Schema use and Development

People tend to use a basic-level of categorisation of neither too inclusive nor too exclusive by accessing subtypes, social stereotypes and role schemas (e.g. doctor). Other influences include:

• Observable features (e.g. physical appearance)
• Contextually distinctive (e.g. a female amongst a group of males)
• Use schemas based on earlier information (primacy effect)
• Accessibile schemas such as those commonly used and;
• Schemas which have a personal importance

These theory-driven schemas are appropriate and accurate enough for a majority of the time, however a data-driven approach is taken on when the costs of being wrong are increased (e.g. responsibility, rewards and punishments). This is when individuals collect more information in order to create a more accurate schema. Individuals are more likely to rely on schemas when:

• Time is scarce
• Highly distracted and;
• Anxious

Subjective importance of schemas and accessibility are major influences of the degree and type of schema used. Other influences include:

• Attributional complexity (individuals vary in the complexity and the number of explanations of other people)
• Uncertainty orientation (individuals vary in the amount of information they want and may prefer to be uninformed)
• Need for cognition (the variance in the amount that individuals think about things)
• Cognitive complexity (the variance in individual complexity of cognitive processes and representations)

The acquisition and development of schemas

• The more encounters experience the more abstract they become
• They become more complex
• As the complexity increases so do the links between schematic elements
• As the schema grows, it becomes well organised and easier to access
• They become more resilient, incorporating a broader variety and understanding its inclusiveness
• They should then become more accurate and assist to better understanding the social world
• Although schemas tend to be slow to change, if a schema has been greatly inaccurate a major subjective experience has the ability to change the schema dramatically

Three process suggested by Rothbart (1981) of schema change are:

1. Bookkeeping (a slow and gradual change brought on by new evidence)
2. Conversion (information in contrast to the schema is slowly acquired that the schema can no longer be sustained, a sudden change to the schema occurs)
3. Subtyping (inconsistent information changes the structure of the schema causing the formation of subcategories, e.g. the change from all apples are red to apples can be both red or green)

Social Schemas and Categories

A schema is a cognitive structure that allows us to understand and perceive a concept or type of stimulus with only a limited amount of information. It uses previous experience and knowledge to 'paint a picture' and is based on concepts and theory; a top-down approach of processing information.

There are many types of schema including person, role, events (generally called scripts), content-free and self-schemas.

• Person schema: individual knowledge about specific people.
• Role schema: the knowledge you have about the way certain people/roles such as doctors act or for example the questions they may ask.
• Scripts/events: the information you have about an event allows you to act accordingly such as to be quiet during a lecture or to be outgoing and social at a party.
• Content-free schema: based around rules or attributing a cause to an individual's behaviour.
• Self-schema: this is the in-depth and complex information individual's have about themselves.

Categorisation is the process of interpreting information to fit into that particular schema

• Family resemblance: the defining property of information which places it into a particular category.
• Prototype: the typical representation and attributes of what is expected for each category
• Fuzzy sets: as information will not be exactly the same as the prototype, categorises are compiled of features and attributes which revolve around the prototype.
• Exemplars: a specific member of a category used when it is new and unfamiliar.
• Associative network: when information stored in our memory are categorised by associative links such as traits, beliefs and behaviours.
• Accentuation principle: when the categorisation accentuates the perception of similarities and differences between groups that they believe (personally, relevant or of value) are correlated with the category. (This plays a major role in the production of discrimination and prejudice involving stereotyping)

Psychological Theories of Crime

There are five psychological theories of crime: biological, behavioural, social learning, social ecological and situational explanations.

Attention has been directed to human cognition (mental content, process and abilities) and affect (moods and emotions), and to the biological foundations of and the environmental influences of behaviour.

Biological

• Individual genetic variations may be linked to criminality; transferring these genetic variations to biological offspring
• This heritability of criminality may exist in a genetic foundation for crime-related behavioural tendencies such as aggression, addiction, selfishness, impulsivity and sexual deviance.
• Biological changes such as those during adolescence provide an increase in physical strength and sexual urges. This may help to understand the increase in the crime rate for males peaking in early adulthood and steadily declining afterwards.
• Children of criminal parents are more likely than children of non-criminals to becomes criminals.
• This intergenerational transmission of crime may be a product of learning.
• The ingestion of alcohol and other drugs, act on the CNS producing poor social judgment and aggression as well as other environmental contributions such as brain injuries/damage and toxins increasing the likelihood of deviant behaviour occurring.
• From an evolutionary perspective the biological make-up serves the fundamental purpose of survival and reproduction.
• r/K theory: r-selected strategy; opportunistic, impulsive, aggressive and dominant. K-selected strategy; cautious, self-controlled and socially co-operative.

