Deck 4: B: Deception

Question 1

What are the eight strategies that a person may employ when malingering identified by the Structured Interview of Reported Symptoms (SIRS)?

Answer 1

1.Rare symptoms: symptoms that true patients endorse very infrequently
2.Symptom combinations: uncommon pairings of symptoms
3.Improbable or absurd symptoms: symptoms unlikely to be true,since true patients rarely endorsed them
4.Blatant symptoms: items that are obvious signs of mental disorder
5.Subtle symptoms: items that contain what most people consider everyday problems
6.Selectivity of symptoms: ratio of symptoms endorsed versus those not endorsed
7.Severity of symptoms: number of severe symptoms reported
8.Reported versus observed symptoms: discrepancy between self-report and observable symptoms

Question 2

Rogers (1990)describes three explanatory models of malingering.Name and define these three models.Which model is most highly supported?

Answer 2

a.Pathogenic model: This assumes that motivation for malingering is due to an underlying mental disorder.
b.Criminological model: Malingering is closely tied with the conjunction of Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD),aversive circumstances and uncooperativeness-i.e.,malingering should be suspected if the following are present: (1)APD, (2)forensic assessment, (3)lack of cooperation, (4)discrepancy between subjective complaints and objective findings.
c.Adaptational model: Malingering is likely to occur in the following circumstances: (1)there is perceived adversarial context, (2)personal stakes are very high, (3)no other viable alternatives are perceived.
-According to forensic psychologists,the adaptational model is rated most important.

Question 3

Provide four criticisms of the Comparison Question Test (CQT).

Answer 3

a.The CQT does not produce high levels of accuracy and is especially vulnerable to false-positive errors (falsely classifying guilty suspects as innocent).
b.Results are inadmissible in Canadian courts of law.
c.The theoretical rationale for the test is weak (i.e.,cannot distinguish deception from fear,arousal,and other emotional states triggered in response to relevant and comparison questions).
d.One can use a variety of countermeasures to "beat" the polygraph test (e.g.,biting tongue,counting backwards,etc.).
e.Empirical findings on polygraph validity do not satisfy minimal standards of research quality.

Question 4

Give two explanations for poor performance in deception detection.

Question 5

Provide two verbal and two nonverbal cues (variables)demonstrated to be reliable indicators of deception.

Question 6

Describe the four phases of a Comparison Question Test (CQT).Make sure you identify the purpose of each phase.

Question 7

Your text identifies several cues of malingered psychosis.Identify three cues associated with hallucinations and three cues associated with delusions.

Question 8

Describe how event-related brain potentials (ERPs)have been used to detect deception.

Question 9

According to your text,what are the two key components of malingering? List four reasons why an individual might be motivated to malinger.

Question 10

What concern has been raised regarding use of brain-imaging evidence in court? Discuss research that has examined this concern.

Question 11

Describe the Concealed Information Test (CIT),including its purpose and general form.Also provide several criticisms or limitations of the CIT and why it isn't used as much as the CQT.