Cognitive Explanations

• Kohlberg claims there are levels of moral reasoning and judgement is based on this reasoning
• Kohlberg claims people pass through the stages of moral reasoning through life but not all reach the highest levels of reasoning
• Kohlberg developed the stages of moral reasoning by giving different aged children moral dilemmas to see to see how their reasoning changed over time
• Kohlberg claims criminals have a lower level of moral reasoning as they seek rewards without punishment
• Kohlberg's 3 stages of moral reasoning; pre-conventional, conventional, post-conventional
• Kohlbergs Pre-conventional reasoning; punishment orientation (obedience to avoid punishment) instrumental orientation of personal gain (rules are obeyed for personal gain)
• Kohlbergs conventional reasoning; good boy/girl orientation (rules are obeyed for approval) maintenance of social order (obedience to as it is the norm)
• Kohlberg's post-convention reasoning; morality of contact and individual rights (impartial rules are obeyed, unfair ones are challenged) morality of conscience (establishes own rules in accordance to ethical principals)
• Cognitive distortions are irrational patterns of thought that cause inaccurate perception of reality
• 2 key cognitive distortions; hostile attribution bias and minimalisation
• hostile attribution bias is a cognitive distortion that means offenders are more likely to misread social cues such as inaccurately perceiving someone as aggressive causing them to act the same way
• Minimalisation is a cognitive distortion that causes offenders to downplay their offence to excuse it and reduce negative feelings surrounding it
• Strength; cognitive explanations are applicable to the real world to rehabilitate offenders as CBT aims to tackle cognitive distortions
• Strength; Palmer and Hollin (1998) compared moral reasoning in 332 non-offenders and 126 offenders using the socio-moral reflection measure short form containing 11 moral dilemmas and found offenders had less mature moral reasoning
• Weakness; Kohlberg developed the levels of moral reasoning using only boys suggesting alpha bias as it may not be applicable to girls; it also has ethical issues as children cannot fully consent to studies
• Weakness; Howitt and Sheldon (2007) gathered questionnaire responses from sex offenders and non-contact offenders and found non-contact offenders had more cognitive distortions showing it may be difficult to generalise as it applies differently to different offenders
• Weakness; Thornton and Reid (1982) found that offenders who committed crime for financial gain showed more pre-conventional reasoning than those who committed impulse crimes showing it only applied to certain types of crimes