Lucy Johnston

Cognitive distortions in sex offenders: an integrative review.

Clinicians and researchers have noted that maladaptive beliefs and distorted thinking play an important role in facilitating or justifying sexual offenses. There have been a number of attempts to describe the nature of these beliefs and to develop ways of measuring them, but in the absence of any integrating theory. We suggest that an understanding of the cognitive processes underlying the initiation, maintenance, and justification of sexual offending is a vital prerequisite to the development of successful treatment programs. In this paper, we use a social cognition framework to review the literature on the role of cognition in sexual offending. Pertinent research in the sexual offending domain, specifically cognitive products, information processing, cognitive change, and the impact of affective and motivational factors on cognitive processes, is described and related to the social cognitive approach. Implications for future research and clinical practice are discussed in light of the major issues and problems highlighted in our review.

Cognitive models of stereotype change: (3) Subtyping and the perceived typicality of disconfirming group members

Abstract Two studies investigated the effects of the presentation of stereotype-inconsistent information on stereotype change. The implications of three cognitive models of schema change—the “bookkeeping,” “conversion,” and “subtyping” models ( Weber & Crocker, 1983 )—were considered. Experiment 1 varied the pattern of stereotype-inconsistent information (concentrated in a few group members, dispersed across many, or intermediate between the two) to compare versions of these models. Trait ratings showed the greatest stereotype change when the stereotype-inconsistent information was dispersed across group members. Typicality measures showed the slight disconfirmers of the dispersed condition to be considered more typical of the group than the strong disconfirmers of the concentrated condition. This was emphasised by a sorting task: in the concentrated condition, the stereotype-disconfirmers were more strongly isolated from the rest of the group than in the dispersed conditions. Multiple regression analyses revealed that only the perceived typicality of disconfirmers mediated stereotype change. Experiment 2 replicated the main findings using microcomputer presentation and also varied the order of stereotypic trait ratings and typicality judgments. Again trait ratings showed the greatest stereotype change in the dispersed condition and reading times were longer for disconfirmers than confirmers, but only in the dispersed condition. Overall, these studies give strong support to a prototype version of the subtyping model.

Assessing contributions to group assignments

We report the use of a combination of self‐ and peer‐assessment in an undergraduate social psychology laboratory course. Students worked in small groups on a self‐directed empirical project that they each wrote up independently as a laboratory report. Marks for the written assignment were moderated by a contribution index measure based on the self‐ and peer‐assessment measures. Our analyses indicated that: (i) students took the peer‐assessment process seriously, clearly differentiating between group members on the contributions questionnaires; (ii) students show a self‐bias, rating their own contribution to the group task higher than that of other group members; (iii) for a large majority of students the contribution index resulted in very little moderation of the final assignment marks; (iv) there was a strong correlation between the contribution index and the overall assignment score. Implications for the assessment of group work are considered.

Resisting change: information-seeking and stereotype change

Despite recent laboratory successes in demonstrating stereotype change in response to disconfirming information, stereotypes remain resistant to change or modification. The reported research employed an information gathering methodology in which perceivers could control the amount and nature of the information they received about members of a stereotyped group prior to evaluating the group on a number of stereotype-relevant characteristics. Perceivers showed a stereotype-preservation bias in their information gathering (Experiments 1 and 2) and, consequently, showed no modification of existing stereotypic beliefs. Experiment 3 manipulated the salient processing goals under which perceivers gathered information and found that, under certain conditions, the stereotype preservation bias could be overcome and stereotypes moderated.

Screening Job Applicants: The Impact of Physical Attractiveness and Application Quality

The present study investigated the impact of physical attractiveness and resumequality on the evaluation of job applicants in the screening phase of the selection process. One hundred and eighty participants were asked to imagine they were a recruiting officer and to screen an application for the position of graduate trainee manager. Participants read a job advertisement and one of two versions of a curriculum vitae, which differed in quality. Attached to the front page of each curriculum vitae was a passport-sized head-and-shoulders photograph of either an average or an attractive female. A control condition with no attached photograph was also included. Participants judged the likelihood with which they would offer an interview to the applicant, the quality of the application, and the likely starting salary they would offer the applicant. Results indicated that attractiveness had no impact when the quality of the application was high but that attractiveness was an advantage when the application was mediocre. When the resume quality was average the attractive applicant was evaluated more positively than the control, no photograph, applicant; an attractive photograph boosted the evaluation of a mediocre application. Results are discussed in terms of discrimination and implications for the field of human resource management.

