IFP week 4 written assignment

Conflicts & Dilemma

The author of this response is asked to offer four conflicts or dilemmas that can be applied to the forensic psychologist scenario offered in the case study. The four pitfalls and problems that should be avoided at all costs and what shall be mentioned in this report are personal bias, not interpreting results right/competency, and personal interest in the outcome. Doing any of those is the mark of a bad, if not terrible, forensic psychologist.

Personal bias is something that should never be happening in the forensic psychology field but it happens all of the time, it seems. Given that forensic psychologists are often responsible, in whole or in part, for who does/does not get custody of children, personal injury assessments, polygraph assessments and so forth, it can be quite easy to let one's personal convictions and biases rule the day and improperly sway the outcome of a case. One major reason for this personal interest, which will be discuss in a bit, but there are plenty of other reasons why this sort of bias can come out. A male forensic psychologist, for example, that has a bias/assumption towards "bad mothers" should not be determine child custody because they will likely favor the man even if that should not happen.

Interpretation of results and competency are another major concern. For example, a person that is not adept at reading a polygraph and/or that makes brash judgments about what should really be considered inconclusive data is dangerous. For example, if someone has taken a polygraph as to whether they molest or beat their child and the results are inconclusive, that does not mean that the person being tested should be assumed innocent. The other side of that coin is general competency and ability to do one's. Ignorance of how to do one's job correctly can unfairly or even irreecovactly change the lives of the people that stand to be affected by the work of a forensic psychologist and this would include children, people that have been injured, people that are at risk of violence but no actual violence has yet been proven and so forth. Being precise and adept with exquisite studying habits and attention to detail ia hallmark of any solid forensic psychologist and any of the same that are not on board with that need to find a new calling in life because forensic psychology should never be done half-way or half-you-know-what.