| What is the first level? | Pre-conventional morality |
| What is stage 1 and stage 2 of level 1? | Stage 1: Punishment orientation, rules are obeyed to avoid punishment
Stage 2: Instrumental orientation or personal gain, Rules are obeyed for personal gain |
| What is level 2? | Conventional morality? |
| What is stage 3 and 4 in level 2? | Stage 3: ‘Good boy’ or ‘Good girl’ orientation. Rules are obeyed for approval
Stage 4: Maintenance of social order. Rules are obeyed to maintain the social order/norms |
| What is level 3? | Post-conventional morality |
| What is stage 5 and 6 in level 3? | Stage 5: Morality of contract and individual rights. Rules are obeyed if they are impartial democratic rules are challenged if they infringe on the rights of others
Stage 6: Morality of conscience. The individual establishes his or her own rules in accordance with a personal set of ethical principles. |
| Where are criminal more likely to be in Kohlberg's model? | Pre-conventional level - less mature, commit crimes to gain reward and avoid punishment
People at a higher level are more sympathetic and non-violent |
| What is cognitive distortions? | Errors or biases in people’s processing that are characterised by faulty thinking - criminals use it interpret other people and justify their behaviour |
| What is hostile attribution bias? | Misinterpreting the actions of other people, often assuming that they are being confrontational when they are not - misread non-aggressive cue, may trigger a violent response |
| Where does hostile attribution bias come from? (research support) | Childhood - Dodge and Frame, showed a video of 'ambiguous provocation), children that were 'aggressive' or 'rejected' more likely to interpret the behaviour as hostile. |
| What is minimalisation? | Attempting to deny or downplay the seriousness of an offence - May apply a euphemistic label, doing a job |
| When is minimalisation more common? | People that have committed sexual offences - Barbaree - 40% rapists minised the harm and 54% denied committing any offence.
Pollock and Hashmall, 35% of child molestors said their crime was non-sexual and 36% said that the child consented. |
| What is a strength of the cognitive explanation of offending? | -Proven beneficial in the treatment of criminal behaviour
-CBT is a dominant approach in treating sex offenders, establishes a less disorderted view of thier action by addressing irrational thoughts of justification
-Studies show that was a reduction of denial and minimasiation therapy has reduced the risk of recidivism.
-Key feature of anger management therapy - accepting responsiblity for crimes, practicial application to real life, increase ecological validity. |
| A weakness of Kohlberg's model? | -Doesn't account for some important individual dfferences
-Those committing crimes for finanical gain more likely to be at the pre-conventional level. Associated with crimes where they think they can get awway with it
-Impulsive crimes like assualt tend to not have reasoning at all. Langdon suggests intelligence is a better predictor for crime than moral reasoning. Often people with low intelligence are much more likely to commit crimes
-Question the validity of the stage model and wider generlisability as well as this, the stage model is reductionist |
| A weakness of the cognitive approach to criminality? | -It is descriptive, not explanatory
-Cognitive approach is really good at describing what happens with the criminal mind - but struggles to explain why or how these thoughts initally come about
-Can be useful to predict reoffending - but it doesn't offer insight into why the crime was committed in the first play
-Need to consider other approach to actually explain the origin of the crime seeing as it is a reductionist outlook that is only a part explanation |
