Forensic Psych - Exam 1 (Rutgers) questions with
verified answers
"Pre-adjudication" Ans✓✓✓ before the legal decision is made, forensic
psychologists help courts make informed decisions about cases
"Zero tolerance" policies Ans✓✓✓ ineffective and have the potential
to stigmatize and harm mistakenly identified individuals
10% of psychologists and psychiatrists have experience profiling
Ans✓✓✓ One survey (Torres, Boccacini, & Miller, 2006) found that
only 10% of the psychologists and psychiatrists surveyed reported any
profiling experience, and 25% considered themselves knowledgeable
about profiling
Additional PCL-R items Ans✓✓✓ - Promiscuous sexual behavior
- Many short - term marital relationships
- Criminal versatility
Antecedent Conditions Ans✓✓✓ Biological Precursors:
- Genetic transmission
- Diminished ANS arousal and responsivity
- Dysregulation of neurotransmitters
- Brain injury
,- Evaluated testosterone
Psychological Predispositions:
- Lower IQ (particularly verbal)
- Impulsivity
- Lower empathy and conscious development
- Psychopathic characteristics
- Difficult temperaments
- Deficient problem solving
Environmental Factors:
- Lower SES origins
- Family psychopathology and/or substance abuse
- Family criminality
- Disturbed attachments
- inconsistent/ bad discipline
- Neighborhoods high in crime, disorganization, physical decay, criminal
opportunities, substance abuse
Antisocial Personality Disorder Ans✓✓✓ - The closest diagnostic label
to psychopathy is antisocial personality disorder.
- About 80% of psychopaths are men
,APD vs. Psychopathy - behavioral vs. interpersonal/affective Ans✓✓✓ -
APD is listed formally in the DSM-5 but the PCL-R items are listed under
the associated features
- APD diagnostic criteria are more behavioral while psychopathy criteria
are behavioral and interpersonal/affective
Apprehension Ans✓✓✓ Arrest of a suspect allows the profiler to
evaluate the validity of their predictions.
Asking Unanticipated Questions - helps with rehearsal - results
Ans✓✓✓ - Rehearsal only works when liars correctly anticipate the
questions they will be asked. When observers viewed responses to
unanticipated questions, they correctly classified 80% of the truth-
tellers and liars (could not distinguish truth-tellers from liars at above
chance levels when viewing answers to anticipated questions)
Becoming an FBI Profiler Ans✓✓✓ 1. Visit the website (www.fbi.gov)
and review the current information on job requirements for becoming
an FBI agent.
2. To become an agent, you would need, at minimum, a four-year
college degree (any major).
3. Following graduation from the Academy, you would be placed in a
specific FBI field office, so you must be willing to relocate.
4. Field experience as an FBI agent is important before applying to the
Behavioral Analysis Unit or other FBI unit that provide profiling services.
, 5. Work as an FBI profiler includes analysis, interviewing, writing, public
speaking, and assessing individual and group behavior.
Behavioral confirmation Ans✓✓✓ The detective will seek out
information that verifies that belief, overlook conflicting data, and
behave in a manner that conforms to the belief. In turn, the suspect
behaves in ways that support that belief
Biological bases of psychopathy Ans✓✓✓ - May demonstrate reduced
fear in anticipation of unpleasant or painful stimuli
- Do not exhibit global neuropsychological deficits
- Exhibit functional brain deficit:
--> Cerebral cortexes are less active
--> Fail to use certain parts while processing emotional stimuli
Biological theories Ans✓✓✓ search for genetic vulnerabilities,
neuropsychological abnormalities, or biochemical irregularities that
predispose people to criminal behavior.
Case law Ans✓✓✓ based on court's interpretation where no statute
exists - No law was ever written or something came in the court system
and the judge ruled and became a law. Equally baring and carry equal
weight
verified answers
"Pre-adjudication" Ans✓✓✓ before the legal decision is made, forensic
psychologists help courts make informed decisions about cases
"Zero tolerance" policies Ans✓✓✓ ineffective and have the potential
to stigmatize and harm mistakenly identified individuals
10% of psychologists and psychiatrists have experience profiling
Ans✓✓✓ One survey (Torres, Boccacini, & Miller, 2006) found that
only 10% of the psychologists and psychiatrists surveyed reported any
profiling experience, and 25% considered themselves knowledgeable
about profiling
Additional PCL-R items Ans✓✓✓ - Promiscuous sexual behavior
- Many short - term marital relationships
- Criminal versatility
Antecedent Conditions Ans✓✓✓ Biological Precursors:
- Genetic transmission
- Diminished ANS arousal and responsivity
- Dysregulation of neurotransmitters
- Brain injury
,- Evaluated testosterone
Psychological Predispositions:
- Lower IQ (particularly verbal)
- Impulsivity
- Lower empathy and conscious development
- Psychopathic characteristics
- Difficult temperaments
- Deficient problem solving
Environmental Factors:
- Lower SES origins
- Family psychopathology and/or substance abuse
- Family criminality
- Disturbed attachments
- inconsistent/ bad discipline
- Neighborhoods high in crime, disorganization, physical decay, criminal
opportunities, substance abuse
Antisocial Personality Disorder Ans✓✓✓ - The closest diagnostic label
to psychopathy is antisocial personality disorder.
- About 80% of psychopaths are men
,APD vs. Psychopathy - behavioral vs. interpersonal/affective Ans✓✓✓ -
APD is listed formally in the DSM-5 but the PCL-R items are listed under
the associated features
- APD diagnostic criteria are more behavioral while psychopathy criteria
are behavioral and interpersonal/affective
Apprehension Ans✓✓✓ Arrest of a suspect allows the profiler to
evaluate the validity of their predictions.
Asking Unanticipated Questions - helps with rehearsal - results
Ans✓✓✓ - Rehearsal only works when liars correctly anticipate the
questions they will be asked. When observers viewed responses to
unanticipated questions, they correctly classified 80% of the truth-
tellers and liars (could not distinguish truth-tellers from liars at above
chance levels when viewing answers to anticipated questions)
Becoming an FBI Profiler Ans✓✓✓ 1. Visit the website (www.fbi.gov)
and review the current information on job requirements for becoming
an FBI agent.
2. To become an agent, you would need, at minimum, a four-year
college degree (any major).
3. Following graduation from the Academy, you would be placed in a
specific FBI field office, so you must be willing to relocate.
4. Field experience as an FBI agent is important before applying to the
Behavioral Analysis Unit or other FBI unit that provide profiling services.
, 5. Work as an FBI profiler includes analysis, interviewing, writing, public
speaking, and assessing individual and group behavior.
Behavioral confirmation Ans✓✓✓ The detective will seek out
information that verifies that belief, overlook conflicting data, and
behave in a manner that conforms to the belief. In turn, the suspect
behaves in ways that support that belief
Biological bases of psychopathy Ans✓✓✓ - May demonstrate reduced
fear in anticipation of unpleasant or painful stimuli
- Do not exhibit global neuropsychological deficits
- Exhibit functional brain deficit:
--> Cerebral cortexes are less active
--> Fail to use certain parts while processing emotional stimuli
Biological theories Ans✓✓✓ search for genetic vulnerabilities,
neuropsychological abnormalities, or biochemical irregularities that
predispose people to criminal behavior.
Case law Ans✓✓✓ based on court's interpretation where no statute
exists - No law was ever written or something came in the court system
and the judge ruled and became a law. Equally baring and carry equal
weight
