Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Objectivity Demand: Experiences and Behaviors of Psychologists in Capital Case Evaluations

这项研究将考察法医心理学家之间的偏见如何影响死刑案件的结果。死刑是一个情绪化的问题，许多人对此持有强烈的观点。尽管在法律系统工作的精神健康专业人员受到道德标准的约束，必须客观执业，抛开个人信仰和意见，但对死刑持强烈态度的评估者可能不会客观地处理死刑案件中被告心理困扰的证据。如果隐含的和未被承认的偏见在运作，精神病被告可能不会总是得到适当的治疗或法律制裁。是否保持客观性是一个事关生死的经验性问题。这将是一项由三部分组成的研究，采访部分首先询问经验丰富的法医，了解他们的经历以及他们为纠正被认为存在的偏见所做的努力。随后将对法医心理学家进行一次大规模的全国性调查，以建立和测试研究一中出现的偏见假设。第三项研究是此类研究中的第一项，建议分析已完成的死刑案件报告的内容是否具有潜在的客观性或偏见。这一系列研究代表了对法医心理学一个未经检验的领域的调查。社会心理学文献表明，人类可能有一项不可能完成的任务，那就是将决策与认知和情感偏见分开。人们认为，在模棱两可和情绪突出的情况下，偏见的可能性最大。因此，重要的是要检查在情绪紧张的死刑案件评估中(即，当审查员对死刑的两个方向都有强烈的感受时)，审查员的态度是否会影响解释和结论。

This research will examine how biases among forensic psychologists may influence the outcome of death-penalty cases. Capital punishment is an emotional issue about which many people have strongly held opinions. Although mental health professionals who work in the legal system are bound by ethical standards to practice objectively and set aside personal beliefs and opinions, evaluators who hold strong attitudes toward capital punishment may not objectively process evidence of a defendant's psychological distress in capital cases. If implicit and unrecognized bias is operating, mentally ill defendants may not always receive the appropriate treatments or legal sanctions. Whether objectivity is maintained is an empirical question with life-or-death implications. This will be a three-part study, with an interview portion first questioning experienced forensic examiners about their experiences and their efforts to correct for perceived biases. A large national survey of forensic psychologists will follow to build on and test the bias hypotheses that emerge from study one. The third study is the first of its kind, and proposes to analyze the content of completed capital case reports for potential objectivity or bias. This series of studies represents an investigation into an unexamined area of forensic psychology. Social psychological literature suggests that human beings may have an impossible task in divorcing decisions from cognitive and emotional biases. The potential for bias is thought to be strongest in ambiguous and emotionally salient situations. It is therefore important to examine whether in emotionally intense capital case evaluations (i.e., when examiners feel strongly in either direction about capital punishment), examiner attitudes may influence interpretations and conclusions.