Cognitive Distortions

• What is a cognitive distortion ?

  Faulty, biased and irrational ways of thinking that mean we perceive ourselves, other people and the world inaccurately and usually negatively
• 2 Types of cognitive distortions:

  1. Minimalisation
  2. Hostile Attribution Bias
• Describe Minimalisation

  • downplays criminal behaviour
  • offenders do not accept the reality of the situation and rationalises what they have done (can help deal with guilt)
• Studies suggesting that individuals who commit sexual offences are particularly prone to minimalisation

  Barbaree (1991) amongst 26 incarcerated rapists, 54% denied they had committed an offence and a further 40% minimised the harm they caused to the victim
• Define hostile attribution bias

  the tendency to judge/ misinterpret ambiguous situations or the actions of others as aggressive and/ or threatening when in reality they may not be
• Study supporting hostile attribution bias - Schönenberg & Justye (2014)

  • presented 55 violent offenders with images of emotionally ambiguous facial expressions
  • When compared with non-aggressive matched controls, the violent offenders were significantly more likely to perceive the images as angry and hostile
• Research supporting that the roots of hostile attribution may be apparent in childhood- Dodge & Frame (1982)

  • Showed children a video clip of an ‘ambiguous provocation‘
  • Children who had been identified as ‘aggressive’ and prior to the study interpreted the situation as more hostile than those classed as ‘non-aggressive‘