Modern-DAY Debates Psychological Experts IN Court PDF

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Chapter 1: Psychological Experts in court...

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MODERN-DAY DEBATES: PSYCHOLOGICAL EXPERTS IN COURT

○ Challenges of providing expert testimony ○ Admissibility criteria Two primary functions: ○ Aid in understanding a particular issue relevant to the case ○ Provide an opinion ► These opinions must fall within limits of expert witnesses' areas of expertise and testim must be deemed reliable and helpful to court *This contrasts with regular witnesses who can only testify about what they have dire observed*

○ Experts need to know not only about their testimony but about all the proceedings an role in the proceedings ○ Providing effective testimony to the courts is difficult because of differences (often con that exist between the fields of psychology and law PSYCHOLOGY

LAW

1.EPISTEMOLOGY ○ Can uncover hidden objective ○ Truth is defined subjectively and b truths if appropriate who tells the most convincing sto experiments are conducted 2.

NATURE OF LAW

○ Descriptive - Describe how and why people behave the way that they do

○ Prescriptive - Tells people how th should behave and provides the m for punishment

3.

KNOWLEDGE

○ Based on empirical, groupbased date collected using

○ Derived from analysis of court cas rational application of logic to est

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y eans s and blish

based date collected using various research methods

rational application of logic to est facts of a case

4. METHODOLOGY ○ Predominantly nomothetic and experimental with emphasis on replication

○ Case-by-case basis with emphasis compelling narratives

5.

CRITERION

6.

PRINCIPLES

○ Relatively cautious in willingness to accept something as true (p...