Module A This multimedia product and its contents are protected under copyright law. The following...

Module AModule A

This multimedia product and its contents are protected under copyright law. The following are prohibited by law:• any public performance or display, including transmission of any image over a network;• preparation of any derivative work, including the extraction, in whole or in part, of any images; • any rental, lease, or lending of the program.

Social Psychology in Action: Applications to Law and Health

Copyright 2006, Allyn and Bacon


Applications to Law and HealthApplications to Law and Health

• Social Psychology and the Legal System

• Social Psychology and Personal Health


Social Psychology and the Legal SystemSocial Psychology and the Legal System

• Before the Trial Begins: Effects of Police Interrogation– What is the best way to interrogate suspects?

• Most people prefer an inquisitorial approach versus an adversarial approach

• Videotaped interrogations should show both the interrogator and the defendant

– How do interrogators encourage compliance?• Conduct formal interrogation in intimidating location• Get witness or suspect to experience uncertainty, trust in the officer, and

expect that he or she is supposed to know the answer to every question



– Additional aspects that involve social influence • Minimize severity of the crime and the charge

– Suspect may confess after being given a false sense of security

• Present suspects with fake polygraph results and fingerprint data, inaccurate eyewitness identifications, and false information about the confession of a fellow-suspect

– False evidence and uncertainty about what to do, people’s belief in their own false confessions, and the remembrance of imaginary details about a crime they did not commit increase the likelihood of false confessions.



• Effects of Media Coverage on Perceptions of Defendants– Tends to assist the prosecution and hurt the defense

• The negative information people receive leads to a strong tendency to perceive that the suspect is guilty.

• Typically, more publicity is related to a greater likelihood that the jurors will convict the defendant.

– Government officials provide the media with much information about the crime and suspects.

– Biasing effects of pretrial publicity can be reduced when jurors are given reasons to be suspicious of the motives behind why incriminating evidence might have been given to the media.



• The Accuracy of Eyewitnesses– Eyewitness Testimony—evidence given by

persons who have witnessed a crime plays an important role in many trials

– Researchers have found that eyewitness testimony is not very reliable.

• Identify innocent persons as criminals• Make errors regarding important aspects of a crime• Report “remembering” events that did not actually

occur– Suggestibility due to leading questions and source monitoring

can lead to memory distortions



– Other factors that decrease the accuracy of eyewitness testimony

• Intense emotions• Time and intervening information (e.g., misleading

post-event information)• Memory distortion and memory construction

– False memories can be created and can influence jurors’ judgments of guilt or innocence.

» These memories are created by imagining the event and by confabulating (making up information).

– Recovering forgotten memories of traumatic events» Evidence for the accuracy of these memories is mixed. » Some of these memories may have been constructed.



– Increasing eyewitness accuracy• Conduct cognitive interviews in which eyewitnesses are

asked to report everything they can remember and to describe events differently from what they report actually occurred

• Improve police lineups by using the blank-lineup control in which lineup contains only non-suspects

• Present pictures of the crime scene and of the victim• Display the line-up one person at a time rather than as a

group• Encourage witnesses to offer first impressions



• Effects of Attorneys, Judges, Defendants, and Jurors– Attorneys

• Battle to get desired outcome– Voir Dire: attorneys examine potential jurors to determine who

will be helpful to them

• Ask leading questions to elicit specific responses• Attorneys’ remarks when emotionally charged may be

impossible to disregard– Mental contamination (judgments, emotions, or behavior are

influenced by mental processes that are not under one’s control) occurs

– Forensic psychologists have contributed to changes in the legal system to increase its fairness.



– Defendant and Juror Characteristics• Defendant’s race (ethnicity)

– African American defendants are at a disadvantage in the legal system.» More likely to be convicted of murder and to receive the death

penalty than are whites

• Defendant’s physical appearance, gender, and socioeconomic status

– Attractive defendants, female defendants, and those of higher socioeconomic status are less likely to be found guilty of most major crimes

• Defendant’s behavior in the courtroom– Defendants who smile are more likely to receive leniency.



• Juror’s gender– Women are more likely than men are to convict in sexual

assault cases

• Jurors differ in terms of the attitudes and beliefs they hold

– Some have a leniency bias and others believe in legal authoritarianism

• Jurors differ in how they process information– Some have already arrived at a decision before the trial begins

and seek evidence that confirms their initial opinion. – Others construct two schemas: one for the guilt and one for

the innocence of the defendant.» These jurors fit information they hear into the relevant

schema and listen to all available evidence.



• What are your thoughts?What are your thoughts?– What roles do the media play in the processes of the

legal system?• Does media coverage result in increasing or decreasing

the fairness of the system?– Why?

