How Psychological Research Has Helped in the Understanding of Criminal Behaviour Essay Example for Free

How mental Research Has Helped in the Understanding of Criminal Behaviour EssayAlbert Bandura created the bobo doll try in 1961, the ingest of this audition was to show that if peasantren where witnesses to bellicose displays by an adult of slightly sort they would imitate this conduct when attached an opportunity. The tested pigeonholing contained 36 young girls and 36 young boys all aged between 4 and 5 years which was then divided into 3 groups of 24 the warring condition, the non hostile condition and the stop group. The offset printing group involved the children watching raptorial clay sculptures, where the children where then subdivided by energize of the role cast they were exposed to. The second group involved the children watched non rapacious models, where the children were as well subdivided by the sex of the role model which they were exposed to. This left the two conditioned groups subdivided into eight observational groups each containing 6 sub jects. They were 6 boys with the alike(p) sex model, 6 boys with enemy model, 6 girls with the same sex model and 6 girls with the opposite model. With 3 different groups, Bandura had created a complicated design for the study which resulted in 3 independent variables the conditions the children were exposed to, the sex of the child and the sex of the role model.Each child was then tested individually and the findings where then save. The experiment was done in an artificial environment and the researcher manipulated the independent variables into the conditions. In branch one of the experiment, the children were brought into the experimental elbow room by the interrogationiner. The room was set out as a nursery play room since that was the appropriate setting for the age of the children. One corner of the room had been arranged as a childs play area consisting of a small table and chair and picture stickers.In the opposite corner of the room was where the adult models would b e followed by a small table and chair, tinker rook set and a five foot bobo doll. In the competitive condition the model began by vie with the tinker toy set but after a couple minutes the model glowering its attention to the bobo doll and was aggressive towards the doll in a real distinctive way. Were as in the non aggressive condition the model ignored the bobo doll and played with the tinker toys in a sort out up manner. After 10 minutes the children where then taken into new room.In stage two of the experiment the children were brought into a room with relativity attr functionive toys. In this room the children were to be subjected to mild incursion arousal. at a sentence the children started to play with the toys, the experimenter took them off the children claiming they had been reserved for the some other children. The children were then taken into the shoemakers last and final room for stage three of the experiment. In this room the children were told they could play with any toys in in that respect, the toys in stage three consisted of twain non aggressive and aggressive toys.The children were kept in the room for 20 minutes where observations were made through a one way mirror by judges. With the observation and findings of this experiment, three measures of imitation were obtained. For this study the observers looked specifically for responses from the children that were very similar to the display by the adult model. They included imitation of physical enmity, imitation of verbal aggression and imitation of non verbal aggression.With these observations, the researchers were able to consider which children imitate the models, which models the children imitated and whether the children showed a general increase of aggressive demeanor. The of import findings of this study were that the children in aggressive model condition made much aggressive responses than the children in the non aggressive condition. They also prove that the boy s made much aggressive responses than girls, as well as the sex of the children be much aggressive if the model was of the same sex.These findings support Banduras hearty watch overing theory that children learn social demeanour through observation breeding, which children learn through imitation. This study has doed in the consciousness of crook demeanor as children learn through imitation and the environment which they grow up in take away an meat on their behaviour. If a child has been brought up around call out, reprehensible activity or legitimate aggression then the child is most likely to offend by imitating their role model which could be a parent, sibling or even just a role model which they look up to.Philip Zimbardo (1971) Stanford prison house experiment Dr Philip Zimbardo created the Stanford prison experiment in 1971, the aim of this experiment was to find out the psychological effects of prison life, and to what extent digest moral people be seduced to act immorally. The study consisted of 24 students selected out of 75, the roles of these 24 men were randomly assigned, 12 to play prison guards and 12 to play prisoners. The prison set up was built inside the Stanfords psychological department, doors where taken of laboratoryoratory rooms and reset(p) with brand bars in order to create cells.At the end of the corridor was the small opening which became the solitary labour for the bad prisoners. Throughout the prison there were no windows or clocks to judge the passage in time, which resulted in time distorting experiences. After only a few hours, the participants adapted to their roles well beyond expectations, the officers jump displaying authorisation and subject some of the prisoners to humiliation and torture whilst the prisoners developed passive attitudes towards the guards and accepted the physical abuse that was accustomed to them.On