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Social Cognition and Crime

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Everyone is a na ve psychologist (Heider) Internal/External attributions ... Effects of Attributions (Jones, Rock et al.) Self ... Criminogenic factors ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Social Cognition and Crime


1
Social Cognition and Crime
  • Psychology and Crime

2
Social Cognition of Crime
  • Attribution theory
  • Locus of Control
  • Impulsivity
  • Learned Helplessness
  • Cognitive Scripts
  • Communication model

3
Social Cognition/Attribution Theory
4
Social Cognition/Attribution Theory
  • Everyone is a naïve psychologist (Heider)
  • Internal/External attributions
  • Fundamental Attribution Error (Ross)
  • Actor/Observer Difference (Jones Nisbett)
  • Effects of Attributions (Jones, Rock et al.)
  • Self-fulfilling Prophecy

5
Social Cognition/Attribution Theory
  • Everyone is a naïve psychologist (Heider)
  • Internal/External attributions
  • Fundamental Attribution Error (Ross)
  • Actor/Observer Difference (Jones Nisbett)
  • Effects of Attributions (Jones, Rock et al.)
  • Self-fulfilling Prophecy

6
Everyone is a naïve psychologist
  • Internal (dispositional) attributions
  • personality characteristics
  • beliefs
  • External (situational) attributions
  • situational pressure/influence
  • Example Student turns in papers late
  • Internal

7
Everyone is a naïve psychologist
  • Internal (dispositional) attributions
  • personality characteristics
  • beliefs
  • External (situational) attributions
  • situational pressure/influence
  • Example Student turns in papers late
  • Internallazy, partying all the time

8
Everyone is a naïve psychologist
  • Internal (dispositional) attributions
  • personality characteristics
  • beliefs
  • External (situational) attributions
  • situational pressure/influence
  • Example Student turns in papers late
  • Internallazy, partying all the time
  • External

9
Everyone is a naïve psychologist
  • Internal (dispositional) attributions
  • personality characteristics
  • beliefs
  • External (situational) attributions
  • situational pressure/influence
  • Example Student turns in papers late
  • Internallazy, partying all the time
  • Externalfamily problems, working, girlfriend

10
Social Cognition/Attribution Theory
  • Everyone is a naïve psychologist (Heider)
  • Internal/External attributions
  • Fundamental Attribution Error (Ross)
  • Actor/Observer Difference (Jones Nisbett)
  • Effects of Attributions (Jones, Rock et al.)
  • Self-fulfilling Prophecy

11
Fundamental Attribution Error
  • Lee Ross Internal attributions more likely

12
Social Cognition/Attribution Theory
  • Everyone is a naïve psychologist (Heider)
  • Internal/External attributions
  • Fundamental Attribution Error (Ross)
  • Actor/Observer Difference (Jones Nisbett)
  • Effects of Attributions (Jones, Rock et al.)
  • Self-fulfilling Prophecy

13
Actor/Observer Difference
Bob (Actor)
Steve
Joe (Observer)
14
Actor/Observer Difference
Bob (Actor)
Steve
Joe (Observer)
Bob hits Steve. Why?
15
Actor/Observer Difference
  • OBSERVER--gtInternal attribution
  • ACTOR--gtExternal attribution
  • What is salient in the perceptual field?
  • For OBSERVER The actor
  • For ACTOR Everything but the actor (i.e., the
    situation)

16
Social Cognition/Attribution Theory
  • Everyone is a naïve psychologist (Heider)
  • Internal/External attributions
  • Fundamental Attribution Error (Ross)
  • Actor/Observer Difference (Jones Nisbett)
  • Effects of Attributions (Jones, Rock et al.)
  • Self-fulfilling Prophecy

17
Effects of Attributions
  • Jones, Rock et al. (1968)
  • Subject is teacher confederate is learner
  • I.V. Pattern of correct answers
  • 1. Does well initially, finishes poorly (15
    right)
  • 2. Does poorly initially, finishes well (15
    right)
  • 3. Randomly gets correct and incorrect (15 right)
  • D.V. Intelligence ratings of learner

