Reading Blog: 1/18 10pm: Ch 1 C&K; Ch1 M&M

The topic I am most interested in learning about in this Psychology and Law course is psychological treatment of offenders, victims, and witnesses. I think it is interesting to see how an individual's personality changes their behavior and reaction to certain people and event

If I were explain to someone what this class was about based on these two introductory chapter I would say that psychology and law almost defines itself. In psychology we attempt to figure out how people behave and understand information presented to them. In psychology and law we attempt to do the same thing yet connect to several legal components. For example, we can take something strictly dealing with psychology and relate a legal topic to it. Developmental Psych - children tried as adults.

After reading the chapters, what I remembered most was the 'mock' table of contents in a psychology book that directly related to a legal component. I found it very memorable because entering into this class I was unsure on how there could be a whole course devoted to psychology AND law. Now it is clear that they go hand in hand and a lot of subject matter converges. I liked that I had specific example to look at and from that, could come up with my own topics that could relate.

After looking through these first chapters I am very excited to learn more about how psychology is used when dealing with criminals and why they act the way they do, and what type of psychological affect does verdicts have on defendants, do they feel more powerful if they get away with a crime they committed? Also the different ways psychology is incorporated into the legal system and what kinds of reactions people have to psychology being used in the system.
When I was telling my friends/family about the class I am taking, it was kind of hard to explain what exactly is Psych and Law. I would say that this class covers information about how psychology and different psychological perspectives are used to understand people who commit crimes and then how it can be used within the legal system. More importantly it’s the interaction and collaboration of the two that make the field so useful and applicable to legal issues. How psychology and laws play off each other and how one support an aspect of the other and makes that idea or theory stronger.
The most surprising thing that I found in these readings is how all types of psychology can be used at some point in time when dealing with legal issues. Developmental psych can be used to understand the life time development of a criminal, and cognitive psych can be used to understand how a juror perceives the information presented to them. So psych and law isn’t just limited to general psych but to specific fields as well.

1.Reading these first few chapters really opened my eyes to what this class is all about. Coming into the course, I thought this class was going to focus mainly on the minds and psychological state of people on trial. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that this course is going to cover so much more. I am most eager to learn about the psychology of those who work within the legal system. How do they handle everything, can they tell when they are getting the truth or a mislead confession, how do their families react to everything, etc..? Along with that, I am also excited to learn about the legal system itself. I have always been a fan of detective shows such as Matlock and Law and Order but I have never really known the truth behind the scenes. Hopefully this course will rid me of my judgments that I have of criminals and those cops who accidentally or not, put innocent people behind bars.
2.Explaining Psych and Law to my friends is something I struggle with. After the first day, I told them all about the mock trial and how much fun it seems to be. However, now I think that they all have the wrong impression of this class as an easy class. While this class may be extremely fun, I know it is going to take a lot of work. Psych and Law covers so much material and much of it seems to overlap in various ways. We will have to learn the basics of both the legal system and psychology, then combine the two, and then finally see how the interlocking systems constitute such a large part of our society.
3. I was surprised to see how the legal system literally uses every subcategory of Psychology. You always see the psychologists on crime shows that deal with the victims or that decided the mental stability of the defendants but you never see all of the other ways that psychology affects the legal systems and those involved with it.

I am most looking forward to learning about how psychology and law relate. I would like to become more familiar with how the court system works and how trials are done. I am also interested to learn how all the different jobs in court work together...(character witnesses, judge, jury, expert witnesses...etc).

Explaining what psychology and law is all about is a bit tricky. The readings try and differentiate the 2 disciplines enough yet they are compared quite a bit. I would say that thought processes and certain aspects of behavior need to be known to those working with the law. These processes are considered the psychology aspect. To sum up what our this psych/law class consists of I would say: This class explains how the law shapes our lives, and psychology embarks on what our lives consist of.

What I found surprising in the reading was the fact that judges, lawyers and jurors are clearly apart of the society we live in. They get a lot of their information from things like websites or magazines. I guess I figured that people at this level would be reading and getting their information from psychology journals, since their knowledge can change the life of so many people. I was surprised to read this.

The topics I am most interested in learning about in this course, Psychology and Law is mainly how psychology and law play a role together and how it can affect how a trial is run or the legal system itself. There are so many factors in a trial it seems and psychology is a whole other way to look at things. I am also interested in eye witnessing and memory and how your mind can play tricks on you or you can think you saw something when really you were wrong.
If I had to describe to someone what psychology and law is defined as I would tell them they each represent themselves individually. Psychology is the study of human behavior and why people do the things they do and the law is rules of society that you are required to abide by or there may be consequences if you do not follow them. Psychology is the truth and the law is justice.
The most surprising or memorable thing that I found in these readings is how psychology is used so many different ways in the legal system. I did not realize psychology was such a large part of the legal system.

