Forensic Psy Test 1 Review

1. What types of activities do clinical forensic psychologists do?
2. Psychology in the law what kind of activities:
A psychologist in court providing expert testimony concerning some issue of relevance to a particular case.
EX: the psychologist might testify that, based on his or her understanding of the psychological research, the eyewitness on the stand may have incorrectly identified the defendant from a police lineup.
A police officer using his or her knowledge of psychology in an investigation.
The officer may base his questioning strategy during an interrogation on his knowledge of various psychological principles that are known to be useful for extracting confessions.
3. Research by Sutherland, differential equation theory?
(1939) Sutherland maintained that a person is likely to become a criminal when he or she learns more values that are favorable to violations of the law than values that are unfavorable of it.
4. What brown vs. board of education, how that influences psychology in the courtroom.
In the ruling of Brown Vs. Board of Education, it was noted that the finding that segregated education harmed colored children was “amply supported by modern authority”. This modern authority was research in the social sciences demonstrating the detrimental effects of segregation. This was the first time that psychological research was cited in a U.S. Supreme Court decision and some have argued that this validated psychology as a science.

a. What did the psychologist testify to or submit a brief on
Kenneth Clark, an African American psychologist who taught psychology at City College in New York studied how prejudice and discrimination affected personality development. Also submitted brief where children preferred white dolls to colred dolls

5. Difference between expert witness and all other witnesses
Expert witnesses can testify about their opinions, whereas other witnesses can testify as to what they know to be fact.
a. Before the courts or legislative bodies
6. General Acceptance Test:
A standard for accepting expert testimony, which states that expert testimony will be admissible in court if the basis of the testimony is generally accepted within the relevant scientific community.
7. Daubert & Frye: criteria to determine validity of scientific evidence
Daubert Criteria: a standard for accepting expert testimony.
1. The research has been peer reviewed
2. The research is testable (falsifiable through experimentation)
3. The research has a recognized rate of error
4. The research adheres to professional standards
8. Difference between forensic psychologist and forensic psychiatrists
The most important difference is that psychiatrists are medical doctors.
Forensic psychiatrists undergo training that is quite different from the training clinical forensic psychologists receive.
In contrast to a psychiatrist’s general reliance on a medical model of mental illness, psychologists tend to view mental illness more as a product of an individual’s physiology, personality, and environment.
9. Whose considered the father of Forensic Psychology? Hugo Munsterburg
10. Alfred Binet – Numerous studies showed that the testimony provided by children was highly susceptible to suggestive questioning techniques. He concluded that asking children to report everything they saw resulted in the most accurate answers and that highly misleading questions resulted in the least accurate answers.
11. When police officers going through selections, what test do they have to do
a. KSAs - (knowledge, skills, & abilities)
b. Selection interview-everyone asked same thing
c. Psychological tests
d. Personality Tests
e. Assessment Centers
12. What are some of the key problems with forensic selections with polices officers in interviews, why wouldn’t you always use an interview
Research shows mixed results with their ability to predict on the job performance and interviwers