Thesis on "Usage of Hypnotic Testimony in Court"

Thesis 5 pages (1653 words) Sources: 3 Style: MLA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Hypnotic Testimony in Court

The use of hypnotic testimony in court is an appealing idea mainly because of the layperson's perception about the strengths of hypnosis. However, the research clearly demonstrates that there are several weaknesses associated with hypnotic interviews, which can impair the credibility of a witness who is later asked to testify on the stand. These weaknesses include decreases in accuracy, vulnerability to hypnotic suggestion, false confidence with regard to incorrect answers, vulnerability to leading questions, and the facts that people can fake hypnotic states and lie even when under hypnosis. Therefore, courts have greatly limited the circumstances under which hypnotic testimony can be introduced. Despite these weaknesses, there is no doubt that interviewers can obtain helpful information when a witness is hypnotized. Therefore, some of the researchers have suggested using cognitive interviews, which offer many of the same memory-recall benefits as hypnotic interviews, without introducing the same dangers of memory impairment.

First, it is important to understand the limitations of hypnosis. "Laymen often think of hypnosis as an infallible and extremely powerful memory aid, but research has shown that this notion is not correct." (R.T.C., p.1208). The scientific community has established that a person cannot access all of his or her own memories, regardless of hypnotic state. The memory simply does not contain every event that has ever occurred in a person's lifetime. (R.T.C., p.1209). In fact, for certain types of events, memories under hypnosis are no better and no worse than regular memories. (R.T.C., p. 1209).

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ng at a substantial amount of research, Kebbell and Wagstaff determined that hypnosis is helpful in getting witnesses to recall information. (p.118). The only problem is that some research shows that hypnosis increases incorrect memories and correct memories. (Kebbell and Wagstaff, p.118). Furthermore, when placed in a forced-choice scenario, rather than permitted to give free-form responses about what occurred, hypnosis increases incorrect reporting. (Kebbell and Wagstaff, p.118).

While the fact that hypnosis increases both incorrect and correct responses leads to a conclusion that it does not impair overall accuracy, it also leads to the conclusion that hypnosis does not increase overall accuracy, either. Furthermore, since subjects under hypnosis "will not carry out activities which are morally unacceptable or inherently self-destructive...hypnosis should not cause a guilty individual to confess to a crime, since it is rarely if ever advantageous for a defendant to confess." (Orne, p.66).

It is important to recall that hypnosis does not change a person's basic nature or motivational structure, which can complicate the determination of the truth or falsity of the facts recalled. "When hypnosis is used with a defendant or plaintiff who has much to gain by recalling one set of memories rather than another, motivational factors are superimposed upon the basic mechanisms involved in hypnotically aided recall." (Orne, p.68). Furthermore, when asked about specific questions or given specific instructions, while there is a modest increase in memory, there is also a tendency for subjects to fill in those aspects that the subject cannot remember. (Orne, p.74). In fact, the same process that makes subjects vulnerable to hypnotic suggestion "makes it possible for subjects to accept approximations of memory as accurate." (Orne, p.74).

Furthermore, hypnotized subjects frequently display a false confidence in their "remembered" information. "The most consistent confidence effects emerge when misleading information is introduced subtly into a situation well before testing." (Kebbell and Wagstaff, p. 119). Furthermore, while hypnosis does not appear to increase a subject's suspectibility to suggestion by leading questions, it also does not reduce susceptibility. (Kebbell and Wagstaff, p.119-120). The confidence issue can be very important when one looks at how fact finders judge eyewitness testimony; confidence plays an important role in whether juries believe the witness's testimony. (Kebbell and Wagstaff, p.121).

More importantly, one must recall that it is impossible to rule out the idea that people under hypnosis are actually lying about events that they have perceived. "It is asserted frequently that hypnotized people always tell the truth, even though scientific studies do not support this statement. Scientific data notwithstanding, the popular media have reported these misconceptions." (R.T.C., p.1209). However, to date, courts have recognized that hypnotic testimony does not exclude the possibility of willful falseness. (Orne, p.63). This is a very important distinction, and it builds upon other research indicating that hypnosis does not guarantee the accurate recall of memories. First, even highly experienced hypnosis can be fooled regarding whether or not a subject has actually been hypnotized. (Orne, p.64). Furthermore, even deeply hypnotized subjects are able to willfully life. (Orne, p.64).

Furthermore, hypnotized individuals can be very susceptible to suggestion. First, a hypnotized individual may not be able to critically judge the veracity of his recollections. (R.T.C., p.1212). Furthermore, "because hypnotized persons are highly suggestible, some authorities believe that they can easily be induced to embellish or alter their memories of events." (R.T.C., p.1212).

While this may simply produce harmless leads when used in the course of a police investigation, it can have dire consequences as well. For example, this tendency to suggestible confabulation has led to false confessions when non-suspect witnesses have been interrogated about crimes that they witnessed. (Orne, p.67). Hypnosis can be helpful during the course of an investigation, because in an investigation the risk of introducing incorrect information is permissible, since the investigation should be able to sort out truthful information from incorrect information. However, courts are leery of testifying witnesses who have been hypnotized prior to testifying. "Indeed, most prosecutors recognize that if they hypnotize a witness who later turns out to be implicated as a defendant, they will significantly complicate his or her ultimate prosecution." (Orne, p.67). The suggestion does not even need to be overt. "The content of pseudo memories when they are wittingly or unwittingly induced during hypnosis is, of course, not random...if a witness is hypnotized and has factual information...many of these bits of knowledge will become incorporated and form the basis of any pseudo memories that develop." (Orne, p. 78). This can be explained with an understanding of memory theory, which holds that memory is reconstructive, so that the process of remembering "is thought to involve reconstructing events based on fragments of experience." (R.T.C., p. 1213). "The reconstructive theory raises the possibility that an erroneous recollection of an event may alter permanently the memory of the event and destroy the original accurate information." (R.T.C., p. 1213).

