Cognitive Distortions

• what are cognitive distortions?

  • refer to patterns of negative or exaggerated thought, which can reinforce maladaptive behaviour.
  • In some cases, cognitive distortions can lead to mental health problems, such as depression
• what is hostile attribution bias?

  • refers to the extent to which an individual interprets the actions of others as hostile.
  • An individual with a high level of hostile attribution bias is more likely to see the benign and innocuous actions of another as hostility directed towards them.
  • This can obviously become problematic if other factors are involved, as an individual who has high hostile attribution bias could be inclined to get angry about what they have seen, making them more likely to be aggressive and therefore more likely to engage in criminal behaviour.
• what has research found out about hostile attribution bias? (1)

  • Eckhart, Barbour, and Davidson (1998) found that men who had committed domestic violence were more likely to display hostile attribution bias than men who were satisfied or distressed with their marriage, further supporting the link between hostile attribution bias and aggressive crime.
• what has research found out about hostile attribution bias? (2)

  • Copello and Tata (1980) found that adult male violent offenders were more likely to interpret ambiguous sentences, which could be seen as neutral or aggressive (e.g. “The painter drew with the knife”) as showing hostility than non violent offenders and non-offenders and concluded that there was an interpretative bias towards hostility, such as that which would be found in hostile attribution bias.
• what is minimalisation?

  • a type of cognitive bias where a person would be more likely to minimise or play down the severity of the circumstances that they are in.
  • It can also be seen as denial or self-deception as the downplaying of the situation highlights their non-acceptance of what they have done and is perhaps a way of dealing with the emotion of guilt.
  • In the context of offending behaviour, research suggests that offenders have a tendency to use minimisation as a way of reducing their guilt and perhaps even put some of the blame onto the victim as part of the process.
• what has research found about minimalisation?

  • Kennedy and Grubin (1992) found that the majority of convicted sex offenders tended to blame the victim, and a quarter of the sample interviewed believed that the abuse was a positive thing for the victim, thereby minimalizing their involvement.
• evaluation of cognitive distortions (1)

  • One criticism of cognitive biases as an explanation of involvement in offending behaviour is that they are more useful as a way of describing the thought processes that criminals go through after a crime has been committed. For example, minimisation accurately describes how a person might deal with their feelings of guilt, but it doesn’t explain how they got there in the first place. This is important because it is questionable as to how useful cognitive biases are as an explanation of offending behaviour.
• evaluation of cognitive distortions (2)

  • application to therapy - CBT aims to challenge irrational thinking. in the case of offending behaviour, offenders are encouraged to 'face up' to what they have done and establish a less distorted view of their actions. studies suggest that reduced incidence of denial and minimalisation in therapy is highly associated with a reduced risk oof reoffending. this suggests that the theory of cognitive distortions has practical value
• evaluation of cognitive distortions (3)

  • depends on the type of offence. researchers gathered questionnaire responses from sexual offenders. contrary to what the researchers predicted, they found that non-contact sex offenders used more cognitive distortions than contact sex offenders. those who had a previous history of offending were also more likely to use distortions as a justification. this suggests that distortions are not used in thesame way by all offenders