Assignment 3: Individual Research Task
| Module 1 Overview |
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| In Module 1 readings, you will begin to learn about the major distinctions among the various definitions of forensic psychology. Which definition do you think makes the most sense? As you begin to consider the roles that forensic mental health professionals assume, it is important to remember that they work in service of the legal system. They need to provide information that is helpful to the legal system in fulfilling its duties. In order to better understand the relationship between the law and the work of forensic mental health professionals, you will begin to study landmark court decisions and their impact on forensic practice. You will begin to make plans for the fieldwork that you will conduct later in the course. For now, you will simply need to develop a list of potential field placements—places you would like to visit.
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| History of Forensic Psychology |
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| Search your textbook for the important benchmarks in the history of forensic psychology. These benchmarks highlight the important trends that have continued to influence the field. Many of the trends started from seemingly small questions. Here is a good example. Suppose that I were to ask you to tell me what the weather was one week ago today. Can you recall the weather one week ago? In your recollection, how confident do you feel that what you recall is in fact accurate? Questions such as these were of interest to J. McKeen Cattell. In 1893, Cattell performed an experiment that had implications for the psychology of eyewitness testimony (Psych Central, 2013). Cattell asked college students a variety of questions (e.g., the weather one week earlier) and asked them to rate how confident they felt about their answers. Cattell learned that just because people believe they had provided a correct answer or recollection, they were not always able to do so. Furthermore, Cattell learned that just because individuals rate themselves as confident in their answers, their confidence ratings do not necessarily reflect the accuracy of their answers. Can you see how this experiment had important implications for the courtroom? Cattell probably had no idea of the widespread implications of his findings. His findings were replicated by many researchers who followed. He probably had no idea of the extent to which his experiment was a forerunner of an explosion of research in the areas of eyewitness testimony that came later. Indeed, many contemporary issues in forensic psychology, such as the fairness of allowing mentally ill individuals to stand trial, the circumstances under which mental illness may lessen responsibility for a crime, and the extent to which it is fair to impose treatment on mentally ill people who do wish to receive treatment, have been debated for many years. One of the most important legal cases pertaining to criminal responsibility and the insanity defense, the M'Naughten case, was decided in Great Britain in 1843. This gives you an important clue to understanding the field of forensic psychology. As far as the law is concerned, what happened previously often continues to exert influence in contemporary matters of forensic mental health practice. Keep this in mind as you proceed. |
| Forensic Psychology |
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| Forensic psychology is a relatively new and emerging specialty, first recognized by the American Psychological Association (APA) in 2000. It should not be surprising to discover that forensic psychology appears to have a variety of definitions. The major distinction among the various definitions appears to be how broadly the field is defined. Some authors have proposed a broad definition for the field, suggesting that forensic psychology is reflected by any application of psychological knowledge or methods to a task faced by the legal system. Others such as Bartol and Bartol (2008) suggested the following: It is both (a) the research endeavor that examines aspects of human behavior directly related to the legal process (e.g., eyewitness memory and testimony, jury decision making, or criminal behavior), and (b) the professional practice of psychology within or in consultation with a legal system that encompasses both criminal and civil law and the numerous areas they interact. Therefore, forensic psychology refers broadly to the production and application of psychological knowledge to the civil and criminal justice systems. Other authors have defined forensic psychology using a more applied context. In The Petition for the Recognition of a Specialty in Professional Psychology, forensic psychology is defined by the APA as the: professional practice by psychology professionals within the areas of clinical psychology, counseling psychology, neuropsychology, and school psychology, when they are engaged regularly as experts and represent themselves as such, in an activity primarily intended to provide professional psychological expertise to the judicial system. The American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP) recognizes forensic psychology as a specialty and defines the field as the "practice of psychology as related to the law and legal system." You should note that the two major distinctions in the various definitions of forensic psychology are in the breadth of the field and concern—whether the focus is on the professional practice of psychology or whether the professional practice of psychology is coupled with the application of psychological research to legal issues. |
