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IntroductionThe cultural revolution in teaching psychology courses seems to be a
reaction to historical challenges the world educational system has been experiencing in recent years. The globalization has influenced the cultural context of education in a number of ways, and it is a particularly difficult problem for rather conservative subfields of psychology such as psychology in the law, and its most practice oriented branch – forensic psychology.
However, the teachers are very often not prepared to provide specific information on how the same phenomena are drastically differently evaluated by professionals in various cultures. Moreover, what in some cultures is a large area of research and social concern could be perceived as non-existent in some others. There are numerous examples of such things in the area of abnormal and legal psychology, because the very concepts of normality and law are cultural constructs. And this is exactly what our mostly ethnocentric students often refuse to acknowledge and even comprehend. Our goal is to add a cultural dimension to the analysis of extreme forms of behavior, and specifically – the crime of passion.
In this presentation, we will demonstrate how one type of behavior could be put on a cultural continuum and will compare the United States, Russia and Japan in terms of their perception, experience, evaluation, and teaching about “crimes of passion”.
The three selected countries have significantly different history, cultures, and the legal systems, and I was fortunate to have done research and taught in each of them.
Western traditionObviously, there are psychological diagnoses and
corresponding legal pleas accepted by the legal system in one country, but could be completely unacceptable in another. The perfect example is a defense of the so-called “insanity” and “diminished capacity” that is commonly used in most Western cultures since the 17th century. If an expert witness (such as a psychiatrist or psychologist) can establish a mental disease or defect, then there is a high likelihood that the defendant will be found “insane”, and, in such instance, the defendant will be placed in a forensic psychiatric institution for a long-term treatment rather than being sent to prison. However, the insanity plea has been rarely applied to the defendants whose disorders are brief, abrupt, and not psychotic.
The first problem in teaching about forensic psychology would
be making a clear distinction between the psychological concept of a mental disorder and a legal concept of insanity.
In RussiaIn other cultures, another intermediate form of psychological
disturbance is legitimately used to explain the reasons for the behavior when a person commits a crime in the heat of passion. For instance, in Russia, not only professionals, but also a general public are quite familiar with the concept of “pathological affect” and “physiological affect” of anger that can explain the nature of impulsive behavior of someone who experienced sudden accumulation of emotional tension in response to real or perceived threat for his/her life and/or dignity, and then explodes to the extent that serious cognitive problems such as amnesia might occur. If the “affect” state can be established by an expert witness, the same may be a major mitigating factor during sentencing and might lead to a short probation in lieu of a long prison term.
The next problem in teaching about forensic psychology would be making a clear definition of the Pathological affect of anger, Physiological affect of anger and related concepts, and to find the analogues in the existing Western classifications (which is very difficult).
In JapanIn Japan, the situation is quite different. The Japanese experts
do not use such conceptualization as an “affect” and avoid the use of “crime of passion” since it is commonly assumed by lawyers and psychologists that everyone who is involved in killing or making an assault at another person must be overexcited “by definition”, and therefore it is not perceived as something to be thoroughly investigated, for instance as a mitigating factor.
The next teaching problem is to describe the cultural context as an independent variable where Western psychological categories do not make sense.
Back in USSR!We will begin presenting about the crimes of passion from the Russian
(formerly Soviet) perspective due to a common use of this concept in this country. Not only professionals, but most lay people are aware of the fact that there certain incidence of “affect”, “pathological affect”, and crimes committed in the “state of the affect”. In fact this is an analogue of the crime of passion in the Western literature, and in both cultures the phenomenon is in fact refers to a major overexcitement prior to a violent crime which is caused by the unlawful acts of the victim. Some psychology teachers are likely to perceive the Russian approach as an extremely foreign, and this would certainly help them to deal with their own biases.
The teaching goal would be to introduce the students to the area of professional biases that substantially change our professional evaluations.
The concept of Affect of anger.
Definition: Affect (or physiological affect) is impetuous and stormy emotional process of explosive nature, displaying in an extremely intense explosion of anger (or/and other emotions) that might be followed by the outburst of uncontrollable actions (e.g., aggressive or auto aggressive behaviors).
Physiological vs. Pathological AngerThe word "physiological" is traditionally used in Russian
Forensic Psychology (influenced by Pavlov) in order to emphasize the fact that this emotional state does not have to be considered as pathological (in the framework of insanity and related concepts) but rather an extreme emotional overreaction to external stimuli, which is often part of a catastrophic reaction.
In all cases, it is an extraordinary reaction for an individual, expected by neither himself nor other people.
