Survey research
A survey research is basically a set of well defined structured questions and/or statements which are given to a selected group of individuals giving allowance for the mathematical measurement of behavioral tendencies, values, attitudes and personal beliefs. In society, it may be applied to effects and issues surrounding marital separation resulting to disruption to a household thus affecting children negatively and the spouses as well; in the end it leads to divorce. An example in criminal justice can be one addressing how opinions, attitudes and perception by the public towards criminal justice can be changed or restructured. It would go further to analysis and data collection of the current trend in criminal acts in the community and the ways in which such are handled. An example in the application to an individual may be how one deals with the changing economic times. It may include personal income, expenses, the work done and the social support provided.
Self-esteem
This term aims at referring to a person’s overall emotional evaluation of the worth they accord to him/her. For example in the society, the effects of racism can dictate how esteem can be destroyed. For criminal justice, we have witnessed where those who have been racially segregated engaging in crime mainly to harm those who use annoy them. Individually, self-esteem can be referred to especially by considering how an individual behaves in public speaking. One with low self-esteem would shake when asked to talk in public.
Self-handicapping
In this, people avoid efforts in the hope of keeping potential failure away from hurting their self-esteem. In the society for instance, some students participate in a behavior that is self-handicapping to ensure they don’t feel bad about themselves if they don’t establish a good performance in class. When it comes to criminal justice, it can be used to understand individuals who are sexually violated and fear to report it to authorities for the fear of being looked down upon by the society. An example for an individual may be when one fears to open a small business for the fear of loss and what other people would say about him/her.
Hindsight bias
This is a creeping determinism; seeing events that have occurred already as being more predictable than they actually did before taking place. In society, we can look at third world countries that elect a president who has corruption history then when he starts underperforming, they look back and start complaining. In cases of crime, we observe the society complaining after a well-known community member brutally attacks members of the society, looking back, the society members say he was a bhang addict. On a personal level, this can be considered when and individual complains of his life after marriage and state that he was not compatible with the wife selected from the start.
External attribution
This theory seeks to explain perceptions by people of the causes for their behavior in which individuals consider their reactions to a given situation to circumstances that would have been different from how other people would have reacted to the same situation. In the society, we can use his to explain, appreciate and acknowledge how individuals are bound to react with respect to their religion; Muslim members don’t eat pork. In criminal justice, it can be connected to why those who suffer mental illness and engage in crime are not treated the same way as the rational beings. On an individual level, it can be considered how an individual decides on the kind of leisure to adopt which at time depends on the people he/she lives with. An example can be the type of music.
Cognitive dissonance
This is a discomfort experienced when one holds simultaneously two or more ideas, values, beliefs or emotional reactions that are conflicting. In the society, an example can be developed from the school environment where there are children who are taught the basic history of the country by teachers while they still have questions from myths they have learnt about from their parents. In criminal justice, this can be applied in self defense. An individual shoots and kills a thug who attacks his home. Though he or she knows that killing is illegal, he/she has to defend his life. Individually, an example can be witnessed when a person is biased in an attempt to seek consonance between personal expectations and the reality at hand; from this, an individual sets goals and objectives.
Media persuasion
Most media messages have a goal of persuading the audience to do something or believe in it. It ranges from social media, print, audio and visual media. In the society, the persuasion can be witnessed when the media persuades people to control their diet by showing and narrating data on the increased rates of obesity. In crime, media persuasion can come to play when organizations are convinced to install cameras in the work place which records any possible crime in the work place. On an individual level, an individual may be addicted to watching given kind of movies and listening to certain songs such that in the end, the lifestyle of the individual changes completely. The person for instance opts to wear and walk as he sees in the television.
References
Holzkamp, K., Schraube, E., Osterkamp, U., Boreham, A., & Sloan, T. (2013). Psychology from the Standpoint of the Subject: Selected Writings of Klaus Holzkamp. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
