RunningHead:ABBREVIATEDTITLE

ASSIGNMENT COVER
Course code:

PSY101U

Course name:

Introduction to Psychology

Assignment
title:
Instructors
name:
Students
name:
Date:

Assignment II

Afroditi Papaioannou-Spiroulia

Eleftheria Bikou

25/06/2014

Comments:

Grade:

/100

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Paper Title
Eleftheria Bikou
25/06/2014

Introduction to Psychology

e.mpikou@cityu.gr
Afroditi Papaioannou-Spiroulia

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3
Abstract

Nowadays the field of forensic psychology has grown very fast. Increasingly, psychologists
and other mental health professionals are being asked for providing expertise in a wide variety of
legal procedures (ODonohue & Levensky, 2004).
Feldman (2010) in his book with title Understanding Psychology gives a brief definition
of forensic psychology. Forensic psychology is focusing on legal issues, such as determining the
accuracy of witness memories.
In this assignment the author is going to describe and analyze the field of forensic
psychology the roles and the responsibilities of the forensic psychologists, the application of this
field and the necessity of this occupation International.

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Forensic Psychology
Definition
When a person hears about Forensic Psychology it is usual to have in his mind the idea that
TV shows and films promotes. But the impression that this person has is inaccurate.
Unfortunately, forensic psychologists are not collecting DNA samples neither arresting criminals.
In fact they are rarely crime scene investigators (Huss, 2014).
Generally, there is a debate among psychologists about the definition of forensic
psychology. The American Psychological Association refers to forensic psychology as an expert
practice by any psychologist working within any sub-discipline of psychology, like cognitive,
developmental, social and clinical psychology, when applying the scientific, technical, or
specialized knowledge of psychology to the law to assist in addressing legal, contractual, and
administrative matters (APA, 2013). From the other hand Wrightsman and Fulero (2010) in
their book gave a broad definition that refers to forensic psychology as any application of
psychological research, theory, methods and practice to a task faced by the legal system.
Although, Wrightsmans and Fuleros definition excludes subjects such as eyewitness
identification and jury behavior and is not correlating forensic psychology with any other field in
psychology. So, we can say that forensic psychology is the interaction of the study of
psychology and the law combined other clinical specialties to the legal area.
History of forensic psychology
Forensic psychology, in these early years of the 21st century, is still a new field of applied
psychology. In 2001, forensic psychology has been recognized by American Psychological
Association as a specialty (APA, 2013) (Bartol & Bartol, 2014). Additionally, as we are going
back in the early years of this field, a sign that pointing us the growth of this field is the creation

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of the American Psychology-Law Society in 1969, an organization in forensic psychology (Huss,

2014).
Forensic psychology was not always as popular as it is nowadays. Before all the
recognitions there were many times that forensic psychologists were devalued and not accepted
from the court. However, in 1921 a psychologist, for the very first time, was allowed to testify as
an expert witness in the United States in State v. Driver (Huss, 2014). Before this, in 1908, Hugo
Munsterberg published a book with title On the Witness Stand and William Marston developed
the first modern polygraph in 1917 (Costanzo &Krauss, 2012).
However the most important turning point for forensic psychology was when the appeal
court in the District of Columbia, Jenkins v. United States (1962), ruled that testimony from a
psychologist could be admitted to determine criminal responsibility, like in cases with
insanity/sanity issues (Huss, 2014). Although, the Canadian legal system was not very positive
for allowing psychologists to testify in the court.
Training in forensic psychology
If someone is interested for being a forensic psychologist, the most common
education/training that is proposed is to be admitted firstly into a graduate program in
psychology. In this type of program, although, are including and other fields of psychology.
Then, most students that are interested in forensic psychology they continue with a master
program, in order to gain a specialty and then there is also the doctorate degree (PhD) (Huss,
2014).
There are students that chose the master degree from the doctorate because it takes less
time to gain the degree. However, a doctorate program provides more advantages that the master

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degree. Additionally, the term psychologist is often directed to those that own a doctorate
degree (Krauss & Sales, 2014).
According to Huss (2014), there are also the Joint-degree programs that combine both
psychology and law studies. Although, this program is very competitive because of the high
admission requirements and also it is a rare program, but there are increased career options for
those that have this degree.
Roles of forensic psychologists
A forensic psychologist can have many roles in this field. Firstly, as in every field of
psychology, there is the role of researcher. Interviewing is the most frequent way that forensic
psychologists are using. As it is known, with this method gathering information is quite easy
because the psychologist in the one that structured the interview. Also laboratory experiment in a
technique that is used by researchers (Plotnik & Kouyoumdjian, 2011). Loftus experiment is a
great example of laboratory experiment. A group of people watched a film with car accidents and
then was asked about what they saw but with the use of different words in the questions, because
that affect the answer (Loftus, 1975).
The role of consultant to law enforcement is an important role for a forensic psychologist.
For example if a police officer experienced a stressful situation during his work, he is going to be
referred for psychological treatment. But there are ethical issues that can be arise (Wrightsman
and Fulero 2010).
The trial consultant is the most common role of a forensic psychologist. Frequently, a trial
consultant is hired by attorneys to help with jury selection, witness preparation, or trial strategy.
Thereafter, they are advisors to the legal system (Costanzo &Krauss, 2012). There are ethical