1)In my readings of the first chapters of each book, one of the topics I am most interested in learning about during this course is the timeline concept of the crimes and who exactly is involved in each step of the process. I am intrigued by the roles that different people (witnesses, attorneys, detectives…etc.) play in the part of handling and attempting to solve the crimes.
I am constantly watching Law & Order:SVU and I have always wondered about the amount of accuracy that the show portrays in its episodes. How do the actually court activities proceed and how do the detectives narrow down their search in suspects?
2)If I had to describe to someone what Psychology & Law is, I would tell them that if you understand each subject to an extent than you can put them together and more or less understand the workings of the class. Psychology is basically the study of human behavior and why people act the way they do. Law can be defined as a set of regulations to which people must uphold and the consequences of not following the set rule. If you put the two together I would tell someone that Psychology & Law is the study of why certain people behave in a way that is unacceptable in society and their breaking of regulations which results in disciplinary actions.
3)The most surprising thing I discovered during these readings would have to be that the use of psychology in the field of law was so dismissed in its beginnings. It was interesting to me that the data that psychologists provided for law officials was never actually used as frequently as it could have been, considering how often the courts rely on the opinions of psychologists.

I feel there is some need for complete honesty here. I only ever enrolled in this class to fulfill an Applied Psychology requirement. I chose this class above the other few courses because I had heard about the mock trial and I knew something about the Stanford Prison experiment so I wanted to know what it would be like to get into a role that does not actually define me.

However, now that I have read something about what this class is about, I am excited to know more about the value (or questionable value) of eye witness testimony. I have taken Cognitive Psychology before and I have learned that memory is not as stable as we like to think it is. So I want to know how critical this bit of evidence is or in what ways people in court get around that difficulty. I also want to know about Lie detection.

My definition of what psychology and law represent, at least in the present moment, is: the study of what everyone involved in the legal system do and how they view different pieces of evidence regardless of where that evidence came from. It also involves everyone that provides both evidence and scientific input with regards to the value of certain legal tools.

I have frequently been told that attorneys have to defend cases that they do not believe in just so they can make a living. What I did not understand beforehand that I understand better right now is that the legal systems wants them to. I simply had thought that it was a consequence of making a living, but it is an expectation from the existing system. In a way, attorneys must convince themselves that they are correct and rationalize evidence to the contrary. This was one reinforcer message that stuck to me.

I am sort of surprised that THE WIRE is not on the list for popular drama involving our subject area. I had to watch it for a different class and was told that it was analyzed by experts and that it depicted the psychology of criminals, detectives, judges and attorneys and their influence on each other in great detail with minute accuracy. I did find it highly detailed but cannot speak to its accuracy.

1) The topics I am most looking forward to learning about this semester have seemed to change from my previous interpretation of the course Psychology and Law as I now realize after reading the assigned material my general idea of the concept of Psychology and Law was not quite up to par with the textbook definition's and examples. Therefore, I am intrigued to learn about the legal process as a whole because previous I just took the notion that the "trial" was everything and consumed most of the process, but now look forward to, as i now know the "trial" itself is a small piece, the general psychological aspects (developmental, social, clinical, cognitive..etc) and how they all are relevant and play into the law itself. Another area i am interested in is how attorney's themselves master their ways through trials (build the case) using "expert" witness and how the whole idea of advocacy works in the courtroom setting. Judges discretion as well has always been a question of mine and that to is something i would be very interested in learning about. In a summation i could number countless minute topics but in the whole light of things I look forward to going through the whole process from the actual crime to the verdict and how specific roles each personally play a piece and gain an insight into how each of them in "reality" progress through an actual case.

