What is a cognitive distortion?
Psychological Explanations - Cognitive Distsortions
Patterns of negative/exaggerated thought which can reinforce maladaptive behaviour
Psychological Explanations - Cognitive Distsortions
What is Hostile Attribution Bias?
Psychological Explanations - Cognitive Distsortions
Misinterpret actions of others, assuming they are hostile/aggressive when they are not
Psychological Explanations - Cognitive Distsortions
AO1 Schonenberg + Justye (2014)
Psychological Explanations - Cognitive Distsortions
- 55 violent offenders with images of emotionally ambiguous facial expressions compared to non-aggressive control group
- Violent offenders - significantly more likely to view images as hostile
-Potentially stem from childhood - confusing parenting style - schema?
Psychological Explanations - Cognitive Distsortions
AO1 Dodge and Frame (1982)
Psychological Explanations - Cognitive Distsortions
- Showed children video clips of ‘ambiguous provocation’ (intention was clearly hostile nor clearlyaccidental)
- Children identified as ‘aggressive’ and ‘rejected’ prior, interpreted situation as more hostile than ‘accepted’ children
Psychological Explanations - Cognitive Distsortions
AO3 Supporting evidence - Eckhart, Barbour and Davidson (1998)
Psychological Explanations - Cognitive Distsortions
- Men who had committed domestic violence = more likely to display hostile atrribution bias than men who were satisfied/distressed with their marriage
- Further supporting link between hostile attribution bias and aggressivbe crime
Psychological Explanations - Cognitive Distsortions
What is minimalisation?
Psychological Explanations - Cognitive Distsortions
Downplaying seriousness of an offence
Psychological Explanations - Cognitive Distsortions
AO1 Barabee (1991)
Psychological Explanations - Cognitive Distsortions
- Among 26 incarcerated rapists, 54% denied they had committed an offence at all
- Further 40% minimised harm they had caused the victim
Psychological Explanations - Cognitive Distsortions
AO3 Supporting evidence - Kennedy and Grubin (1992)
Psychological Explanations - Cognitive Distsortions
- Found majority of convicted sex offenders tended to blame victim
- 1/4 of sample interviewed believed that the abuse was a positive thing fpor victim - minimalising their involvement
Psychological Explanations - Cognitive Distsortions
Evaluation - Strength - Real life application
Psychological Explanations - Cognitive Distsortions
- CBT aims to challenge irrational thinking - offenders are encouraged to ‘face up’ to what they have done + establish a less distorted view of their actions
Psychological Explanations - Cognitive Distsortions
Evaluation - Negative - Type of offence
Psychological Explanations - Cognitive Distsortions
- Howitt and Sheldon (2007) - questionnaire responses from sex offenders
- Non-contact sex offenders used more cognitive distortions than contact
- Those who had previous history of offending were also more likely to use distortions as justification- not all used in the same way
Psychological Explanations - Cognitive Distsortions
Evaluation - Negative - What distortions actually tell us?
Psychological Explanations - Cognitive Distsortions
- Describe thoughts that criminals go through after a crime has been committed, but it doesn’t explain how they got there in the first place
Psychological Explanations - Cognitive Distsortions
Differential Association Theory
- Edwin Sutherland (1924)
- Why do some people become criminals and others don’t, regardless of race, class or ethic background?
- “The conditions that are said to cause crime should be present when crime is present, and absent when crime is absent”
- Crime is learned
- 2 processes = Attitudes towards crime + Learned specific criminal act
Key concepts of DAT - Learned attitudes towards crime
- Exposed to pro-crime vs anti-crime attitudes
- ‘Summation’
- Should be able to mathematically predict likelihood of committing crime if we know;
- Frequency, Intensity and Duration of exposure to pro-crime attitudes
Key concepts of DAT - Learned specific criminal acts
- Explains prevalence of crime types in specific communities + recidivism (re-offending) in ex prisoners
What is learned (DAT)?
Desirability of crime
How do we learn it?
- Frequency, length and personal meaning of associations
- Direct/Indirect learning
- Reward/Family
- Modelling
Who is it learned from? (DAT)
- Peer groups/family member/wider neigbourhood
- Degree to which local community supports or opposes criminal invlovement determines difference in crime rate from area to area
- May not be criminals themselves but can hold deviant attitudes or accept such attitudes
AO3 Evaluation of DAT
+ First real attempt to explain crime not presuming it is result of of different socio-economic statuses
+ Can explain how someone can consider some crimes unacceptable whilst others are not.
E.g. Unfavourable towards stealing but not worried about tax evasion
Accounts for a lots of different types of crime which other explanations cannot
- Cannot explain impulsive crimes e.g. manslaughter in a fight
Assumes people build up to committing crimes through a process of favourable associations towards criminality - incomplete explanation
- Correlation or causation? Are individuals seeking out those with similar interests or are they learning through association?
