Psychological explanations: cognitive explanations

• level of moral reasoning

  process by which an individual draws upon their own value system to determine whether an action is right or wrong
• Kohlberg's model and criminality

  • offenders are often more egocentric and poorer social perspective- taking skills
• cognitive distortions 


  faulty, biased and irrational ways of thinking that mean we perceive ourselves, other people and the world inaccurately and usually negatively
• hostile attribution bias


  tendency to judge ambiguous situations, or the actions of others, as aggressive and/or threatening when in reality they may not be
• minimalization 


  type of deception that involves downplaying the significance of an event or emotion. common strategy when dealing with feelings of guilt
• evaluation: level of moral reasoning evidence

  • palmer and hollin
  • compared moral reasoning between 210 female non-offenders, 122 male non-offenders, 126 convicted offenders
  • contained 11 moral dilemma- related questions such as not taking things that belong to others or keeping a promise
  • delinquent group showed less mature moral reasoning than the non-delinquent group
• evaluation: application of research

  • cognitive distortions have proven beneficial in the treatment of criminal behaviour
  • cognitive behaviour therapy- encourages offenders to 'face up'
  • studies- reduce incidence of denial and then reduces the risk of reoffending
• evaluation: individual differences


  • level of moral reasoning may depend on the type of offence