What is Forensic psychology + Eye Witnesses Flashcards
(17 cards)
define forensic psychology
a specialised area of psychology that applies psychological theory and skills to the understanding and functioning of the legal and criminal justice system
what are the roles of a forensic psychologist
forensic psychological assessments, assessing dangerousness, lie detection, the insanity defence and eyewitness testimony, evaluation of evidence, criminal profiling, offender treatment and correctional psychology
what may work involve for a forensic psychologist
profiling for the police, assessing a person’s mental state and mental fitness, giving an expert opinion in court, assessing the mental state of victims/witnesses, treating offenders and conducting research
where can a forensic psychologist work
mental health units, correctional institutions, court, CPS, sexual offender treatment services, domestic violence programs, police and university
define eyewitness testimony
the accounts from witnesses present at the crime scene
what is the process of of memory using the computer analogy
encoding - the info must be first converted into a form that our brain can understand, storage - the info we process is stored in our memory and retrieval - recalling info to use it
what are the psychological factors effecting eyewitness testimony
testimony can be influenced by other memories, prejudices, beliefs, expectations and retrieval of memory is most efficient when in the same state of consciousness as when it was created
what are the environmental factors effecting eyewitness testimony
recording of memories can be distorted and shaped by the context and aspects of the event and retrieval is most efficient when in the same context or situation
how is weapon focus misleading information
the presence a weapons in a situation influences memory of an event, distracting us from the other details of the crime
how is reconstructive memory misleading information
when memories are shaped by our own beliefs and expectation what we expect to have occurred
what does the Ebbinghaus’s forgetting curve suggest about memory
memory becomes less accurate as time goes by
define profit
an image that represents the face of the suspect
how are photofits useful
allows a witness to see a bunch of facial features and stick them together and hopefully at the end it looks like the suspect
define suspect line up
when several suspects, not just one who fit the description given by a witness are lined up
how are suspect line ups useful
without these checks the police might arrest the wrong person because of limited suspect choices or biases towards a specific person
what are the problems with photofits
eyewitnesses may of observed suspect in less than ideal conditions and photograph used may not highlight features that the witness paid attention too
what is the problem with suspect line ups
witnesses may have the expectation that the suspect is in the line up leading to mistakenly identifying the wrong person
