Help
Options
Didn't know it?
click below
click below
Knew it?
click below
click below
Don't Know
Remaining cards (0)
Know
retry
shuffle
restart
0:00
Embed Code - If you would like this activity on your web page, copy the script below and paste it into your web page.
Normal Size Small Size show me how
Normal Size Small Size show me how
PSYC*465 Midterm
Terms for Psychology and the Law
| Definition | Term |
|---|---|
| Applying psychological principles to examine/aid various aspects of the legal system | Forensic psychology |
| Is this person able to understand their court proceedings? | Competency to stand trial |
| Is this person criminally responsible? | Insanity |
| Is this person likely to reoffend? What treatment is effective? | Recidivism/Treatment |
| What does this crime scene imply about the killer's personality? | Criminal profiling |
| How will jurors perceive this case? | Jury selection |
| What effects does abuse have on children? | Child custody case |
| Mock trials are frequently used for research in public policy, attitudes/bias from jury members, recidivism | Social psychology |
| What factors effect memory for eyewitnesses, how do psychopaths react to certain words compared to the public | Cognitive psychology |
| Expert witness testimony, evaluation tools, psychotherapy, etc. | Clinical psychology |
| Parental fitness, assess for DV and child abuse, etc. | Child psychology/Developmental psychology |
| Provide testing for placement if brain trauma is a factor, provide expert testimony, can conduct research comparing brain structures of the forensic population (psychopaths) versus general population | Neuropsychology |
| Aims to understand human behavior | Psychology |
| Aims to regulate human behavior and protect the rights of people | Law |
| Goal of improving human condition and behavior | Psychology and the Law |
| Psychologists can, when invited, act as advisors to various individuals in the legal system; trial consultants, expert eyewitnesses, victim advocates | Advisors |
| Jury selection, witness preparation/briefs, strategies | Trial consultants |
| Provide unbiased testimony based on assessments | Expert eyewitneses |
| Evaluate programs and practice (evaluation research, ex: "Does punishment deter people?") | Evaluators |
| Evaluator that develops new programs | Formative |
| Evaluators program progress/continue or discontinue | Summative |
| Advocate for change in legal system based on research, influence legislatures and public policy, educate legal professionals about psychological findings and influence legislation through lobbying | Reformers |
| Need evaluators to provide updated research and base their evaluation findings on reformers change and advise legal professional on changed policy | Advisors |
| Need reformers to advocate for funding for programs and to advocate for already designed programs | Evaluators |
| Need evaluators research to advocate for change | Reformers |
| Exposure of psychology students to law and vice versa, dual training | Cross-disciplinary education |
| Assessments primarily used for child custody cases/fitness to parent, sexual harassment cases, personal injury suits (pain and suffering), competency to enter into contracts; expert witness testimony | Civil law |
| Statements made under oath by a qualified individual (expert) during a trial or deposition | Expert eyewitness testimony |
| Analyze, compare, identify and interpret physical evidence | Forensic scientist |
| Identify motive, seek out confession, and link person of interest to the crime | Detectives |
| Apply psychiatry to the law, can conduct evaluations, prescribe medications, have a medical degree/attend medical school | Forensic psychiatrists |
| False, fixed belief | Delusion |
| Clearly implausible | Bizarre delusions |
| Plausible but lacks evidence | Nonbizarre delusions |
| Belief they are being targeted for harm | Paranoid |
| Belief of having exceptional abilities | Grandiose |
| Belief that a person is in love with them | Erotomanic |
| Belief partner is unfaithful | Jealous |
| Perception like experience that occur without external stimulus | Hallucination |
| Most common, typically voices (can be familiar and unfamiliar), NOT heard as one's own thoughts | Auditory |
| May see objects, people, patterns, shadows | Visual |
| Observed through speech, loose associations, and incoherence | Disorganized thinking |
| Rigid, bizarre postures, lack of verbal or motor responses | Catatonic |
| May appear tic-like | Repeated movements |
| Very common in schizophrenia but not other psychotic disorders | Negative symptoms |
| Reductions in expressions, eye contact, and body language | Diminished emotional expressions |
| Decrease in purposeful activities | Avolition |
| Arousal from exposing oneself to an unsuspecting person | Exhibitionist |
| Arousal from observing unsuspecting person who is naked; "peeping tom" | Voyeuristic |
