PSYC 395 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Forensic Psychology, Suggestibility, Mental Health Law

• School: Athabasca University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 395
• Professor: Bob Brandes

Document Summary

Relationship between psychology law: psychology and the law, psychology viewed as a separate discipline to law, consists of examining and analysing various components of the law from a, e. g. Why is it important to allow for discretionary decision-making in the canadian criminal justice system? : not a core topic and is challenging because it requires skills from multiple disciplines (e. g. sociology, criminology) Challenges of providing expert testimony: difficulties exist because of the inherent differences between psychology and law, hess (1999): described how psychology and law differ in 7 ways: Aims to uncover broad patterns and trends through experiments and statistics. Assume it is possible to uncover hidden truths with the appropriate experiments. Cautious to accept something as true, and must at least be replicated to be true. Truth defined subjectively and based on who is convincing. Truth based on a single case with more lenient criteria. Consider alternative explanations for findings lawyers convince judge/jury.