PSYC 3020 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Verbal (Rapper), Sick Role, Malingering

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 3020
• Professor: Dan Yarmey

Document Summary

1st used in china over 2000 years ago. Polygraph measure subtle changes in heart rate, blood pressure, respiration and perspiration. Assumed that a guilty person will show involuntary alarm reactions in response to certain critical questions involving their participation in a crime. An innocent person who is afraid of the test or does not believe the validity may produce autonomic responses (false positives) similar to those of a deceptive person. It is possible for individuals who are unusually non-responsive for any number of reasons to go undetected (false negative) although guilty. False positives are more likely than false negative to occur. 3 types of questions - irrelevant, relevant and comparison. Deception is assessed by comparing physiological responses between relevant and comparison questions. Attempts to determine what/if the suspect knows details about a crime only the guilty person would know. Examiner asks multiple choice questions and only one answer is right.