| Arousal from touching or rubbing against a nonconsenting individual | Frotteuristic |
| Arousal by sexual activity with a prepubescent child (generally under 13) | Pedophilic |
| Disregard or violation for the rights of others since age 15 | Antisocial personality disorder |
| A set of guidelines created by the American Psychological Association (APA) designed to ensure ethical behavior and decision-making among psychologists | APA Code of Conduct |
| The introductory statement outlines the purpose and philosophy behind the Code, emphasizing the psychologist's role in serving society | Preamble |
| These are aspirational goals, such as benefiting others and respecting dignity and rights, guiding psychologists in their overall approach to their work | General principles |
| These are enforceable rules that specify the behavior expected of psychologists. They cover a wide range of professional issues, including competence, confidentiality, and conflict of interest | Ethical standards |
| The obligation to not inflict harm to clients or co-workers | Beneficence and nonmaleficence |
| Awareness of professional responsibilities to society, clients, colleagues, and the organization they work for | Fidelity and responsibility |
| Honest, accurate, and truthful in their professional work | Integrity |
| Ensuring fairness and equality | Justice |
| Respect the dignity, autonomy, and privacy of all clients | Respect for people's rights and dignity |
| Heart rate and blood pressure fluctuations (arm cuff) | Cardiovascular activity |
| Both rate and "depth"---gauges wrapped around the chest and abdomen | Respiration |
| Sweat production in the hands or fingertips | Electrodermal activity |
| Actively making a false statement | Commission |
| Withholding the truth | Omission |
| Emotional processing---regulates essential bodily functions and behaviors | Amygdala and Hypothalamus |
| Sympathetic nervous system and parasympathetic nervous system | Autonomic nervous system |
| "Fight or flight" provides energy needed to act in response to the perceived threat---causes the hormone epinephrine to increase | Sympathetic nervous system |
| Calms the body when danger has passed | Parasympathetic nervous system |
| A painful task would be assigned to the person and if they were innocent "God would make it known" | Trial by Ordeal |
| Created by Marston Deception Test | Dr. William Marston |
| Created the cardio-pneumo-psychogram (blood pressure, pulse, respiration) | John Larson |
| Keeler polygraph | Leonarde Keeler |
| Prohibited most private employers from using the polygraph as a requirement for employment (federal, state, and local government employers can still use it) | Polygraph Protection Act |
| Once we form a strong belief, we tend to seek out evidence that confirms that belief and dismiss evidence that contradicts that belief | Confirmation bias |
| "Read" verbal and nonverbal behavior; crossing legs, shifting and fidgeting, grooming gestures, avoiding eye contact | Liar's stereotype |
| Neutral questions to establish a baseline response---"Have you ever betrayed anyone who trusted you?" | Control question |
| Questions relating to the case---"Did you shoot your wife?" | Relevant question |
| Mock juries: randomly assigned | Laboratory studies |
| Use actual suspects | Field studies |
| Based on the Daubert Standard (previously known as the Fyre Standard) | Admissible |
| If both parties agree to their use beforehand | Conditional admissibility |
| Approximately 25 states have banned polygraph evidence in courts | No admissible |
| States scientific evidence is admissible only if the technique is "generally accepted" by the scientific community | Frye Standard |
| Based on judges opinion; whether the theory or technique can be and has been tested, whether it as undergone peer review and publication, what are the known or potential error rates, are there set standards, general acceptance within the scientific world | Daubert Standard |
| The effect of polygraph evidence on people's judgments of guild | Cavoukian |
| A tremor in the blood: uses and abuses of the lie detector | Lykken |
| The effects of the polygraph evidence and eyewitness testimony on the beliefs and decisions of mock jurors | Spanos |
| Theory: human emotions (happiness/enjoyment, sadness, fear, anger, surprise, disgust and contempt) are shared by everyone, even across cultures and we can see that through universal facial expressions; identifies 43 sets of muscles that show emotion | Facial Action Coding System |
| Tracks blood flow/oxygen levels to different parts of the brain---measurements are taken about once per second | Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging |
| The drain on mental resources that occurs when performing a task | Cognitive load |
| Monitors change in the heat of the human face; lying will produce arousal---arousal produces physiological change | High-definition infrared thermal imaging |