18
Effects of Attributions
  • Jones, Rock et al (1968)
  • Subject is teacher confederate is learner
  • I.V. Pattern of correct answers
  • 1. Does well initially, finishes poorly HIGHEST
  • 2. Does poorly initially, finishes well LOWEST
  • 3. Randomly gets correct and incorrect MIDDLE
  • D.V. Intelligence ratings of learner
  • Result Primacy effect

19
Our initial explanations about the world can
affect
  • Our perception of others behavior (as we have
    seen)
  • Also
  • Our perception of new information
  • Our perception of chance events

20
Initial attributions are persistent
  • BEHAVIOR (Jones, Rock et al.)
  • ATTITUDES (Lord, Ross, Lepper)
  • Students attitudes on death penalty determined
  • Favored or Opposed
  • Shown two new studies on death penalty
  • Deterred crime or Didnt
  • New opinions more extreme in initial direction
  • CHANCE EVENTS (Langer Roth)
  • Flipped coin/successful in first 10 flips or not
  • Early success group Higher prediction of
    accuracy in next 100 flips

21
Why are these biases important?
  • We may be totally wrong (false beliefs)
  • For example Fundamental Attribution Error
  • These beliefs persist, resist disconfirmation
  • For example Jones, Rock et al.
  • Our incorrect beliefs may create a new reality
  • For example Self-fulfilling Prophecy

22
Social Cognition/Attribution Theory
  • Everyone is a naïve psychologist (Heider)
  • Internal/External attributions
  • Fundamental Attribution Error (Ross)
  • Actor/Observer Difference (Jones Nisbett)
  • Effects of Attributions (Jones, Rock et al.)
  • Self-fulfilling Prophecy

23
Components of Self-fulfilling Prophecy
  • False belief (Expectation)
  • Actions, based on that belief
  • New reality created

24
Palmer and Hollin (2000)
  • Palmer and Hollin (2000) found that self-reported
    delinquency in young offenders was associated not
    only with lower levels of moral reasoning but
    also with increased tendencies to inaccurate
    attributions of hostility, especially in
    ambiguous situations where it may be difficult to
    accurately ascertain intentions.

25
Dodge (1986)
  • Dodge (1986) has argued that much violence comes
    from Hostile Attributional Bias. Ambiguous
    actions, like accidentally standing on a person's
    foot, are interpreted as threatening and must be
    countered with action.

26
Personal Control
Internal Locus of Control You pretty much control
your own destiny
External Locus of Control Luck, fate and/or
powerful others control your destiny
  • Methods of Study
  • Correlate feelings of control with behavior
  • Experiment by raising/lowering peoples sense of
  • control and noting effects

27
Locus of Control
  • A number of studies have shown that offenders
    tend to external control, that is they explain
    their behaviour as being controlled by influences
    beyond their personal control (Beck and Ollendick
    1976 Kumchy and Sayer 1980).
  • other studies have failed to show any difference
    in locus of control between offender and
    non-offender samples (Drasgow et al. 1974 Groh
    and Goldenberg 1976)
  • Lefcourt and Ladwig (1965) found offenders to be
    more internally controlled than non-offenders.

28
Locus of Control
  • The varied findings are probably due to two
    unfounded assumptions that locus of control is a
    unitary concept, and that offenders form a
    homogeneous population.
  • a number of studies have shown that there are
    several dimensions to locus of control, such as
    belief in control over one's immediate
    environment as opposed to belief in control over
    political events (Mirels 1970).

29
Locus of Control
  • locus of control within an offender population
    may be a function of race (Griffith et al. 1981)
    type of offence, for example, violent offenders
    tend to external control (Hollin and Wheeler
    1982) or time spent in prison (Kiessel 1966).

30
Impulsivity
  • Failure in self-control
  • Unable to delay reward
  • a failure to learn to stop and think
  • a failure to learn effective thinking'
  • a failure to generate alternative responses
  • a reflection of hopelessness.

31
Impulsivity
  • Studies designed to find a link between
    impulsivity and crime give mixed results
  • The difference between studies may be due to
  • differing definitions and measures of
    impulsivity,
  • and the heterogeneity of the offender population.

32
Impulsivity
  • Uncontrolled episodes of anger may result from
    impulsivity or a tendency to follow impulses
    instinctively and without thought for the
    consequences.
  • It has been suggested that this is a common
    characteristic of most offending behaviour, i.e.
    the satisfaction of immediate needs.

