A2 Psychology at Spalding Grammar School

On 5 October 1974 two pubs in Guildford, both popular with military personnel, were blown up, killing four soldiers and one civilian. The attack was carried out by the Irish Republican Army and three men and a woman - the GUILDFORD FOUR - were charged with the bombing. All four confessed to the police, but later tried to retract their statements, saying they had been coerced into confessing. There was no evidence that any of the Four had been involved with the IRA and they didn't fit the profile for terrorists: two lived in a squat with a lifestyle of drugs and petty crime, one was from a mixed-religion marriage in Belfast. Witnesses came forward giving them alibis at the time of the bombing. Nevertheless, they were all sentenced to life imprisonment and their appeals were denied. However, in 1989 a detective reviewing the case found evidence that the original police officers had rewritten the interview notes! There was a new appeal and the Guildford Four were released. The Balcombe Gang, who were already in prison, had already admitted to being the real bombers and in 2005 the British Prime Minister Tony Blair apologised to the Four and their families for this miscarriage of justice. Watch How Far Home, a video on YouTube about Gerry Conlon's release from prison.

Your new unit in Forensic Psychology looks at how crime is investigated, gathering evidence about the offender and talking to witnesses. In the past, the police went about this work with techniques based on personal experience and traditional practice. Forensic psychologists have started to put forward alternative ways of going about these investigations. 

WHAT DO WE KNOW FROM AS?

Several studies or theories from AS Psychology examine the processes behind investigating a crime:

• LOFTUS & PALMER (1974) introduced the idea of people having schemas. These are powerful stereotypes that affect how we remember things. Elizabeth Loftus argues that memory is "reconstructive" and strongly influenced by schemas and things we learned after the event we're remembering.
• FREUD (1909) argued that antisocial urges come from the unconscious mind, but a trained psychiatrist might be able to spot clues left by the unconscious mind ("Freudian slips") in the way people behave. This has been very influential in offender profiling.
• GRIFFITHS (1994) developed a new technique for understanding gamblers' thought processes that might apply to criminals - the "thinking aloud method". He asked participants to say all their thoughts out loud, recorded them then carefully analysed what they said for clues about their irrational ideas.
• THIGPEN & CLECKLEY (1954) carried out a detailed case study on one young woman, using a variety of techniques to solve the mystery of her behaviour. They carried out unstructured interviews, observations, psychometric tests, projective tests and even used biological measures like electroencephalograms (EEGs).

In general, we can make a few conclusions from our AS studies:

1. BEHAVIOURIST psychologists assume that all behaviour is learned, either through association or through reinforcement - they will look for habitual patterns in a criminal's behaviour and exploit the power of association or reward when trying to get witnesses or suspects to speak up;
2. COGNITIVE psychologists have a lot to contribute to the study of memory and have come up with many techniques to trigger memories, spot lies or understand the patterns behind criminal thinking;
3. Psychologists of INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES also have ideas about how the police can work with witnesses or suspects by recognising how everybody's memory or sense of guilt works in a uniques way - offender profiles often need to recognise the uniqueness of each crime

The main theme that comes out of this unit is HOLISM vs REDUCTIONISM. Do people's minds work in fairly standard ways or is every witness, suspect or offender completely unique? The answer you give will lead to either a TOP-DOWN approach that fits people into catergories or types, or a BOTTOM-UP approach that starts with trying to understand each person as a unique individual.

One of the first topics you study is about how to interview witnesses and help them recognise or remember offenders This is divided into three studies:

• Recognising faces: Is there a particular way the human mind recognises faces? Maybe we remember a face "as a whole" - or do we put it together "bit by bit" like a jigsaw puzzle?
• Variables affecting identification: Lots of factors can interfere with our memory, like tiredness or alcohol. An interesting factor for Forensic Psychologists is the WEAPON FOCUS EFFECT, when the presence of a dangerous weapon distracts us from an attacker's face 
• The Cognitive Interview: Psychologists have created a detailed system for helping witnesses remember more and remember more accurately

The next topic for you to study is about how to interview suspects and detect their lies or extract their confessions. This is divided into three studies:

• Detecting lies: Are there particular things to watch out for when someone is lying and are the police particularly good at spotting liars?
• Interrogation techniques: Are there sure-fire methods for getting guilty people to confess - and is it ethical to use these methods? 
• False confessions: Why do some people confess to crimes they haven't committed?