| Interrogators accuse the suspect of having committed the crime (citing real or fabricated evidence) | Step 1 |
| Interrogators offer the suspect some possible excuses for having committed the crime | Step 2 |
| Interrogators persistently cut off attempts by the suspect to deny involvement in the crime | Step 3 |
| Interrogators overcome the explanations offered by the suspect to support the denials | Step 4 |
| Interrogators make an effort to hold the attention of the suspect, who may have become withdrawn after an extended and intense period of questioning. At this stage, the interrogator must appear sincere and understanding and may move closer to the suspect | Step 5 |
| By this time, suspects are usually showing signs of "giving up," and the interrogator should maintain eye contact and move the suspect toward an admission of guilt | Step 6 |
| Interrogators reframe the issue for the suspect as a choice between having committed the crime for a good reason or having committed the crime for a bad reason | Step 7 |
| Interrogators elicit a full confession from the suspect | Step 8 |
| Interrogators write out the confession so the suspect can sign it | Step 9 |
| Physical location and the process of interrogation is determined by the interrogator; interview is conducted in small, sparse, uncomfortable room; leads suspects to feel vulnerable, anxious, and off-balance | Loss of control |
| Not allowed to see or talk to family, friends, etc., not allowed to seek comfort from outside world; deprives suspect of emotional support; makes it difficult for suspect to assess the interrogator's claims during the interrogation | Social isolation |
| Accusatory, closed-ended questions; dismiss denials and explanations; present fictious evidence; designed to make the suspect feel like their denial is useless | Certainty of guilt |
| List acceptable explanations for why the suspect may have committed crime, promises reduced punishment; imply but avoid saying that the judge/jury will be lenient; works by shifting the blame from suspect to someone else | Minimization of culpability |
| Citations of real or fabricated evidence that clearly establishes the suspect's guilt | Evidence ploys |
| Decline in the self-regulation abilities (control thoughts, emotions, and goal-oriented behaviors) necessary to resist the forces of influence inherent to interrogation; stressors are severe fatigue, sleep deprivation, emotional distress, etc. | Interrogation-Related Regulatory Decline |
| Suspects confess to crimes not committed due to exhaustion and the need for the interrogation to end; most common false confession in criminal cases | Instrumental-coerced |
| Suspects provide false confession as means to protect someone else | Instrumental-voluntary |
| Suspect becomes convinced of own guilt after long, intense interrogation | Internalized-coerced |
| Suspect suffers from delusions and confesses with little or no pressure from interrogation | Internalized-voluntary |
| Uncovering information about national security threats (conducted by military, the CIA, or the FBI) | HUMINT (Human Intelligence) |
| Withholding evidence in ways that expose contradictions between a suspect's claims and the available facts | SUE (Strategic Use of Evidence) |
| P in PEACE: prior to the interrogation and involves studying the case materials | Preparation |
| E in PEACE: building rapport stage and explaining interrogation procedures | Engage |
| A in PEACE: information-gathering step, elicit a full account of the crime from the suspect | Account |
| C in PEACE: the interrogator summarizes the details told to them to encourage further recall and disclosure. Follow-up procedures are clarified during this stage | Closure |
| E in PEACE: occurs after the interrogation, interrogators reflect on the interrogation | Evaluation |
| The process where a person has witnessed a crime identifies a suspect | Eyewitness identification |
| Created using computer technology, typically used for when the police do not have a suspect yet | Sketches |
| Witness is brought to the scene by an officer to identify the suspect (only one individual is used) | Showup |
| Photographs are shown to an eyewitness for the purpose of identifying or eliminating suspects | Photo array |
| Live individuals are presented to an eyewitness for the purpose of identifying or eliminating suspects | Lineup |
| The administrator conducting the identification procedure does not know the suspect's identity | Double blind presentation |
| The administrator may know the identity of the suspect but does not know which lineup or photo array member is being viewed by the eyewitness at any given time | Blinded presentation |
| A statement in the witness's own words taken immediately after an identification is made | Confidence statement |
| Involves collecting information and putting it in a form that can lead to storing; uses 5 senses | Encoding |
| Holds the encoded information in the brain over time; short term memory and long term memory | Storage |