33
Impulsivity
  • Impulsivity is strongly associated with
    psychopathy and anti-social personality
    (Blackburn, 1993)
  • can be measured using the Minnesota Multi-phasic
    Inventory (MMPI)

34
Cognitive-Social Learning
  • Learned Helplessness
  • Seligman (1975)
  • Learned helplessness
  • the expectancy that one cannot escape aversive
    events the motivational learning deficits
    that result from the belief.
  • Human depression
  • Explanatory style
  • pessimistic explanatory style
  • causes of misfortune internal rather than
    external
  • stable global
  • positive illusions
  • Optimism

35
cognitive scripts (Huesmann, 1988).
  • A script is the details of how people should
    behave in a certain situation and what will
    happen if they behave that way.
  • These are learnt from the environment in direct
    experience and from watching others, and from the
    media.
  • But each script is unique to an individual, yet
    resistant to change.

36
cognitive scripts (Huesmann, 1988).
  • They become more resistant with use and rehearsal
    over time. For example, if insulted, a man with
    an aggressive script' will respond violently. He
    will justify this behaviour by seeing the insult
    as aggression, and aggression must be faced by
    aggression.

37
cognitive scripts (Huesmann, 1988).
  • During high levels of physiological arousal,
    people resort to largely unthinking behaviour,
    and thus well-rehearsed scripts' take over.
  • So to teach non-aggressive scripts' will reduce
    violence in situations of high arousal (Zillmann
    (1988))

38
McGuire (1969) Matrix of communication
  • The source effective from another socially
    powerful offender
  • The message agreeable information presented
    first. Immunisation against persuasion weak
    arguments against crime easily countered e.g.
    Yes, you could be caught, but the odds in your
    favour are 20 to 1, and only mugs get caught.

39
McGuire (1969) Matrix of communication
  • The channel face to face, in a pleasant context
  • The receiver recent failure uses cognitive
    rehearsal e.g. sleep on it
  • The destination.

40
Incentives
  • Primary food, drink, sex
  • Sensory boredom, seeking new experiences
    important at the beginning of a career and for
    person crimes
  • Monetary important for late in career, property
    crimes
  • Social increase in social contacts
  • Status/power built up from a series of successful
    crimes
  • Self-evaluative professional pride.

41
The target
  • propinquity (the targets being close to where the
    criminal lives)
  • payoff
  • vulnerability ability to defend
  • access to law enforcement policing, unlikely to
    be reported

42
The risk involved
  • detection
  • punishment
  • estimation of risk over-estimated by law-abiders

43
Skills and resources
  • skilled in physical attack, cracking safes

44
Opportunity to obtain same objective by legal
means
  • relevant to acquisition stage,
  • those at performance stage combine legitimate and
    criminal activities

45
Criminogenic factors
  • Alcohol/drugs, possession of firearms, factors
    that increased the likelihood of a criminal act.
    Override rational thinking
  • Drugs, need to steal to pay for drugs.
  • Alcohol, this inhibits behaviour. More confident
    but less capable. Higher crime but also higher
    chances of being caught. Also increases
    helplessness in potential victims. Cohen et al
    (1956), bus drivers more optimistic about driving
    buses through small gap but were less successful.

46
Cognitive consequences and distortions.
  • It is central to much of social psychology that
    people try to maintain cognitive consistency
    between their attitudes and their actions, and
    that they experience a subjective sense of
    discomfort when there is inconsistency. It is
    easier to resolve this by changing ones
    cognitions than ones behaviour (Berkowitz 1969).

47
Moral justification.
  • This operates on the nature of the behaviour
    itself. What is culpable can be made honourable
    through cognitive restructuring... reprehensible
    conduct is made personally and socially
    acceptable by portraying it in the service of
    moral ends (Bandura 1986, p. 376). As an
    example, Bandura points to military training
    people who have been taught to deplore killing as
    immoral can be transformed rapidly into skilled
    combatants. In the criminological context moral
    justification is likely to be associated with
    political crimes.

48
Attribution of blame.
  • Offenders seek to exonerate themselves by
    attributing the blame for their actions to the
    victim.
  • The most obvious example is that of rape a
    claim that in the past was frequently accepted by
    the courts.
  • It will be found also in other person crimes and
    to some extent in property crimes.

49
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