| Forensic vs. Clinical Psychology |
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| The relationship between the legal system and mental health professionals has been termed as an "uneasy alliance" (Melton, Petrila, Poythress, & Slobogin, 2007, p. 1). Why would anyone make such a statement? What is the source of this unease? It's important to remember that the legal system and those who work within it and mental health professionals bring quite different motivations to their work. Most mental health professionals receive their education with the idea of providing treatment and other types of mental health services. Inherent in providing treatment is the idea of helping another person. But many times, forensic involvement does not help the individual. In fact, in many instances, the work of the forensic professional may in fact be counter to the interests of the individual. |
But there are other sources of unease that exist when mental health and legal professionals work together. The legal and mental health fields use different terminologies. Furthermore, it is not always clear how to utilize data from psychological assessments to address legal issues and questions. After all, there is no "insanity" scale on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2). There is no psychological instrument that can tell you whether an individual should be considered "disabled" in the legal sense, whether another individual has the "parenting capacity" to raise a child appropriately, or whether yet another individual has been "injured" in the psychological sense and deserves some form of "compensation." Therefore, forensic mental health professionals must take data from instruments and methods that, in many cases, are developed for clinical purposes and translate their findings to address legal concepts. Such translations are not always easy to accomplish.
| Forensic Mental Health Professionals |
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| How Forensic Mental Health Professionals Become Involved in Legal Cases As you begin to develop a sense of how and in what ways forensic mental health professionals are involved with the legal system, it is helpful to understand that their involvement always follows the legal process, regardless of whether the case is being handled within the criminal or civil system. |
The Forensic Mental Health Professional and the Civil Court System
When most people think of forensic psychology, they think of work in the criminal system. And it's true that this course will focus mostly on criminal issues. But there are many issues that are addressed in civil proceedings or civil courts. For example, a forensic psychologist may consult with attorneys regarding the presence of psychological "injury," as the attorney seeks to help a plaintiff obtain compensation in a personal injury case. Forensic psychologists may examine children or adults in child custody and child protective cases. The psychologists may be asked to determine the effects of abuse and to report those effects to a child protective service agency or a court. Alternatively, forensic professionals may evaluate an individual when there are questions pertaining to competency in civil matters such as in the context of a legal proceeding to determine whether the individual can handle his or her own financial affairs. Forensic professionals are sometimes involved in civil matters when individuals are considered for involuntary commitment to treatment. This may occur when someone is considered mentally ill and dangerous, or it may occur in the case of someone convicted of a sex offense in order to determine whether the individual represents an undue risk to the community and is, therefore, in need of treatment.
| Conclusion |
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| In this module, you have begun to gain an understanding of the field of forensic psychology. That is, you learned about how forensic psychology is defined—and sometimes defined differently, depending on the source. You learned a little about the history of the field and its importance in contemporary forensic psychology practice. You have also begun to learn about the differences in legal and clinical concepts, something about which you will continue to learn as you proceed in the course and in the forensic psychology program. You have started to gain an understanding of the many roles and functions of forensic psychologists, both on the criminal and civil sides of the law. Now, you are ready to deepen your understanding of the field of forensic psychology and that of the professionals who work in the field and their contributions to the field. In your first assignment, you will post information about yourself to the M1 Assignment 1 Discussion Area. That way, you will have the opportunity to learn about your instructor and your classmates, who will accompany you as you start the work of this course. Soon you will need to start considering forensic sites that you may wish to visit in your fieldwork assignment. For now, in M1 Assignment 2, you will just need to consider some potential forensic sites. You will submit a plan later in the course describing your proposed placement and how you think you can benefit from it in relation to the work of this course. In the materials you have read, you learned about the importance of the court system and legal decisions made by the courts. In M1 Assignment 3, you will provide summaries of landmark legal decisions in important areas of forensic psychology. |