| Being able to pull that information from storage, can be consciously or unconsciously; "pathways" in the brain that were used in the encoding process are reactivated during this process | Retrieval/Recall |
| Unconscious transference, preexisting expectations, leading or suggestive comments | Memory errors |
| Face seen in one context transferred to another | Imperfect encoding |
| Interaction of beliefs about sequence of actions in a case (scripts) with prior knowledge | Memory trace deterioration |
| May recall incorrectly due to wording of questions | Retrieval distortion |
| The neural pathway of memories in the brain | Memory trace |
| Brain cells that support memory | Engram cells |
| Witness's opportunity to view perpetrator | Manson Criteria 1 |
| Witness's level of attention | Manson Criteria 2 |
| Accuracy of witness's previous offender description | Manson Criteria 3 |
| Witness's degree of certainty | Manson Criteria 4 |
| Time lapse between crime and identification | Manson Criteria 5 |
| Discuss definitions, procedures, alternative methods for identification, and training for law enforcement officers; failure to follow will result in inadmissibility or the defense can argue misidentification | Eyewitness Identification Reform Act |
| Questions phrased to suggest a certain answer that is not the own answer of the individual; can inflate a witness's certainty or can lead to witnesses to overestimate how clear a view they had of the perpetrator | Suggestive questioning |
| It is harder for people to recognize the faces of people outside their racial group than it is for people to recognize the faces of people within their racial group | Cross-race effect |
| Witness focuses on weapon, not the assailant | Weapon focus effect |
| Firm belief of how sequence of events will occur in a particular situation; unconsciously fill gaps in memory | Scripts |
| Someone else's facial characteristics are transferred in memory to the crime that was witnessed | Unconscious transference |
| Makes the witness feel secure in their answer to the extent that it distorts memory | Post-identification feedback effect |
| Factors outside the legal systems control | Estimator variables |
| Factors that the legal system can control | System variables |
| Encoding, storage, or retrieval errors; unconscious transference; preexisting expectation; cross-racial identifications; age; details of the incident | Estimator variables |
| Identification procedures, biased or suggestive questioning | System variable |
| Pre-Lineup Interviews: Conduct interviews as soon as possible after crime (memory deterioration or confidence increase) | Step 1 |
| Pre-Lineup Interviews: Have video recording of what eyewitness reported "just after witnessing a crime" | Step 2 |
| Pre-Lineup Interviews: Use open-ended questions (avoid suggestive or leading questions) | Step 3 |
| Pre-Lineup Interviews: Ask about if the witness knows the suspect (familiarity increases accuracy) | Step 4 |
| Pre-Lineup Interviews: Instruct witness not to discuss crime with other witnesses | Step 5 |
| To suspect an individual is guilty of the specific crime being investigated (unique physical identification, self-incriminating statements made by suspect, physical evidence, etc.); helps avoid a perpetrator absent lineup | Evidence-based grounds |
| Ensure that the administrator does not know who the suspect is in the lineup; a detective NOT involved in the case should work with the eyewitness during lineup procedures | Double-blind lineups |
| One suspect per lineup, at least 5 appropriate fillers (similar features to suspect, cannot make the suspect stand out) | Lineup fillers |
| A technique for inducing an altered state of consciousness that requires relaxation, focus, and heightened suggestibility | Hypnotherapy |
| Hypnosis: Practicing progressive muscle relaxation, breathing technique, or focusing on a visual image | Stage one |
| Hypnosis: Relaxation techniques continue but start to include the use of descending imagery | Stage two |
| Hypnosis: The person is instructed to revert to the scene of the crime using guided imagery and the therapist asks carefully formulated questions | Stage three |
| A distorted recollection of something that never happened or was experienced differently than recalled | False memories |
| Individuals who remember something vividly during hypnosis become very confident in their newly made memory | Memory hardening |
| A step by step procedure typically done by law enforcement that helps the witness to reinstate details of the crime to retrieve accurate information | The Cognitive Interview |
| Refreshing the Memories: Rapport building and getting comfortable | Stage 1 |
| Refreshing the Memories: Reinstate the context of the crime (asking about general activities and feelings on the day using the 5 senses) | Stage 2 |
| Refreshing the Memories: Go deeper into the context by recalling events in reverse order or different orders | Stage 3 |
