PSYC2011 || A+ Verified Solutions.
What are the four main subfields of psychology? correct answers Clinical, social, developmental
and cognitive.
What are the ways in which social psychology can influence the legal system? correct answers
Jury, what groups this person affiliates with, interrogation. Bias, racial bias, youth as a social
group, group dynamics and how they are likely to interact with other members of their groups.
What are the ways in which developmental psychology can influence the legal system? correct
answers Competence (in adolescence) and in family court systems.
What are the ways in which clinical psychology can influence the legal system? correct answers
Rehabilitation, sentencing, how accountable they are for their actions and if there are any
mitigating circumstances involved.
What are the ways in which cognitive psychology can influence the legal system? correct
answers False memories in confessions and interrogations, cognitive biases, police and jury
biases.
What are the four important characteristics of an effective program? correct answers (a) provide
services only where they can have the most impact: to those most likely to reoffend;
(b) base the goals of treatment on the changeable correlates of reoffending, such as a criminal's
relationships with criminal peers, "pro-crime" attitudes and beliefs, and misuse of alcohol and
drugs;
(c) use methods with good empirical support to help criminals change (e.g., modeling of desired
behavior, positive reinforcement for change); and
(d) monitor therapists and programs carefully to minimize drift away from these core principles
(Andrews & Bonta, 2010).
In a meta-analysis, what was the mean difference in reconviction for treated individuals
compared to untreated, and why was this important? correct answers 0.12. This was important
because there conviction rate for imprisonment is at best, approximately 0.00.
What was the findings from a study comparing released psychopathic patients from the Oak
Ridge program and psychopathic prisoners when examined on their criminal records? correct
answers A much greater percentage of psychopathic patients were convicted of new violent
crimes compared with psychopathic prisoners: 78% versus 55%.
Why does it seem unlikely for psychopaths to abuse treatment for their own good? correct
answers First, if these psychopaths had developed excellent skills in manipulating others, they
should have been less prone to adopt a crude method of manipulation such as violence in favor
of something more sophisticated. Instead, they found that psychopaths were more likely to have
been convicted for violence. Second, there is a more plausible alternative possibility: The Oak
Ridge program's regime of punishment increased psychopaths' propensity for violence. In fact,
other Oak Ridge data fit with this possibility: Regardless of whether patients were psychopathic,
,time spent being punished for "noncompliant behavior" in treatment was correlated with later
convictions for violent crimes.
What three accounts did Wright, Memon, Skagerberg, and Gabbert (2009) propose of why
eyewitnesses come to report incorrect information? correct answers 1) a witness's report may be
altered due to normative social influence. That is, a witness may decide that the cost of
disagreeing with law enforcement—or with other witnesses—is too high, and so he adjusts his
report accordingly.
2) through informational social influence processes, a witness comes to endorse a version of
events that is different from what he remembers because he believes it to be truer or more
accurate than his own memory.
3) a witness's memory can become distorted, sometimes as the result of being exposed to
incorrect or misleading information. This is called the misinformation effect.
What did Wright and colleagues (2009) suggest would be a technique for protecting the integrity
of eyewitness's recollection? What did the technique show? correct answers Known as the
cognitive interview, a set of rules and guidelines for interviewing eyewitnesses. The CI
recommends the use of free recall, contextual cues, temporal ordering of events, and recalling the
event from a variety of perspectives (such as from a perpetrator's point of view), as well as
investigators avoiding suggestive questioning, developing rapport with the witness, and
discouraging witnesses from guessing.
Results showed that the CI deterred the effects of suggestion, but only when it came before the
suggestive inter- view.
What does 'weapon focus' refer to? correct answers The concentration of a crime witness's
attention on a weapon, and the resultant reduction in ability to remember other details of the
crime.
What did Loftus and colleagues (1987) find about fixations on the gun and the check conditions?
And what was the consequence of this? correct answers The duration of the fixations on the
weapon was longer than on the check, 242.0 msec versus 200.3 msec. One consequence was a
reduced ability to recognize the individual holding the weapon, and they were less accurate when
they answered specific questions about him (compared to the check condition).
What did Loftus and colleagues (1987) suggest could be a reason for longer fixations on
weapons? correct answers Suggested that it may simply reflect a tendency to fixate on any
unusual object.
What are flashbulb memories? correct answers It is not the memory of the tragic news that
invites inquiry, but the memory of one's own circumstances on first hearing the news.
What was Livington's theory and what did it suggest? correct answers "Now print!" theory.
Activated by some surprising and biologically significant event by the nervous system, it affects
all immediately preceding as well as contemporaneous brain patterns. Contemporaneous brain
, activity will result in permanent neurological change is precisely what is needed to explain this
curious phenomenon.
What did Kovera and colleagues (2000) suggest to be effective in sensitizing judges to internal
validity threats? correct answers Attorneys need to be able to identify the threats themselves or
hire an expert to help them evaluate the scientific validity of the proposed testimony.
What did Kovera and colleagues (2000) suggest to be the reason for judges' reluctance to admit
the evidence? correct answers May be because of their general bias against psychology rather
than their ability to identify flawed evidence.
What core principle by Llewellyn the first to make explicit use of research provided by social
scientists? correct answers The rule to keep black and white children together in society as
keeping them separated was a violation of the fourteenth Amendment.
What does the law compared to psychology do? correct answers Psychology tells us how people
actually behave, and the law tells us how people ought to behave.
The law is based on authority: psychology is based on empiricism.
What is the primary goal of psychological science? correct answers To provide a full and
accurate explanation of human behaviour (interested in finding the truth).
Psychology emphasizes the characteristics of groups, while the law emphasizes individual cases.
Psychologists believe that our current understanding of human behaviour can and should be
continually revised in light of new and more extensive data.
What is the primary goal of the law? correct answers To regulate human behaviour (interested in
rendering justice).
How do law and psychology advance? correct answers Whereas law advances through the
accumulation of ruling produced by courts, psychology advances through the accumulation of
data produced by scientists.
what do lawyers do when arguing in front of judges? correct answers They cite precedents: past
decisions on legal issues in cases that are as similar as possible to the current case. The
persuasiveness of a legal argument rests to a substantial extent on whether the argument can be
tied to precedents. The idea is not to move too far from established precedent.
What is suborning perjury? correct answers Lawyers cannot knowingly permit witnesses to lie
under oath.
How many adults waive Miranda? correct answers 80-85%
How many juveniles waive Miranda? correct answers 95-100%
