The clinical assessment I find most interesting, even if it's not always the most reliable, is psychophysiological tests. These sorts of tests measure our bodies physiological responses to a certain stimulus which could determine if we have any sort of underlying psychological issue. (Comer, 2014) Physiological responses include changes in blood pressure, accelerating or decreasing heartbeats, breathing patterns, and body temperature. (Comer, 2014) The most well known example of a psychophysiological test is the lie detector or polygraph test. When this test is administered, the person having the test done sits in a chair and as the book describes on page 78, “electrodes attached to various parts of a person’s body detect changes in breathing, perspiration and heart …show more content…
(Comer, 2014) In the article entitled “In the Dark, Inclusive: The truth about lie detector tests”, the author talks about how lie detector results have been incredibly false; “..Gary Ridgway, known as the Green River Killer and the Russian mole Aldrich Ames, who used so-called "countermeasures" to beat polygraphs twice in the 1980s and early 1990s...Conversely, innocent people have failed the polygraph, like Bill Wegerle, who was suspected of killing his wife in 1986 until DNA evidence traced the murder to BTK killer Dennis Rader”(Baran and Vogel, In the Dark, Inclusive: The truth about lie detector tests, apmreports.org). Whoever is administering the test must also know exactly what they are doing so that no errors are made. (Comer, 2014) I have also wondered personally before if someone who takes the test is known to have struggled with anxiety previously would get a bad reading from the machine, even if they are telling the truth. What if someone’s fear is strong enough to decide their fate? It could easily put the wrong people in jail and in turn, allow the wrong people to be set
There are many instances in which the polygraph is proven to be at fault such as with Cleve Backster. He was a polygraph examiner and believed strongly in the polygraph and its results. Backster one day decided to attach a houseplant that was in his office to the machine. He then would light the plants leaf on fire to see if the polygraph would have a spike in action. To his surprise as he struck the match the polygraph jumped signifying a response (Eells). Instead of considering that the polygraph went off randomly Backster instead assumed the plant had feelings and could even read his mind. This discovery lead to many scientific research projects in which scientists were unable to replicate Backster’s results. Rather than dismiss the event and polygraph as unreliable Backster dedicated the rest of his life to proving his discovery. The polygraph has been drilled into the minds of people as credible that taking it out of the justice system
“Introduction to Poetry” and “Traveling Through the Dark,” are poems written by Billy Collins and William Stafford. The poem’s, “Introduction to Poetry”, main conflict is a teacher who tries to get his students to read and appreciate a poem, but what all the students only care about is figuring out what it means. The conflict is highlighted through the many uses of metaphors to help us understand how he wants the students to look and decipher a poem and how they only focus on finding the meaning instead of taking their time to listen and see the art of poetry. William Stafford’s poem, “Traveling Through the Dark,” describes a driver’s dilemma of deciding whether to throw a dead pregnant deer into the river, or leave it laying on the road where it can cause an accident. In both poems, the use of literary devices such as metaphors, personification, imagery, and diction are effective in making and building up the conflict and reaching the resolution.
Also, due to the Brain scans being “70 to 90 per cent” accurate, this producing a defence for a defendant to argue that the scan in inaccurate, causing the process of scans to be a waste of time. As previously seen In R v Béland the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the results of a polygraph examination are not admissible as evidence. As the test had relied upon ones sweat and heart palpitations which delivered inaccurate results. This has also been seen to be the reason why polygraph examinations were excluded as evidence in the English Criminal justice system. Therefore
The principle on which the lie detector works is that certain involuntary physiological changes occur within the body when a person is lying. The theory is that when a person lies, the lying causes a certain amount of stress that produces changes in several involuntary physiological reactions (Nickell &Fischer, 1999). These changes are picked up and recorded by sensors attached to the body. The polygraph computes changes in breathing, blood pressure, pulse and perspiration; pens record the data on graph paper. The individual is
Polygraph- an electronic instrument Taft records physiological arousal from multiple channels, it is often used as a kid detector the signals are kicked oh by denies attached to different parts of the body. Rubber tubes are strapped around a suspects torso to measure breathing, blood pressure cuffs are wrapped around the upper arm do measure pulse rate abs electrodes ads places on fingertips to record sweat-gland activity or perspiration these signals are send by amplifies and can be seen usually it's to detect deception. But not full-proof sometimes truthful people fail the test and people who understand the test can fake the
Some examples are objective test, projective test, or neuropsychological assessment. Two test that really interested me were the Projective testing and the Cognitive Assessment. Projective testing is rooted in the psychoanalytic theory. It is based on one’s desires, needs, motivations, and our unconscious mind. An example of one is the Rorschach test, where they are given inkblots and told to explain what they see. I did something similar to this in highschool, where the teacher made an inkblot herself, and we all had to write what we saw in it. All of our answers varied, which was so interesting because their conscious minds shaped different objects and things out of it. The cognitive Assessment reveals one’s thoughts, beliefs, and feelings about situations going on that may be causing emotional problems. This test really interested me because people's true feelings come when they write about something. If they know it is not going to be spread to everyone, they will reveal about a situation, which helps doctors get deeper to the root of what is going on in their
My first reason for these tests not being accurate is because movement could possibly change your results. Have you ever heard someone tell the other person to “stay still” during a polygraph (lie detector) test? Well, this is why. Apparently, if you make the tiniest bit of movement, it could change your results completely! (Shocking!) Why trust a test that has results change as you move? Also, if you move, there is not a guarantee that the results will change. That means, they can’t always just take the opposite of your results when you move.