| Refreshing the Memories: Describe events from someone else's point of view | Stage 4 |
| Drawing inferences about a criminal's personality, behavior, motivation, and demographics based on crime scene and other evidence | Profiling |
| Murderers who kill two or more people in separate events with a cooling-off period between murders | Serial killers |
| The distinctive, personal feature that the killer leaves at each crime scene (e.g., a particular form of torture or a particular sexual activity, posing of the body, taking "souvenirs", mutilation) | Signature |
| Specific methods, techniques, and strategies a killer uses | Modus Operandi (MO) |
| Profiling: Evaluation of the criminal act itself/data collection---preliminary police reports, autopsy reports, photos | Step 1 |
| Profiling: Comprehensive evaluation of the specifics of the crime scene---determining organized/disorganized behavior, modus operandi (MO), and signature) | Step 2 |
| Profiling: Comprehensive analysis of the victim---characteristics of victims and what they reveal about the offender | Step 3 |
| Profiling: Development of profile with critical offender characterize---profiling age, gender, occupation, mental state, etc. | Step 4 |
| Profiling: Investigation suggestions---informing law enforcement of suspect characteristics and behaviors | Step 5 |
| Average intelligence, impaired rational thinking, childhood maladjustment, domination of victim and drug use before killing, preference for victim type, obsession with violent pornography | Patterns in male serial killers |
| Seek out powerless victims, more likely to include family members, motivated by money | Patterns in female serial killers |
| Intelligent, social, blend in well; carefully select, stalk, and plan---little evidence left; use manipulation and seek control over victims; use more elaborate rituals; move body and dispose weapon | Organized |
| Low intelligence, history of mental illness; impulsive, lack of planning---use available weapons; lacks social skills, live alone, struggle to maintain relationships; attack includes excessive violence, use dead body for sexual purposes; body left | Disorganized |
| Out of touch with reality, psychotic, hear voices, have visions | Visionary |
| Kill people they believe are evil | Mission-oriented |
| Kill others for thrills, the majority of serial killers | Hedonistic |
| Get satisfaction from victim capture and control before killing | Power-oriented |
| Derive sexual pleasure from their crimes | Lust killers |
| Enjoy the excitement and fear caused by their crimes | Thrill killers |
| Kill for life comforts such as money or business interests | Comfort killers |
| Satisfaction from exercising complete power, they enjoy the capture and control, will use psychological manipulation will prolong killing, sexual activity frequently occurs but for control factors and not lust | Power-oriented |
| The degree to which characteristics or behaviors change or don;t change based on the social setting | Cross situational consistency |
| Conclusions or assumptions made based on limited, ambiguous, or indirect evidence | Speculative inferences |
| Information based on locations associated with the crime, looks for crime pattern and routine activity (crime scene/body dumped/witness reports) | Geographic profiling |
| Most criminals operate within a circle or radius around their home location | Circle theory of environmental range |
| May be the home or workplace of the suspect | Anchor point |
| Near a criminals home---less likely to commit crimes here for fear of neighbors or acquaintances seeing | Buffer zone |
| Likely where most of the criminal acts will occur | Comfort zone |
| Crimes become less likely the further you get away from the suspect's home | Distance decay |
| Arguments about assets specified in a will, a psychological autopsy can be used as testimony in court | Civil cases |
| Reluctance to allow psychology autopsy reports and testimony into court cases | Criminal cases |
| Personality construct characterized by specific emotional and interpersonal trains | Psychopathy |
| No sense of morality or empathy, more calculating, manipulative, and charming, can function well in society, biological abnormalities in the brain, dysregulated dopamine levels, have a stronger genetic base | Psychopath |
| Possess some emotion, more prone to emotional responses and dysregulation, impulsive, low levels of serotonin, shaped more by environmental and social factors | Sociopath |
| A persuasive pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others, occurring since age 15 years | Antisocial personality disorder |
| Those who habitually violate the rights of others and do not conform their behavior to the law or appropriate social norms for their age | Conduct disorder |
| A persistent pattern of anger/irritable mood, argumentative/defiant behavior, and vindictiveness lasting at lease 6 months | Oppositional defiant disorder |
