people didnt idenfity with them