PSYC 2400 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Personality Psychology, Psychopathology, Sleep Deprivation

• School: Carleton University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 2400
• Professor: Adelle Forth

Document Summary

One of the main goals of a police interrogation is to obtain a confession of guilt from the suspect. Because offenders are typically reluctant confess, psychological coercion must often be used to secure confessions. The reid model is based on the idea that (cid:498)people make choices that they think will maximize their well-being given the constraints they face(cid:499) It(cid:495)s assumed that during the accusatory phase of interrogation that the suspect(cid:495)s fear of confessing outweighs their anxiety caused by remaining. Minimization techniques: (cid:498)soft shell tactics(cid:499) used by police interrogations (cid:498)to excuses for the crime in question(cid:499) Maximization techniques: (cid:498)scare tactics(cid:499) that (cid:494)convey the interrogator(cid:495)s certain belief that the suspect is guilty and that denials will fail(cid:495) reverse this so that the consequences of confessing become more desirable than the anxiety related to the deception. These interrogation techniques can be broken down into two general provide the weakening suspect with moral justification and face-saving categories; minimization techniques and maximization techniques.