the second day with surprise an unexpected rebellion broke out, reinforcement was called and more guards where to be on duty however the prisoners refused to leave their cells, barricading themselves in. This early in to the experiment the prisoners had already felt a loss of identity to the extent they started to refer to themselves as their inmate number rather than name. redden Dr Zimbardo himself-importance-importance-importance started to lose sight of his role in the experiment believing he was in fact a prison superintendent rather than a psychologist.Due to the extent of the rebellion the guards were forced to show more authority over them which led to the creation of the privileged cell. In order to break pull down the superior inmates the guards placed the good prisoners in the privileged cell for a few hours, then placed the good prisoners back into the bad cells causing confusion within the inmates, breaking the trust and isolating them. indoors a week the study was abandoned as the experiment was no longer a straightforward simulation, instead t he guards saw the prisoners as troublemakers they were made out to be.In response to this they began stepping up control, surveillance and aggression whilst the prisoner started breaking down emotionally being unable to handle the situation anymore. From the observations and information given by Dr Zimbardos reports, this study has helped in the understanding of criminal behaviour as it relates to imitation and conformity. The guards imitated the behaviour of real guards adapting the role quiet trueheartedly. The prisoners also adapted the role quickly falling into depression and conforming to each other.This also helps how a person mental state can shift their behaviour, with the prisoners they soon became blue and mentally unstable, and this shows that when put into a certain disciplinary situation the mind adapts causing them to act immorally. Solomon Ashce (1951) ossification experiment- Solomon Ashce conducted the conformity experiment in 1951. The aim of this experiment was to investigate the extent of social pressure from a majority group can prompt a person to conform. For this experiment Ashe used a lab experiment. Ashe used 8 participants for this experiment, 7 confederates and 1 naive participant.The 7 confederates had antecedently agreed to what their responses would be when presented with the breed task. However the real participant had no knowledge of this and was led to believe that the other 7 participants were also real. With this experiment each person had to state aloud which line was most like the target line, (A, B or C). The answer was always an obvious one. The real participant always gave his or her answer last in order to see if they conformed or not. In some trials, the confederates gave the wrong answer whereas in some they gave the correct obvious answer.In the experiment there was 18 trials altogether and the confederates gave the wrong answer 12 out of the total 18. Ashce main observation was to find out if the real partic ipant would end up conforming based on the majority views given by the other 7 participants. The results were then draw up and out of the 18 trails, around 75% of the trials the real participant conformed even though he or she knew the answers were wrong. From the observations, this study has helped in the understanding of criminal behaviour as it explains that criminals may have previously been highly exposed to much(prenominal) aggressive behaviour causing them to conform.This shows that publicly any source of aggressive behaviour or criminal activity can lead to conformity causing more criminal behaviour. Anderson and Dill (2000) Violence in ikon games study- Both Anderson and Dill conducted the relation between violence and video games study in 2000. The aim of this study was to find out how waste video games relate to aggressive behaviour. Their first study consisted of 227 students which were given a questionnaire in order to get information on their aggressive behaviour patterns.This study looked at the long-term exposure to video games and what effect it has on aggression towards people. The findings of the first study relating to the questionnaire came back with positive relations between the violence portrayed in video games and aggressive behaviour. The second study which Anderson and Dill conducted was to approach the impact that video games have on aggressive thoughts, social view and mood of a person. This study consisted of 210 students which were given a choice of 2 video games a non angry game Myst or a violent interactive video game Wolfstein 3D.With the non violent game the objective was to travel the island of Myst, finding clues and making your own ending depending on the journey you took. With the violent game the objective was to eliminate the enemy Adolf Hitler choosing your own hero and variety of weapons. With each game the students were allocated 3 slots for a period of 15minutes each. The findings of this study concluded Ande rson and Dills knowledge and opinions that those exposed to the violent video game gained more aggressive behaviour than those who were not exposed to violence.From the observations, this study has helped in the understanding of criminal behaviour as it states that playing video games may increase aggressive behaviour because the violent acts are continually iterate throughout the game. Video games also encourage players to identify and interact through role play of their favored characters causing them to imitate the character they are playing. Referring to first person in a game, it causes lead players to make their own decisions in the game affecting the actions of the character.Anderson and Dills studies show that after a limited amount of time playing violent video games, a player can start to automatically prime aggressive thoughts which can lead to aggressive behaviour. This shows that continually playing violent video games can affect a persons thought patters leading(p) to automatic aggressive behaviour through imitation of their favorite(a) characters which could lead to criminal activity. Jahoda name study (1954)- Jahoda created the name study or as it is also called the self fulfilling prophecy.Jahoda studied the Ashanti tribe people who gave their boys soul names depending on what day of the week they were born. For example, boys born a Monday were expected to be peaceful and full of good, whereas boys born on Wednesday which were called Kwaku were expected to be aggressive and quick tempered. Jahoda found that when looking at prison and court records 13. 