Cognitive theories

• What are cogntive theories?


  Argue that our mental processes shape our behaviour

  • how we interpret a situation affects how we respond to it
  • if we interpret a situation as threatening it may trigger feelings of fear or anger
• What is Kohlberg’s moral development theory?

  Stages of moral reasoning from childhood to adult hood

  Childhood - define right or wrong simply if we get punishments or rewards

  Adulthood - ideas of right and wrong involve an understanding of underlying moral principles and values
• Where does Kohlberg place criminal’s on his moral development scale?


  Less mature level - think solely on terms of rewards or punishments to rather than how it might affect others
• What are the strengths of moral development theory?


  Studies show delinquents are more likely to have immature moral development which the theory predicts

  Theory to be truer for crimes such as theft and robbery as they involve reasoning
• What are the limitations of moral development theory?


  Focuses on moral thinking rather than moral behaviour

  • someone may be perfectly capable of thinking morally whilst acting immorally
• What is criminal personality theory?

  Criminals are prone to faulty thinking making them more likely to commit crime
• What are thinking errors in relation to criminal personality theory?


  criminals show a range of errors and biases in their thinking and decision making

  • lying, need for power and control, failure to understand others positions, seeing themselves as victims
  • leads them to commit crime
• What are the strengths of criminal personality theory?


  Successful treatments - cognitive behaviour therapy - developed based on the idea that criminals behaviour can be corrected with treatment

  Criminal thinking patterns different from normal led to other research

  • psychological inventory of criminal thinking style questionnaire
  • whether someone shows criminal thinking patterns
• What are the limitations of criminal personality theory?

  Not using a control group of non-criminals to see if normal make the same thinking errors

  sample is unrepresentative

  • no women, most men had been found insane and sent to psychiatric hospitals
  • still said all offenders share the same thinking rates