It is a response to extraordinary, exclusive circumstances such as interpersonal conflict or argument that severely damages the individual’s self-esteem, insult or humiliates him or her, and/or is a real or perceived threat for the person's life or the life of his or her significant other. A very typical example of physiological affect is presented in Case 1.
Case 1.Anna, a 42 years old elementary school teacher, and a mother of 2
months-old Ivan was standing at the intersection with her baby in the carriage. Suddenly a truck passing the intersection hits the carriage and kills the baby. The truck stops in front of her. Anna opens the driver's door, jumps to the driver's cabin, and choked the driver to death. At that moment she was truly possessed with anger, and according to her later testimony, she didn't see and she didn't hear anything around her, she could not find (and didn't even try) to find any alternative way of "solving" emerged problem, her attention was entirely concentrated on the person who was killer of her little son. When the man stopped breathing, she continued to hold his neck for another 15 minutes until police arrived. Then, she felt extremely tired and fatigued, she could barley walk, she looked like a person who lost her way, and for a while she did not recognize the streets and other familiar places, as well as people she knew before. Only an hour later she exclaimed "He killed my son!", began to cry, and her emotional responses became adequate.
The teaching goal is to introduce students to the phenomenology of the affect of anger.
First stage The development (dynamics) of the physiological affect is
characterized by three phases or stages, i.e. by sequential changes of the emotional states. Depending upon various factors the duration of stages may be different, but the sequence of them is always the same.
First stage is characterized by the occurrence and accumulation of emotional excitement and tension in response to the external factors-stimuli perceived by a person in a catastrophic way. For example, a threat for his or her life, humiliation or insult of him or his significant others, and other factors significantly decreasing his self-esteem, provoking the feeling of helplessness. Whether or not they are objectively threatening, the person perceives them as so.
Cont’ First StageThere are two types of development of the first stage of the
affect. The first type is characterized by immediate response to the anger provoking stimuli under the circumstances that are extraordinary and completely unexpected: sudden assault, insult, threat of life etc, whether they are imaginary or real. The second type is precipitated by the prolonged interpersonal conflict between the perpetrator and his potential victim. During this period of time the person is exposed to the excessive humiliation, is consistently insulted by another person or a group of people, that leads him to accumulation of the emotional tension.
In those cases a specific trigger playing the role of the "last drop" (“last straw”) is needed to elicit the outburst of anger followed by aggressive behavior. (See Cases 2 and 3) The appraisal of triggers depends upon various individual characteristics and experiences of the perpetrator, so that it should never be taken for granted by mental health professionals and lawyers, but rather examined in terms of its subjective meaning for the individual at the time of affective response (See Case 3)
Case 2. Vladimir, the 19 years old soldier was serving his first year in
the Soviet Army. He was systematically humiliated by the senior soldiers who beated him up, made him work for them, clean toilets, do their laundry, etc. He experienced enormous anxiety, fears, and he was unable to resist, because he was threatened by the group of very aggressive older soldiers.
One day two of them invited him to go to the woods and he went with them. In the woods one of them said that it's time to "initiate" Vladimir, and explained that he and his friend would like to have sex with him. Vladimir grabs the first thing that was around - a heavy stone, and hit one of them more than 10 times. He screamed, cried, used obscene words, and he could not stop beating the man until he became totally exhausted. The second soldier run away. Thirty minutes after that Vladimir returned to the regiment and reported about what happened.
The Second StageThe Second Stage of AFFECT is characterized by the
extremely powerful emotional outburst, i.e. the emotional reaction that occurs unexpectedly for the perpetrator himself. The affective tension that was accumulated on the previous stage turns into explosion of anger and rage, and is usually accompanied by the intense feeling of insult, humiliation, and despair. In some cases the feeling of despair, helplessness and hopelessness precede anger, especially if a person did not have a great deal of experience in dealing with negative emotions, stress etc.
The observers usually testify that the person reveals various symptoms of extremely intense emotional arousal displaying in dramatic changes of facial expressions, gestures, postures, tone of voice etc. He actually reaches the peak of emotional arousal wherein anger and rage control all aspects of his behavior.
The Second Stage (cont.)As the emotional process dramatically and drastically
develops from the first stage to the second, it is accompanied by the massive cognitive distortions described in the previous sections of this chapter.
The person's consciousness typically becomes entirely concentrated on the traumatic object, the threshold of perception changes so that the individual can see and hear exclusively what is related to anger experienced by him. Not only the ability to consciously control his own behavior is severely impaired, but also the ability to predict possible consequences of his behavior is seriously altered.