5% of boys that had been referred to court to court where from boys that were born on Wednesday, yet they were responsible for over 22% of violent crimes which was significantly higher than would be expected and shows that Wednesdays boys tended to kick the bucket up to their reputation.However as for the boys born on Monday, they found that only 6. 9% of all juvenile person cases where of minor offences. This implies that stereotypes of the boys behaviours depending on which day of the week they were born caused them to live up to expectations of their names. Jahoda concluded from all this that there was indeed nothing magical about the day of the week the boys were born on but of effect of expectations has on a persons behaviour. From the observations and findings, this study has helped in the understanding of criminal behaviour as it links to the effect of rehabilitation and the study of the self fulfilling prophecy.If the offenders have the expectation that they should comport in such a way, rehabilitation may be more difficult. Overall the psychological theory of criminal behaviour suggests that negative expectations cause curtains to behave towards others in a specific way because their stereotypes self fulfilling prophecy. Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968) Self fulfilling prophecy- Both Rosenthal and Jacobson also conducted a self fulfilling prophecy study and t he way that people behave according to profiling or being stereotyped in 1968.Their study was conducted on students in a classroom which was also known as the Pygmalion in the classroom. The students were then put into groups of what the students think they result achieve, where they were then treated in a way that their ability group could achieve. All students completed an IQ test before the study. The findings of this study concluded Rosenthal and Jacobsons theory that when people are put into groups or have been stereotyped into a group can cause peoples behaviour to change as they will live up to the expectations of the stereotype.The findings found were that after two years the students that were put into the group for higher levels achieved higher than the other students in any other group. These students were known to have been given supererogatory feedback and extra attention so the finding expected had were correct. From the findings, this study has helped in the underst anding of criminal behaviour as it shows that when categorised into a stereotype, people soon learn to live up to that expectation, behaving in a certain way.This also has an impact on a persons self esteem, causing them to act undesirably and maybe even lead them to turn to crime. Eden (1990) Self fulfilling prophecy- Eden also conducted the self fulfilling prophecy study in 1990, this study explains why some people turn to crime imputable to the way they have been stereotyped or labelled into a certain group. For this study, Eden looked at the dressing of 1000 Israeli soldiers and had them organised into 29 platoons. Some platoon trainers were told their groups were above the average potential but other trainers were told nothing.The findings of this study showed that after 10 weeks the performance of all soldiers were assessed and was found that on both the written exam and weapon test, the soldiers who had been told they were above the average potential did boilersuit better t han others, even though all soldiers were at an average level. These findings concluded Edens expectations that when labelled into a certain group, a person can adjust to behave according to expectations within the labelled group.This study has helped in understanding of criminal behaviour as it shows the stereotypes and labelled groups can influence a persons self esteem leading them to behave in a certain way and if the stereotype is negative it can cause a person to turn to crime. Sheehan (1983) TV violence and aggression Sheehan conducted the TV violence and aggression study in 1983. This study consisted of a group of middle class children aged between 5 and 10 to help find the link between childrens TV viewing and aggressive behaviour.Throughout the study data was gathered about the participants parents and the researchers also asked about the childrens aggressive fantasies to whether it would physically injure a person. Sheehan found that there were correlations between viewi ng violence and peer rated correlations for children that were aged between 8 and 10, with the correlations being stronger for the boys than the girls. The results were recorded by looking whether the child injured of irritated another person.These findings can relate to the social learning theory as he found that boys were more likely to imitate male models but overall looking at the data Sheehan collected, those who watched violent TV and films became more aggressive towards others than those who did not. This study has helped in understanding of criminal behaviour as it shows that continuously watching violent and aggressive TV programmes can affect a persons thought patterns leading to automatic aggressive behaviour and imitation of their favourite(a) characters which could lead to criminal activity.