| Child who is labeled as a troublemaker may grow to fit the mold because they were labeled | Self-fulfilling prophecy |
| Inability to empathize or feel remorse, have shallow emotion | Psychopath emotional traits |
| Manipulative, come across as charming and charismatic, behavior is generally more controlled/might not react appropriately to stressful events | Psychopath behavioral traits |
| Successful in work (jobs of power), lack of long-term relationships but still we have "friends" | Psychopath social functioning |
| Inability to construct a mental and emotional understanding of others | Lack of empathy |
| Displays psychopathic traits but operates in corporate or professional environments | White-collar psychopath |
| Processing emotions (fear and empathy)---reduced volume and altered functioning | Amygdala |
| Involved in decision making---impulse control and moral reasoning---reduced activation | Prefrontal cortex |
| Between the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex | Connectivity |
| Does not work for psychopaths---they lack the ability to fear things or become anxious or nervous; they have no conscience | Punishment |
| Common in prisons so its available to psychopaths, HOWEVER, results suggest it does more harm than good | Group therapy |
| Originally developed to treat borderline personality disorder, focuses on emotional regulation, distress tolerance, and impulse control | Dialectical Behavior Therapy |
| Antipsychotics or SSRIs may help alleviate irritability or impulsivity---impact is minimal | Medication |
| Like parent management training and school-based programs aimed at improving emotional regulation, empathy, and prosocial behavior | Early intervention |
| An arrangement between the state and defense, in which the defendant will plead guilty in exchange for a lesser sentence | Plea bargain |
| I did it; will go on record, waving constitutional rights | Guilty |
| I'm not admitting guilt but I'm also not disputing the charges; will go on record, waving constitutional rights | No contest |
| I didn't do it; might go on record, results in a trial | Not guilty |
| Due to a mental illness, the individual was not capable of telling right from wrong at the time of the crime | Not guilty by reason of insanity |
| The individual is guilty of the crime but was mentally ill at the time of the crime | Guilty but mentally ill |
| Right to trial by impartial juries for criminal cases | Sixth Amendment |
| Right to trial by impartial juries for most civil cases | Seventh Amendment |
| Aided in providing structure for the selection of juries; jurors selected at random and must be fair cross-section of community | Jury Selection and Service Act |
| Both civil and criminal cases, trials are generally public, 6 to 12 jurors, listens to evidence and returns a verdict, hear a maximum of one case and are then discharged | Petit jury |
| Only for criminal cases, private, 16-23 jurors, determine whether there is "probable cause" to believe an individual committed a crime and should be put on trial, usually serve up to 18 months | Grand jury |
| Jurors complete one to provide basic information and disclose any biases or conflicts of interest | Questionnaire |
| Requires a valid reason for removal, such as bias or inability to be impartial | For cause challenge |
| Allows removal without stating a reason | Peremptory challenge |
| Attorneys are awarded a certain number of these; defense typically gets more while the prosecution gets less; for a judge to reject one, it would have to violate a statute of some kind | Peremptory challenge |
| A challenge raised when one party believes that a juror has been excluded based on race, ethnicity, or sex | Baston challenge |
| All mentally competent, English-speaking, adult U.S. citizens who have not been convicted of a felony and who are living in the relevant jurisdiction | Jury pool |
| Group of eligible people summoned to report for jury duty | Sample |
| People who actually show up at the courthouse for jury duty | Venire |
| Stage at which jurors can be challenged and removed from the venire | Voir dire |
| Group that survives voir dire process (12 total) | Jury |
| Spokesperson for the jury---ensures participation, signs forms that accounts for the entire jury (the verdict form), and will announce the verdict | Foreperson |
| Closing arguments made by each attorney | Summation |
| Can be criminal or civil cases, but more consulting activities involve civil litigation (car malfunctions result in death, pharmaceuticals, asbestos); most used by companies that are being sued for large sums of money; most used by wealthy defendants | Trial consultant |
| A meeting between the defense and the prosecution that allows the opposing sides to question one another's witnesses. This helps each side prep for harmful but relevant evidence that could be used against them | Deposition |
Created by:
UkiyosDomain
Popular Psychology sets