The Second Stage (cont.)Cognitive distortion in many cases is so severe that an
individual may be totally unable to remember the sequence of events of the crime afterwards, and sometimes reveals true "blackouts" when certain periods of time and particular events become totally forgotten. In case of Pathological affect, the amnesia is almost total. The perpetrator shows unusual forms of behavior that he has never shown before, which normally do not reflect his stable personality and behavioral characteristics. The aggressive behavior of the person often contradicts with his beliefs about what is right and what is wrong, i.e his moral and ethical values and motives; the behavior becomes impulsive in a sense that nothing besides the feeling of anger or rage underlines it.
Aggression during the second stageAggression at this stage of affect can be physical, verbal or a combination
thereof. Individuals with different personality characteristics shows different forms of aggressive behavior, but for most, aggression is completely alien form of behavior.
The "unjustifiable “aggressive behavior and cruelty of the perpetrators in many cases does not make any sense for the witnesses and sometimes even for the law enforcement officers.
In most cases physical and verbal aggression is directed to the person who is seen as a source of threat, aggression, or damage for self-confidence of the perpetrator. His behavior becomes compulsive, automatic, and gets completely out of his control. The person may stab the victim numerous times and even continue doing it when the victim is dead. However, sometimes not only single victims may be involved in that type of aggressive act. Although it happens very rarely, bystanders, or people indirectly involved in the conflict may become victims of the person possessed with the AFFECT of anger. It is clear that homicides committed under that kind of circumstances are not premeditated. The perpetrators therefore use any available murder weapons: his own hands, knifes, guns, heavy objects etc.
The teaching objective is to show that anger and physical aggression are
two different phenomena. Anger is an emotion, aggression is a motor behavior.
Case 3 George, 35 years old, a university professor of history,
had been involved in a long-lasting and dependent relationship with Julia, 26 years old, attractive single hair stylist. They cohabitated for about three years, and George wanted to marry her. However, he knew that Julia was not happy with their sexual life, he suspected that she was sometimes not faithful, but he loved her very much and somehow he could tolerate that using denial as a coping strategy. One night, she didn't sleep at home, and he received a phone call from his friend that Julia spent that night with another man. It was a catastrophe for him. His customary coping strategy did not work anymore. He could not sleep that night, was extremely anxious. The entire day he kept thinking about Julia and another man. Next morning he went to the university, but he was unable to work because he was exhausted and irritated.
Case 3 (cont)At 7 PM he came back home and found Julia standing at the window
in his living room smoking. He said "Hello", she did not answer. He asked her: " Why". She did not answer again. Then he screamed: Why you keep doing this? She turned to him slowly and said just one word:" Looser!" He grabs the 6-inch kitchen knife and stabs her 26 times. He continued doing this even after she stopped moving and was obviously dead. While doing that he was experiencing a tremendous rage, combined with the feeling of humiliation, insult, and outrage. He was unable to see or hear anything around him, being entirely concentrated on the source of his anger. About fifteen minutes after that he himself tried to help her, being possessed with enormous despair he called police and ambulance, and when police arrived he said "She is dead, but I deserve death too. Please kill me." He was crying hysterically, and two hours later he fell asleep. He had suicidal ideation for three days after that happened.
The teaching objective (among other things) is to elucidate how extreme forms of emotional excitation could suppress our conscious control over impulsive behavior.
The Third StageThe Third Stage of affect is characterized by exhaustion,
fatigue, apathy, and depression. The overall level of awareness and conscious control over behavior increase while emotional tension, anger, rage, and excitement decrease. In any cases, especially in acute form of affect, the perpetrator experiences intense repentance, may try to help the victim, may call the police and ambulance, may cry, and may show feelings of guilt and depression (See Case 2). Thus, on the last stage of the AFFECT anger transforms into other emotional states or can be involved in the complex combinations of emotions.
The educational objective is to demonstrate a drastic
emotional shift that may follow the extremely robust expression of anger/aggression.
The Third Stage (cont)The feelings experienced by the perpetrator on the final
stage of affect may be categorized in two groups. In the first group, anger is followed by tension reduction, decrease of frustration, satisfaction. In other words, the person "feels better" than ever before, and may feel that his mission now is completed even though some admit that another way of handling their problems could have been chosen. This type of behavior after the criminal act can be called self-justifying behavior.
In the second group of perpetrators the climax of anger and aggressive behavior is followed by the intense feeling of shame, repentance, guilt, and remorse. They might call police and ambulance, report on themselves, and quite often (65-75% of them) had suicidal ideation and intents (See Case 2).