2)If I had to describe the concept of Psychology and Law to some random person I would state: It is a partnership that seems from the general idea of the terms together sounds pretty logical in that Psychology tries to understand how people interpret information and how it is that they behave conjoined with law which is a obvious procedure carried out by the government (state or federal) to generally keep things in line with a sense of order or authority, which would make the general idea of the partnership seem "golden" in a sense that once you join how people behave and personally operate with the questions of Who killed whom? Is he capable of this crime? one would suggest that the two together would be a "Legal Bible" in a sense that this type of person would lead to this outcome in the legal system. In fact it is much more dense than that in a way that their relationship ultimately is a way of applying psychological theory with solid research methods to fully understand individual human behaviors and thought processes, on a case by case basis, as one to tie everything together. Law is thought of a process done by the Police, Judge, and Attorneys in which they follow legal precedents and statues and take any given case and come to a determined punishment or outcome. Adding Psychology and Law into one family allows scientist to become involved from the Psychology standpoint along with expert witness's, expert analysis, philosophers, and even therapist or experts within a given field that can input their insight as they have a better knowledge or expertise in the field to explain to the jury/judge the true deepened meaning of a behavior or why a certain reasoning may occur. It is a great combination in that Judges no longer rule cases on a general gist of personal discretion but are now allowed to let the experts be heard and allow juries to hear expertise from all angles. Granted each case is taken on a individual basis and Psychology is a science not fully proven, but one must use the best resources currently available to defend the citizen in the most fair way possible. In summation, it introduces the idea that legal laws alone lead to many false accusations and wrongful sentencing and adding Psychology keeps the Attorney's and Judges in check that they may not as easily take a "cake walk" through the legal process but must fight actual produced evidence and build a case due to the scientist/psychologist who bring in rather good reasoning and theory to certain ideas.

3)The most exciting and memorable things I learned throughout reading this assignment I guess is how much detail I was actually missing out on when i thought i had the general gist of law itself. I was amused at the comparison between TV drama and the actual process itself as I knew TV stretched things but not to that extent. I enjoyed the comparison in the MacLin readings between the table of contents in an Intro to Psychology course and how one could use it for Psychology and Law, it made a good point. Finally, there were a lot of things that caught my attention but the idea that most caught me off guard that i have never thought about is how the different fields of psychology (developmental, cognitive,social) can individually play roles in how law itself can be examined to such detail and the door it opened for future law.

I am really looking forward to seeing how many ways Psychology and Law relate that I have not even thought about yet. I am a big fan of the television show Criminal Minds so that portion of it intrigues me, but I am smart enough to know that that is not what reality is like, and these two fields relate to each other in many other ways. I am considering law school after UNI and am a Psychology major, so seeing specific ways they intertwine is very interesting to me. In all honesty, it all interests me, but most specifically, I look forward to seeing the court process and how expert witnesses and other psychology people are used in during trials.
I would say this course is about the way the fields of Psychology and Law combine to form a specific discipline. It also seems that this class will help dispel myths that the media has created through shows like Law and Order and other court room dramas. This is a good thing to try to accomplish because most of the average person’s knowledge of law and how psychology relates to it comes from shows like these. Overall, we will have to learn the core concepts of each subject and be able to apply these ideas to each other to discover how they relate.
The most memorable thing I learned was about the experts who would testify just for money and essentially make up things to help the cause of the side that is paying them. I found that shocking they would do that. They are supposed to be respectable experts, but are able to basically lie without consequence. That doesn’t sit well with me.

This semester, I am looking forward to studying is how psychology affects the criminals. Flipping through the Costanzo book's table of contents, and the mentioning of it in the first chapter, I also am very interested in the effects of eyewitness testimony. I know it often is used in court cases, but doesn't always seem to necessarily be that effective.
If I were to describe psychology and law to someone not taking the class, I would tell them that it is the effects of people and the processes people are made up of in relation to law. For example, the effects of a person's memory in relation to testimony. Another example would be mental health issues in regards to a person committing a crime and whether they should be held accountable.
I found the 2 chapters very interesting...and not to suck up brownie points, but I found the Maclin and Maclin chapter to be much more interesting than the Costanzo book. The PDF file's did you know facts, in addition to the different tables kept me very interested. I was surprised to find out there were only 50 psychology and law graduate programs. The two seem to kind of fit together, so only 50 in the world out of all the number of colleges worldwide, seems miniscule. I was also intrigued with the different types of degrees needed to have a career in a 'psychological law' field, in addition to the different types of law one can be employed in. Since I want to go to law school, I spent a good chunk of time looking at that chart.
All in all, I am very excited for this class to get into stuff beyond an introduction!

1.) After reading chapter one it became rather apparent that psychology can be used in many aspects of the law. I have a particular interest in juvenile justice, so I am very curious to see how developmental psychology is used in this area. Along with this, seeing the biological and clinical aspect of "criminal minds" is extremely fascinating because further research in this area, I believe, can be extremely useful. Also, I would like to learn more about how the courts and prisons handle people with mental disorders.