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issues too in this application of forensic psychology, for example a trial consultant is not only a
psychologist is an enterpriser too (Wrightsman and Fulero 2010).
A forensic psychologist can also be an evaluator and an expert witness. This role is also a
common one. An evaluator is asked from the court or the attorneys to do assessment for criminal
cases. It must be underlined that in this case there is no confidentiality like in actual therapies,
because the forensic psychologist has to make an open report about the assessment (Wrightsman
and Fulero 2010). An expert witness is a person that has specialized knowledge through his/her
education and experience. The court needs these experts to testify because of their lack of
knowledge on some topics. Not everyone has knowledge about forensic psychology. (Costanzo
&Krauss, 2012). But according to Huss (2014), often forensic psychologists as expert witnesses
are not allowed to offer a diagnosis because there is the belief that diagnostic impressions could
only be proposed by medical professionals, mainly psychiatrists.
Necessity of forensic psychologists
There are many career options for a forensic psychologist. But unfortunately not in every
country need one. In Greece there is no application of this professional. Psychiatrists are the only
that can testify in the court as an expert witness because there are the only that can offer a
diagnosis. Basically, everything that it has to do with forensic psychology only psychiatrists can
give an opinion.
The only application of forensic psychology in Greece is teaching in colleges/universities
or to be instructor for a psychology course.
From the other hand in United States and in some European countries, a forensic
psychologist has more career options. For example in federal, state or local government and
facilities (jails, prisons, police departments) or courts, attorneys and legal advocacy groups

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(Wrightsman and Fulero 2010). Also forensic psychologists in nowadays evaluate and testify in
insanity cases in the United States frequently (Huss, 2014).
Reflective essay
The author decided to collect information about forensic psychology and present them
because of the great interest that this field is receiving more and more. Also, as an influence
played a crucial role the activity of the Innocent Project. This is an organization that
exonerates wrongfully convicted people with the help of DNA tests, trying to prevent future
condemnation of innocent people. Since 1992, the Innocence Project has used DNA evidence to
win the exoneration of 246 prisoners nationwide. Faulty eyewitness identification played a role
in the wrongful convictions of approximately 75% of these individuals
(www.innocenceproject.org).
Forensic psychologists have among other- the responsibility to investigate whether a
testimony of an eyewitness is right or wrong. It is known that an eyewitness is the most
significant evidence for a case (Wrightsman & Fulero, 2010). The court relies on the testimony
of the eyewitness without doubting. But as the evidence showed us above, eyewitnesses can be
wrong.
The authors main reason that chooses this field of psychology is because it is amazing
how many people convicted for crimes that were not responsible. According to Wells et al (1998)
false eyewitness identification is the major cause of condemnation of a person that is not the
perpetrator of a crime.
As it mentioned in the information pack, forensic psychology is correlated with other fields
in psychology as cognitive, social, developmental and clinical psychology. The fact that a

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forensic psychologist can expound for example criminal behaviors and wrong testimonies from
eyewitnesses is a proof that forensic psychology is necessary.

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10
References

American Psychological Association. (2013). Specialty guidelines for forensic psychology.

American Psychologist, 68(1), 719. doi:10.1037/a0029889
Bartol, C. R., & Bartol, A. M. (2014). History of Forensic Psychology. The Handbook of
Forensic Pychology (4th ed.) West Sussex, UK: Wiley Blackwell
Costanzo, M., & Krauss, D. (2012). Forensic and Legal Psychology (1st ed.). New York, NY :
Worth Publishers
Feldman, R. S. (2010). Understanding Psychology (10th ed.). University of Massachusetts
Huss, M. T. (2014). Forensic Psychology (2nd ed.) West Sussex, UK: Wiley Blackwell.
Krauss, D. A., & Sales, B. D. (2014). Training in Forensic Psychology. The Handbook of
Forensic Pychology (4th ed.) West Sussex, UK: Wiley Blackwell
Loftus, E. F. (1975). Leading questions and the eyewitness report. Cognitive Psychology, 6, 560572.
ODonohue, W., & Levensky, E. (2004). Handbook of Forensic Psychology. (1st ed.). Academic
Press.
Plotnik, R., Kouyoumdjian, H. (2011). Introduction to Psychology (9th ed.). Cengage Learning
Wells, G. L., Small, M., Penrod, S., Malpass, R. S., Fulero. S. M., Brimacombe, C. A. E. (1998).
Eyewitness identification procedures: Recommendations for lineups and photospreads.
Law and Human Behavior.
Wrightsman, L. S., & Fulero, S. M. (2010). Forensic psychology (3rd ed.). Belmont, CA:
Wadsworth