Social psychologists have shown that a group can be heavily influenced by the dominating, authoritarian decision making of one or more strong supporters of the death penalty. Despite the democratic process of picking jury members, many typical jury selection practices later lead the group of twelve picked to be of a certain caliber, based on the characteristics of those chosen and how those characteristics relate within a group setting. Since the 1970's, social psychologists have been used by counsel to help ensure victory in the outcome of certain cases. Due to the influential potential of a jury's opinion, venue becomes essential in the outcome of the case. The trial of the police officers in the Rodney King beating was set in Simi Valley; the general population being extremely conservative and too many, racist. Modern professionals trained in jury selection based on social psychology findings are known in today's industry as trail consultants. This has inspired much academic research into group psychology of juries and jury selection. The removal of oppositional jurors does also remove the other side of opinion, therefore removing strong oppositional influences and opening up the possibility of a single opinion dominating the group's decision. The O.J. Simpson murder case highlighted the...
Jo-Ellan Dimitrius is a prime example of a trial consultant. She is responsible for helping select the jury that acquitted O.J. Simpson. The jury choice is thought by many to be one of the major reasons he was acquitted for the murder of his ex-wife. However, many researchers believe that attitudes and general opinions on certain subjects can lead to predicted jury decisions better than juror personality traits, "For example, the presence of an authoritarian personality defined as a strong preference for order, for clearly articulated rules, and for powerful leadership, s modestly related to individuals' likelihood to vote for conviction in criminal cases," (Cleary 11).
With the appropriate controls of variables, the research showed that the recidivism rate of those offenders who got deterrent sentences like 30 months and above, recorded a 29% recidivism rate as compared to those who had relatively shorter terms who had 26% recidivism rates. Proposed herein is the consistency in the punishment handed and not the use of deterrent theory to hand down long sentences or even worse death
Social psychology is a very broad field that takes in the many varieties of group dynamics, perceptions and interactions. Its origins date back to the late-19th Century, but it really became a major field during and after the Second World War, in order to explain phenomena like aggression, obedience, stereotypes, mass propaganda, conformity, and attribution of positive or negative characteristics to other groups. Among the most famous social psychological studies
The very notion that romantic and other social relationships may affect the cognitive development in infants from the beginnings of their life suggest parents should take courses or classes in social relationships skills more so than parenting or well baby classes to ensure their babies mature cognitively and not just physically. 4. An important environmental impact on the health of individuals from a social psychology perspective is the environment of
Western Sexual Mores and Fundamental Beliefs about Romantic Love: Beyond the unfair effect of gender-based differential sexual socialization on sexually liberated women in dating relationships, another component of American social psychology often undermines romantic happiness. Specifically, the many messages about romance and marriage that help shape the American view of love suggest that: (1) sexual desire between couples who love each other is exclusive; (2) sexual desire for others indicates a
Social Psychology of Hate Groups Content Analysis of the Social Psychology of Hate Groups Over a decade ago, it was already apparent that the Internet had advantages for social organization on the part of marginalized groups -- and that some of these marginalized groups would pose a challenge, as they could be described as "hate groups." A survey of literature on the social psychology of the Internet singles out many factors why
This is evidenced from the fact that in all the 19 studies mentioned above, children from single parent families showed a higher rate of criminal behavior. (Manning and Lamb 2004), one of the studies that used ADD Health data in the survey showed that family consolidation by remarriages has little positive impact for children. "The advantage of marriage appears to exist primarily when the child is the biological offspring
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