VICTIM SELECTION AND KINEMATICS: A POINT-LIGHT INVESTIGATION OF VULNERABILITY TO ATTACK

Three experiments used a point-light methodology to investigate whether movement style specifies vulnerability to physical attack. Both female (Experiment 1) and male (Experiment 2) walkers could be differentiated according to ease-of-attack based solely on the kinematic information provided whilst walking. Specific walking style features predicted ease-of-attack and profiles of prototypically “easy to attack” and “difficult to attack” walkers were identified. Variations in walking style as a function of clothing and footwear style were also shown to predict differences in ease-of-attack ratings (Experiment 3). Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are considered.

Suppressing thoughts about chocolate

OBJECTIVE Thought suppression frequently results in subsequent hyperaccessibility of the suppressed thoughts. This study investigated whether this effect transfers to behavior. Does suppressing thoughts result in a subsequent increase in the performance of behaviors related to those thoughts? METHODS Twenty chocolate cravers and 22 noncravers were instructed to suppress chocolate-related thoughts in an articulated thoughts task or they were given no specific instructions. Participants then completed a computer-based task which yielded chocolate rewards. RESULTS Both cravers and noncravers could suppress chocolate-related thoughts when instructed to do so. Both groups of participants showed greater performance, and hence earned more chocolate, in the suppression than control condition (p < .05). DISCUSSION Behavioral control may follow many of the same ironic pathways traced by mental control.

Sensitivity to genuine versus posed emotion specified in facial displays

Two experiments were performed to investigate whether social perceivers were sensitive to the veracity of sad and fear facial displays as well as happiness. In Experiment 1, participants were asked to consider in blocks whether targets were happy or not, sad or not, fearful or not. Triads of photographs (neutral, posed, genuine) were displayed and results showed participants were sensitive to whether each emotion was present and distinguished posed from genuine displays. This sensitivity was emotion specific. In Experiment 2, participants completed a priming task to eliminate instructions to judge target displays. Neutral, posed and genuine displays from a single target were used as primes in a word valance identification task. The results revealed faster responding to positive words following genuine than posed happiness and faster responding to negative words following genuine than posed fear. Together the two experiments demonstrated perceiver sensitivity to negative emotion in an explicit and implicit context.

Social cognition and sexual offending: A theoretical framework

Clinicians and researchers have noted the important role of maladaptive beliefs and distorted thinking in facilitating or justifying sexual offenses. There have been a number of attempts to describe the nature of these beliefs and to develop ways of measuring them but in the absence of any integrating theory. It is our belief that an understanding of the cognitive processes underlying the initiation, maintenance, and justification of sexual offending is a vital prerequisite to the development of successful treatment programs. The present paper proposes the use of a social cognition framework in considering cognitive processes that may be important contributing factors in the propensity of some men to commit sexual offenses. Pertinent research in the social cognition domain, covering information processing, mental control, and the impact of affective and motivational factors on cognitive processes, is described and related to the sexual offending literature. Implications for clinical practice and suggestions for future research are highlighted.

Deviant sexual thoughts: Mental control and the treatment of sexual offenders

The clinical literature has long illustrated the paradoxical findings that deliberate attempts to suppress particular thoughts actually increase their occurrence. These unwanted, often intrusive, thoughts that are a major feature of obsessive disorders, depression, sleep disorders, and a range of other disturbances are of particular clinical concern. The exploration of psychological factors associated with cognitive control is, then, clinically relevant. In the current article we consider the role of mental control, especially thought suppression, in explaining the occurrence of unwanted thoughts, specifically in relation to deviant sexual thoughts. Many features of sexual offending, such as the effects of stress or strong affective states on offending and the rapid escalation in severity and frequency of sexual offending, reported by both therapists and researchers, can be explained by the mental control literature. In addition, the role of suppression in therapy for sexual offenders and its implications...