Cultural dimension
A cultural dimension has rarely been used in research on crimes of passion. The biases involved in the evaluation of this kind have been either totally denied or not taken into consideration due to the assumption that in any type of psychological assessment of the past experiences, objectivity is unlikely to be reached.
Our graduate students should know that a retrospective analysis of behavior is one of the most difficult, but surely not impossible forms of psychological assessment.
Cultural dimension (cont)Some of the reasons provided by skeptics of the evaluations include
the limited cross-cultural validity of the assessment measures and the lack of inter-rater reliability of the evaluator’s interpretations of the obtained results. When the cultural context is an independent variable in our research, such limitations are almost inevitable. Indeed, this argumentation could be viewed as acceptable in some instances of multicultural assessment. However, it would be totally substandard in the assessment of mental state at the time of the offense as well as in the evaluation of criminal responsibility. The future and sometimes the entire life of a particular defendant may depend on the conclusion made by forensic psychologists if the court decision is consistent with the forensic psychological report.
In teaching, the issues of professional competency and responsibility are likely to stem from discussions on retrospective evaluations.
Mental state as a cultural constructIn addition, the use of the standardized tests could be
inappropriate because of even more significant factor, which could be named as a cultural definition of mental state and the cultural value of various components of it: contextual, physiological, phenomenological, etc. Although many cultural definitions of “emotion” would have some similarities and are to some extent universal, the definition’s essence of “passion” (that we categorize as an affect of anger) in the Euro-American culture is not fully consistent with the perspective on it in other cultures and subcultures. Moreover, the assessment of criminal responsibility (based on the evaluation of mental state at the time of the offence) is past oriented and thus requires a form of functional analysis of the defendant’s behavior under very specific circumstances such as a crime scene. The perception and cognitive processing of various elements of a scene as well as the subsequent behaviors are heavily affected by cultural factors.
Mental state as a cultural construct In fact, the evaluation of nearly every behavior could be
viewed as a cultural construct. Therefore, professionals are facing an enormously difficult task of assessing not only the three stages of excitation, but also the cultural environment of the defendant, which includes his own perspective, the cultural attitudes toward each of those abilities common among members of his culture, perception of the legal situation, understanding of legal procedures, cultural beliefs regarding the agents of assessment/intervention, as well as the value of both outcomes of evaluation: to be either admitted “partially insane” or totally competent at the time of the offense.
It is a difficult task for a teacher to consider all mental states in a cultural context, and forensic cases could be probably very helpful examples.
Types of biases in multicultural assessment of mental states in forensic psychology If the social context of the evaluation is multicultural, two types of
problems emerge in the forensic evaluation conducted by a psychologist or another mental health professional.
First, his/her own biases: both professional and cultural: crimes of passion and respective mental states are simply ignored in some cultures or are not considered as distinct categories. These preconceived notions may prevent a professional from the fairly objective assessment of the defendant’s characteristics.
Second, cultural incompetency on the defendant’s side: his or her inability to function within a legal procedure due to his/her failure to respond adequately to specific cues (stimuli), the meaning of which in various subcultures may vary dramatically. The jury, the judge, the attorneys, and other members of the criminal procedure – all of them are perceived through the cultural “lenses” and the very presence of the defendant in such an environment as a courtroom may cause an intense stress, anxiety, anger and confusion that subsequently decreases their actual competency.
Teaching about cultural and professional biases would be perfect examples of the lack of cross-cultural competency and even fears to testify in court in some mental health professionals.
ConclusionIf we go back to our comparison of three cultures, we can
delineate (at least for the educational purposes) several dimensions that differentiate the perspective on the phenomenology of the extremely strong yet brief expressions of anger in three distinct cultures.
Historical and cultural context in each culture Traditional relationships between law and psychology. Culturally specific classification systems. Culture bound syndromes that may override the
phenomenon being investigated Preconceived notions or biases: both professional and
cultural The presence of phenomenology, but the absence of
its conceptualization
Conclusion (cont)The three cultures we could put on the continuum: from
totally rejecting the concept of “affect of anger” in both psychology and criminal justice system (Japan) to partially rejecting it but using the “crime of passion” in the criminal justice system (USA), and to the full accepting an elaborate model of the “crime in the state of affect of anger” (Russia).
This example could be an extremely powerful way to demonstrate our students that a lot of disorders that we take for granted within one culture and legal system could be perceived in a totally different and complex way in some others.
.
ConclusionIn this presentation we have emphasis on just one
phenomenon relatively central in the forensic and clinical psychology. However, our cultural biases and fears are in every subfield of psychology and as a field, we are at a beginning stage of teaching our students a multicultural and cross-cultural perspectives on most mental and behavioral expressions and experiences