– Can the accuracy of eyewitness testimony be improved?• Why or why not?

– To succeed in having a legal system that imprisons the correct person for a given crime, what are the most serious obstacles interfering with the achievement of this goal?


Social Psychology and Personal HealthSocial Psychology and Personal Health

• Health Psychology—branch of psychology that studies the relation between psychological variables and health– Research suggests that there is a strong

relationship between people’s lifestyles and their health.



• Stress: Its Causes, Effects, and Control– Stress—response to events that disrupt, or threaten

to disrupt, our physical or psychological functioning

• Major sources of stress– Major stressful life events

» Holmes and Rahe (1967) found that accumulated stress is related to health problems.

» Recent research discovered that people experiencing chronic stress were more likely to get a cold than those experiencing acute stress.

– Daily Hassles» Scores on the Hassles Scale (Lazarus, et al., 1985) are

positively correlated with negative psychological symptoms.



• Stress’ effects on the body– Direct effects—stress affects physiological functioning

» Ethnic differences exist: African Americans are more prone to stress-induced heart disease than are European Americans.

– Indirect effects—stress negatively affects health-related behaviors


Social Psychology and Personal HealthSocial Psychology and Personal Health• Coping with stress

– Emotion-focused coping» Perform behaviors that decrease the negative emotions

that result from stress, which may not be an effective long-term strategy

» Positive reappraisal or positive self-talk tend to be more helpful.

– Problem-focused coping» Perform behaviors that change or remove the sources of

stress– Seeking social support

» Utilizing others’ resources, both emotional and task-related, to cope with stress is a highly beneficial strategy to protect one’s health from the damages due to stress.

» Pets can provide nonjudgmental social support, which makes their owners better able to deal with stress.


Social Psychology and Personal HealthSocial Psychology and Personal Health– Seeking social support

» People who lack social support face an increased risk of dying from diseases, accidents, and suicide.

» Happily married people tend to have higher-functioning immune systems compared to people who are divorced or separated.

» Providing social support provides similar (or perhaps greater) health benefits as receiving social support does.

– Gender differences in coping styles» Women typically use a greater variety of coping mechanisms

than men do, including both emotion-focused and problem-focused strategies.

» Men are more likely to cope by avoiding or withdrawing from their problems compared to women.

» Differences may be due to gender role differences or due to women perceiving stressors as more serious compared to men.



• Personal Characteristics and Health– Anger and hostility

• Type A behavior pattern– High levels of hostility in individuals with this personality pattern

is positively associated with heart disease.

– Perfectionism• Two patterns exist

– Personal standards perfectionism and Self-Critical Perfectionism—individuals constantly engage in harsh criticism of their own behavior, an inability to derive satisfaction from successful performance, and chronic concerns about other’s expectations and criticism

– Both patterns are harmful to health, but self-critical perfectionism is more damaging.



• Personal Characteristics and Health– Socioeconomic status

• Higher socioeconomic status is related to better health.– Due to greater availability of nutritious foods, better living

environment, higher-quality health care– Also, socioeconomic status is positively correlated with general

intelligence, which may result in better knowledge and strategies about how to stay healthy.

» However, both general intelligence and health knowledge can be increased, regardless of one’s socioeconomic status, by altering environmental conditions.


Social Psychology and Personal Social Psychology and Personal HealthHealth• Promoting Healthy Lifestyles

– Both genetic and environmental factors influence longevity.

• People whose parents live a long life are more likely to do so

• Positive self-perceptions of aging and a healthy lifestyle are associated with living longer.



• Promoting Healthy Lifestyles– Social-psychological perspective on the increase in

obesity (about 65% of U.S. adults are obese)• Environmental factors responsible include:

– Dramatic increase in portion size of food, people walk less than they did, media campaigns, people do not eat sensibly (no more sit-down dinners), overweight people are more accepted



• Promoting Healthy Lifestyles– Tactics

• Eat only low-calorie snack foods• Eat only when hungry• Avoid temptation• Increase walking• Drink water instead of soft-drinks• Lower stress levels• Avoid fad dieting (eat less and exercise more)• Stick with it (weight management involves a life-long

commitment)



• What are your thoughts?What are your thoughts?– Which sources of stress cause you the most

difficulty?• What are some strategies that would reduce the effects of

these stressors?

– Why does being a happy person decrease the chances of developing a cold?

• How does being happy and relaxed and having a large support group buffer the effects of stress?

– What are ways to change the unhealthy lifestyles of millions of people in the U.S.?

Module A This multimedia product and its contents are protected under copyright law. The following...

Documents

Transcript of Module A This multimedia product and its contents are protected under copyright law. The following...