How Does this Relate to Me?

Sample Response to assignment

In my webinar, I chose to discuss cognitivism, as presented to individuals who work with justice engaged youth. This audience would be composed of judges, attorneys – both prosecution and defense, mitigation specialists, probation officers, detention officers, intervention specialists, diversion programs and treatment providers who are involved in the judicial processes of juvenile offenders. As a mitigation specialist, I work with both adults and juveniles facing felony charges that are not pending capital punishment or the death penalty. I compose a biopsychosocial profile of the individual to advocate for reduced charges, mitigated sentences, diversion programs and interventions to reduce recidivism upon release that convicted felons can engage in during incarceration. I work with the defense attorneys, judges, prosecutors and detention staff to assess and aid clients in this endeavor, which is why I chose this population.

I plan to first introduce myself and my career, including my experience in the field. I would like to explain how my experience and job is integrated with that of the audience. For instance, how my reports are used by judges and attorneys to devise an appropriate sentence for the client that would best serve justice and society, as well as the individual. I can appeal to the detention officers, probation and treatment providers by explaining how my report can be used to devise treatment objectives to reduce behaviors within the facility and upon release. I would also like to review main objectives during introductions for the webinar. Following this, I plan to introduce cognitivism and the history of emergence and development from psychoanalytic theory, to behaviorism and ultimately to understanding unobservable mental processes. I reviewed an article by Woolfolk-Hoy and colleagues (2013) that discussed the shortcomings of behaviorism and how cognitivism evolved from this theoretical perspective. I also plan to refer to the article from the reading on Guercio (2020) that explains how the cognitive revolution was not necessarily a revolution as an evolution of behaviorism. Finally, I refer to Butts (2019) to provide a basic overview of cognitive theory on information processing through stages of sensory stimuli, processing, storage and retrieval, similar to a computer model.

I have several different applications from various studies to discuss that explain the versatility of cognitive treatments, assessments and applications. Many juvenile offenders struggle with substance abuse issues (Apsche, 2004), trauma exposure and PTSD (Calleja, 2019), physical and sexual abuse (Apsche, 2004), educational deficits and learning disorders (Woolfolk-Hoy, et al., 2013, Nouwens, et al., 2017) and depression or other psychological disorders (Strand, et al., 2013) that can be addressed through various types of cognitive interventions. While much of the research referred to in this presentation is not focused on juvenile offenders, it is my intention to tie each of these types of intervention into justice engaged youth. Each child’s treatment plan should be client centered, according to the APA ethical standards (2016) and cognitive interventions allow the versatility of this population’s needs to be addressed utilizing methods and theoretical approaches of cognitivism.

Outline:

Introduction

· What is cognitivism

· Woolfolk, et al., (2013)

· Thinking, decision making, remembering, creating and problem solving

· History of cognitivism

· Psychoanalytic

· Behaviorism

· Importance of unobservable processes

· Cognitive Revolution

· Guercio (2020) – evolution rather than revolution

· Woolfolk, et al. (2013) – innate processes regulate thought and emotion

· Butts (2019) – Information processing

· Diversity

· Woolfolk, et al. (2013) – theory into practice

· Objectives

· Research

· General application

· Specific application to justice engaged juveniles

Research

· Apsche, et al. (2004) – CBT in juvenile sex offenders

· Calleja (2020) – Trauma Focused CBT in justice involved juveniles

· Lou (2020) – cognitive and neuroscience in civil court proceedings

· Nouwens, et al., (2017) – working memory and learning deficiencies

· Parong & Mayer (2020) – cognitive brain training games

· Strand, et al., (2013) – depression and information processing

Application

· Apsche, et al. (2004) and Calleja (2020) – justice engaged youth are target population

· Lou (2020) – understanding the pitfalls of eye witness testimony and first hand accounts

· Nouwens, et al., (2017) – juveniles in custody struggle with LD and other educational barriers that can be addressed utilizing these strategies

· Parong & Mayer (2020) – these tools are ineffective but other cognitive training mechanisms are effective in strengthening cognitive ability in this population

· Strand, et al., (2013) – many incarcerated juveniles struggle with depression; understanding how and what type of information they are processing can aid in understanding their motivations and how best to provide services

Conclusion

· Diversity of cognitivism

· Application in myriad facets of life

· Application to juvenile justice

In each of my slides, I would like to address main points of each article and the research therein. I would like to provide highlights for them to refer, with relevant visual queues on each slide. During the section on applicability, I would like to refer back to these main points with the reasons they are applicable to each level of juvenile justice. Finally, I would like summarize the webinar and provide resources for the audience to review the information independently. I don’t have any questions at this point, but I certainly welcome any criticism and suggestions on how to bolster my project.

KaCee

References

Apsche, J. A., Evile, M. M., & Murphy, C. (2004). The thought change system an empirically based cognitive behavioral therapy for male juvenile sex offenders a pilot study. Behavior Analyst Today, 5 (1) , p101-107. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0100136

(Links to an external site.)

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Butts, R. (2019). Information processing . Salem Press Encyclopedia. https://eds-b-ebscohost-com.proxy-library.ashford.edu/eds/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=568a66ab-fd39-4f32-a30a-6692812118b1%40pdc-v-sessmgr02&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmUmc2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ%3d%3d#AN=119214088&db=ers

(Links to an external site.)

Calleja, N. G. (2020). Assessing and Treating Trauma in Detained Adolescents: A pre -post within subjects evaluation. Journal of Child & Family Studies, 29 (4), p934-941. 8p. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-019-01564-9

(Links to an external site.)

Guercio, J. M. (2020). The importance of a deeper knowledge of the history and theoretical foundations of behaviorism and behavior therapy: Part 2—1960–1985 . Behavior Analysis: Research and Practice. https://doi.org/10.1037/bar0000178

(Links to an external site.)

Lou, Q. (2020). Legality analysis of civil litigation judgements based on cognitive neuroscience and cognitive psychology. Revista Argentina de Clínica Psicológica, 29(2), 464-469. https://doi.org/10.24205/03276716.2020.264

(Links to an external site.)

Nouwens, S., Groen, M., & Verhoeven, L. (2017). How working memory relates to children’s reading comprehension: the importance of domain-specificity in storage and processing. Reading & Writing, 30 (1), 105-120. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-016-9665-5

(Links to an external site.)

Parong, J., & Mayer, R. E. (2020). Cognitive consequences of playing brain training games in immersive virtual reality. Applied Cognitive Psychology. Jan2020, 34(1), p29-38. https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.3582

(Links to an external site.)

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Strand, M., Sætrevik, B., Lund, & A., Hammar, A. (2013). The relationship between residual symptoms of depression and emotional information processing. Nordic Journal of Psychiatry, 67(4), p233-239. https://doi.org/10.3109/08039488.2012.711857

(Links to an external site.)

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Woolfolk Hoy, A., Davis, H. A., & Anderman, E.M. (2013). Theories of learning and teaching in TIP. Theory Into Practice. 2013, 52 (1), 9-21. https://doi.org/10.1080/00405841.2013.795437

(Links to an external site.)