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A third major psychological theory is cognitive theory. In recent years, significant gains have been made in explaining criminal behavior within the cognitive theory framework. Here, psychologists focus on the mental processes of individuals.
The cognitive aspect of cognitive-behavioural psychology examines how reinforcement and punishment turn into thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes that maintain and justify behaviour. Our thoughts are impacted by witnessing what happens to others as well as our own experiences.
The application of cognitive theories to criminal behaviour has moved through various stages. Sutherland’s Differential Association Theory (1930s/40s) introduced the notion of cognitions (definitions in the theory) as a factor in explaining crime.
Cognitive theory is a psychological framework that emphasizes the role of mental processes in understanding behavior, focusing on how people perceive, think, and remember information. It connects the dots between thought patterns and behavior, suggesting that distorted thinking can lead to negative actions, including criminal behavior.
In this lesson, you learned about cognitive theories, which focus on how thoughts and feelings influence human behavior, especially criminal behavior. You first looked in depth at conditioning and how rewards and punishment shape people’s behavior.
In criminology, cognitive theory delves into how an individual’s perception of their environment, influenced by their beliefs, attitudes, and experiences, can lead to criminal actions. It examines the role of cognitive distortions – erroneous thought patterns – in rationalizing or justifying illegal activities.
The model identifies three processes in social problem solving during which emotional arousal, activated schemas, and situational cues interact to make aggressive and criminal behavior less or more likely : (1) cue attention and interpretation, (2) script retrieval, and (3) script evaluation and selection.