2.) If I was to explain what a psychology and law class was about to an unknowing individual, like the chapter and in the book, I would first want to get any misconceptions out of the way. This would be by describing the flaws in media portrayal and how psychology and law are two very different subjects. By telling the person what the class is not about would be the first step. Then I would explain that it is basically looking at all the different aspect in psychology (social, developmental, clinical etc), and applying it to the law. This would then be explained by brief examples like developmental: child too young to stand trial, clinical: suspect's mental health status and so on.

3.) The most surprising thing I learned from reading both chapters is that pursuing forensic psychology is much harder than other fields of psychology. This is because there are not a lot of schools and programs, and this is what I found surprising. It was both informative and interesting to learn that in order to become involved in this, it is best to start in some other sort of area first and to the incorporate into research.

*From my reading, I am most interested in learning about the Clinical aspect of psychology and law. I am intersted in how the law decides if a person is able to stand trial and what sort of things they consider when deciding if that person is mentally ill or able to testify. I am also very interested in understanding more about what it is specifically that attorneys do in their careers. I am excited to learn about the trial process from this class, it will be very helpful in deciding if a career in law is something I want.
*Based on the two chapters, I would tell my friends that psychology and law is the combination of using psychological research and knowledge and applying it to our legal system and also using our legal system to ask psychological questions like why did this person commit this crime? The two work together to better understand many psychological components within the legal system. For example we can use the area of social psychology to interrogate witnesses and persuade them to confess.
*What I found most interesting/memorable from these two chapters was how many different ways in which psychology can be used in our legal system. Each area of psychology has its own connection and contribution to law and I think that is really interesting. Another thing that really stood out to me was just how much extra work and effort attorneys go through to build their cases and defend their clients. For example, going through databases and searching for cases to provide precedents to support their case. I also think its incredible how much of an impact using a pscyhologist as an expert witness can be.

1. After reading the first chapters I am really looking forward to learn more about jury selection. I am also eager to learn about the various roles and duties of persons involved in a case in and out of the courtroom. I also am looking forward to learn more about psychology and the study of a person’s idea and drive to commit certain criminal acts and how the law punishes a criminal for these acts.
2. After reading these chapters, I would try to explain to a student that Psychology is the study of human behaviors. Psychology provides some explanation about why humans act the way we do; whereas Law is the regulations influenced and powered by the judicial system in which all persons must abide by or consequences will be given. The law enforces punishment when regulations are broken. When studying psychology and law (together) persons can study the human behaviors to explain and solve problems.
3. After reading these chapters, the most memorable quote that I have taken with me comes from the Costanzo and Krauss textbook, in that psychology is the explanation of how people “actually” behave as compared to law that tells us how people “ought” to behave (p. 7). I was also surprised to learn about how all of the different fields of psychology play a role in Psychology and Law.

1. I am most excited to learn about expert testimony. This has always been appealing to me. Psychology and law differ but need to work together. This seems like a job where both psychology and law interact greatly, which are both fields of interest to me. They are responsible for helping the jurors understand what is being presented in the case. But they can only present the information in a non-bias form.
2.Psychology and Law interacts with each on multiple levels. If I had to explain this class to a friend, I would tell them about how both are necessary in our society. Law needs the study of psychology to understand why people do what they do while psychology needs law to make sure what they choose to do is "legal."
3.I like the concept of psychologist in law. Yet it was surprising to know how many variant jobs there actually are. They could be advisers, evaluators or reformers. All different yet important jobs!

The topic that I'm really looking forward to covering is about profiling. I have always been fascinated with the subject and to get a more in depth look into the profession is very exciting to me.

Psychology and Law is basically how the disciplines of psychology and law can and sometimes do interact with each other (whether it be, but not limited to, the initial investigation where a profiler may aid detectives in narrowing down or finding a suspect, or acquiring serves of a trial consultant to help select a juror members that would be sympathetic to your case, or even using the testimony of a psychologist as an expert witness).

What really stands out in my mind was how your intro chapter showed how each chapter in a general intro to psychology book could be tied in with psychology and law. Also, when you look at just how much psychology is used in the legal field thus far, it's easy to loose sight of just how young of a field this truly is and how many more opportunities there are to fully integrate both disciplines.

I am interested to learn how psychology affects law in so many different aspects. I think one of the more interesting parts is going to be eye witnesses. Im curious as to just how relyable they are. As well as how well they could identify someone out of a line up.

If i were to describe psychology and law to a friend, i would first note how distint the two fields are. Although they could seem like they are on different sides of a spectrum they actually interact very well together. Basically psychology is used in different ways to assist people within the legal community in prosecuting, arresting, and sentencing offenders.

What shocked me the most was the job aspect of psychology and law. Ive heard before that there were several interesting oppertunities but I guess it is really put into perspective on paper.