The test of a polygraph could have many different types of meanings. The author(s) of Polygraph test: Lies, trust and Science (1988) stated that difficulties with definitions of truth and honesty are considered, and it is noted that polygraph results are unlikely to provide a good indication of how an individual will behave in different situations. It is very interesting about the last part of this observation that the author(s) said, “provide a good indication of how an individual will behave in different situations (Polygraph test: lies, Truth and science 1988).” This might be the reason why polygraphs are not an excellent representations of someone actions. Giving a polygraph to an individual is going to be protected. There are going to be some limitations that an individual is going to be to
My question for my project was does lying show/create a physical reaction in the body? With the information, I have gathered I have determined that the physical reactions the body can produce when lying consists of the difference in breathing, covering the face, avoiding eye contact, an action that distracts them from the conversation such as hair twirling and nail biting. I have also determined that the three factors taken into account for a polygraph/lie detector are perspiration/sweat, heart rate, and blood pressure.
“Human Darkness” is an article in the New York times about the legacies of war and human suffering. The article, talks about the violence of the past and how we can use the past experiences to better understand the future. Violence has a way of destroying a person’s life. Violence can effect a person memory by causing suppression of the mind and destroy many custom and beliefs of a person. Violent is the plight of many refugees. However, education is the most effective counterterrorist strategies the is violence. Violators are encouraged to speak up against their oppressors and in spite of human nature we are capable to resist violence
According to Nigel Barber of Psychology Today, the polygraph was created on the idea that a person telling the truth would be calm and collected, while a liar would be nervous and fidgety. The polygraph detects an increase in sweating and the rise of the pulse rate in the individual who is taking the test. The polygraph is capable of successfully
The one thing that people fear the most is death. Nothing deters anyone, including criminals,
After the primary test to check the attitude and state of mind of the suspect the polygraph examination moves to the actual test. The principal purpose of the machine is to measure the different variations of each the individuals answers the questions. So in order to establish this for each of the suspects Keeler developed several different techniques to measure their emotional responses to the questions. One of the approaches that he administered was the "Slim Test." (CourtTV.com) The test involves the polygraph examiner making the suspect pick one card out a deck of cards and put the same card back in the pile without letting the examiner see it. After the suspect put the card back in the deck the examiner would show the suspect each card one by one. The examiner them would advise the suspect to say no to every card that was shown to him. This examiner would then would analyze the emotional response to each answer given by the suspect. With the information that was collected the examiner would show
A psychological assessment is the venture of a capable experts, generally a psychologist, to operate the techniques and tools or materials of psychology to ascertain either common or unique facts about another person, either to notify others how they function now, or estimate their attitude,behavior and functioning in the future. The issue of assessment is generally diagnosis or classification. These are the movement of placing a person in a certainly or loosely characterized category of people. This leads to swiftly grasp what they are similar in general, and to evaluate the existence of other thematic features based upon people similar or likely to them. Case history data, clinical interview, psychological tests and behavioral observations
Polygraph tests are simply not reliable enough to determine a person 's punishment that can be life changing. There are quite a few things that make a polygraph test tick and not all of them are as reliable as they may seem. There are a few different factors that come into play when someone is taking a lie detector test. “William M. Marston invented the first lie detector in 1917,” (Hammiett, 2016 p.1). His attentions were great, and he thought that it would be accurate and efficient with no problems. “However, in 1923, the D.C. Court of Appeals stated that there was not enough scientific evidence to support Matson’s lie detector machine,” (Hammiett, 2016 p.1). If there wasn’t enough evidence, then what makes us think that there is now? It is the same as it has always been and if the D.C. Court of Appeals says that there isn’t enough scientific evidence to support it, then we shouldn 't use something that is