Behavioural

• Behavioural focuses on the way that individuals learn, using classical and operant conditioning.
• Classical conditioning is the pairing of a neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus which produces a conditioned response. The previously neutral stimulus is then a conditioned stimulus.
• Operant conditioning uses two types of consequences: reinforcement; the behaviour is more likely to occur and punishment; the behaviour is less likely to occur. Both types of consequences can be positive or negative.
• It is possible in classical conditioning for a learned association to occur with a single trial learning although classical conditioning typically corporates multiple pairings.
• A concern for the justice system would be that operant conditioning sees that unless punishment occurs immediately after (typically) the behaviour, the individual will not associate the punishment with the behaviour.

Personality

1. The three types of mental processes comprising Freud's topographic model are conscious, preconscious and unconscious.

2. Ambivalence; conflicting feelings or motives. Conflict; tension between opposing motives.

3. Freud's developmental model and the five psychosexual stages involved are: oral, anal, phallic, latency and genital.

Notes on Emotion

1. The James-Lange theory states that emotions originate in the peripheral nervous system, which then gets interpreted by the central nervous system. The Cannon-Bard theory however says that emotion-inducing stimuli simultaneously elicit both an emotional experience and bodily responses.
2. Emotional disclosure has been found to increase the overall health who frequently discuss (talk about) or write about stressful or unpleasant events.
3. Facial expressions have the ability to influence a person's emotional state.
4. There are six facial expressions that are recognised by people of most cultures. These are:
   (a). Surprise
   (b). Fear
   (c). Anger
   (d). Disgust
   (e). Happiness
   (f). Sadness
5. Display rules are controlled expression of emotions by individuals that are considered appropriate for that culture.
6. There is a difference in how men and women experience and express emotion. Where women are more likely to feel emotions more intensely and to be able to read the emotions of others, males do not show this strength of empathy. Although the exact reasons are unknown, from an evolutionary perspective gender roles may have played a part in this emotional expression.
7. Positive affect (pleasant emotions) drives pleasure-seeking, approach-oriented behaviour, whereas negative affects (unpleasant emotions) leads to avoidance-oriented behaviour.
8. A hierarchical system for classifying emotions are: Positive and negative emotions; basic categories such as love, joy, anger, sadness and fear; subordinate categories such as fondness, pride, jealousy, agony and worry.
9. There are two types of ways that individuals regulate their emotions. Reframe; putting it into perspective and suppression; ignoring and hiding the feeling.
10. According to the Schachter-Singer theory of emotion, physiological arousal and cognitive interpretation interact by making inferences about the way that an individuals body is behaving and the situation that that individual is in.

Notes on Motivation

1. According to Freud, aggression and sex are the two drives that motivate human behaviour.
2. Psychodynamic theorists now emphasise another two motives; the need for relatedness to others and the need for self-esteem. They have also moved away from using the concept of 'drives' to 'wishes and fears'.
3. Implicit motives can be measured using the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), where explicit motives are more reliably measured through self-reports.
4. According to the behavioural perspective a primary drive is an innate or biological drive where a secondary drive is learned.
5. The conditions necessary for maximum job performance according to goal-setting theory are:
   (a). Experience a discrepancy between what she has and wants;
   (b). Define specific goals rather than general ones;
   (c). Receive continuing feedback that allows her to gauge her progress towards the goal;
   (d). Believe she has the ability to attain the goal;
   (e). Set a high enough goal to remain motivated; and
   (f). Have a high degree of commitment to the goal.
6. Three innate needs suggested by self-determination theory are competence, autonomy and relatedness to others. Self-determination theory view's rewards as a possible hinderance on the intrinsic value of that activity. When these innate needs are met without offering an external reward, the intrinsic value increases.
7. Maslow's five categories of needs starting from the lowest needs are physiological, safety, love or belongingness, esteem and self-actualisation.
8. The three levels of needs that form the basis of ERG theory are; existence, relatedness and growth.
9. The theory of inclusive fitness accounts for the motivation to care for close relatives as a need to protect the reproduction of genetically related individuals.
10. Motivation can be shaped by culture as emphasis on things such as material objects and wealth may be praised in some societies but looked down on by others.
11. The two phases of metabolism are absorptive; ingesting food and fasting; not eating.

Perspectives of Motivation

Psychodynamic: Looks at the differences between conscious or explicit and unconscious or implicit motives.

Behavioural: Humans repeat behaviours that lead to reinforcement and avoid behaviours linked to punishment.

Cognitive: Human behaviour is based on values and the belief that it is achievable.

Humanistic: Works of the self-actualisation theory of Maslow's hierarchy of needs.