When discussing Orne's research, Kebbell and Wagstaff mention that it has led to a view that no one should be hypnotized prior to taking the stand. However, that is an impossibility. First, a defendant could decide to be hypnotized, either to help determine the truth, or to set up a scenario in which he could request a mistrial in the event of a criminal conviction. Moreover, Kebbell and Wagstaff have noted that laws prohibiting testimony by previously hypnotized individuals have been successfully challenged, because they would permit testimony by defendants but not by other witnesses. (p.120). Currently, there is no one legal position on the admissibility of hypnotic testimony. At least one court absolutely prohibits testimony by any witnesses who have used any type of pretrial hypnosis procedure, while other courts have no problem admitting such evidence. (R.T.C., p. 1205). "The only matters on which courts apparently have agreed are that out-of-court statements made under hypnosis are not admissible as direct evidence, and that a witness may not be hypnotized in court." (R.T.C., p. 1205). Courts take a variety of approaches to the question of pretrial hypnosis. Some jurisdictions permit the witness to testify, leaving it to the jury to determine the weight to be given to the fact that the witness was previously hypnotized, despite the fact that this information could alter the jury's opinion and even the witness's demeanor. (R.T.C., p.1216). Other courts allow such testimony only if… READ MORE

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Quoted Instructions for "Usage of Hypnotic Testimony in Court" Assignment:

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Synthesis Paper: Hypnotic testimony in court: aid or obstacle

FOLLOW THE GUIDELINES EXACTLY AS STATED:

This is a explanatory synthesis paper for an argumentative research paper which main thesis is: Webster*****s dictionary defines hypnosis as a *****state that resembles sleep but is induced by a hypnotizer whose suggestions are readily accepted by the subject.***** Like the definition states, people who are in a hypnotic state are highly suggestible, which renders a potential witness***** testimony unreliable. Because of this, hypnotically obtained testimony should be banned from the U.S. judicial system. The word *****hypnosis***** is full of meanings and angles, depending on the context in which it is used. This paper will focus on hypnosis as it is used to obtain witness testimony that may potentially be used as primary evidence in a court of law. First, the history of hypnosis will be summarized. Then, the view of some proponents of the reliability of hypnosis will be discussed and guidelines proposed by them will be mentioned. The current guidelines established in the U.S. for the use of hypnosis in court will also be stated and examined. It will also discuss the hypnosis technique and various studies in which the reliability of hypnotic testimony has been put to the test. Possible implications that this type of testimony might have on the case law and other inherent problems like the capacity of a jury to asses the reliability of a testimony that has been obtained by hypnosis will be assessed in this paper. In addition, a technique called cognitive interview will be described and proposed as a possible alternative to hypnosis.

The synthesis paper is an opportunity to summarize, analyze, and categorize your sources as a precursor to the research paper. The goal is to make sense of the research relevant to the topic by using 3 of the sources and articulating the relationships between them. Pick sources that talk to each other in some significant way ( not necessarily opposing each other). Think about what the sources have in common, how they differ, and how they are in conversation with one another. Does the field have one or more approaches? Does controversial new research break with what has been done previously? The synthesis will help to establish and limit the contetxt of reearch questions , evaluate the credibility of the available research , establish own credibility as a researcher, and help you prepare for the research paper.

THE SYNTHESIS WILL BE AN EXPLANATORY OR INFORMATIVE ONE, NOT ARGUMENTATIVE. IT WILL NOT HAVE THE SAME ARGUABLE THESIS THAR THE RESEARCH PAPER. NEEDS AN ORGANIZING THESIS STATEMENT THAT SPECIFICALLY STATES THE MAIN POINT OF DIFFERENCE OR SIMILARITY AMOMG THE SOURCES . THE INTRODUCTION NEEDS TO CREATE A CONTEXT FOR THE READER TO UNDERSTAND WHAT WILL FOLLOW. STATE THE RESEARCH PROBLEMS/ISSUES AND THE TREND THAT THE REST OF THE PAPER WILL THEN FURTHER DEVELOP. YOUR TOPIC SENTENCES MUST MAKE AN ARGUMENT THAT YOU PROVE IN THE PARAGRAPHS WITH EXAMPLES. ADDITIONAL GOALS FOR THE PAPER WILL BE TO INCORPORATE DIRECT QUOTATIONS WHEN RELEVANT AND TO WORK ON ORGANIZATION AND TRANSITIONS AS YOU MOVE FROM ONE IDEA TO THE NEXT TO CUE THE READER ABOUT THEIR CONNECTION. YOU SHOULD NOT STRUCTURE

THE PAPER SOURCE BY SOURCE , WHICH TENDS TO LEAD TO AN ANALYSIS OF EACH SOURCE INDIVIDUALLY RATHER THAN SHOW HOW THEY ACTUALLY RELATE TO ONE ANOTHER.ORGANIZE POINT BY POINT , MENTIONING AT LEAST TWO SOURCES, IN EACH PARAGRAPH TO SYNTHESIZE THEM. TOPIC SENTENCES THAT TOUCH ON BOTH SOURCES SHOULD GUIDE THE REST OF THE PARAGRAPH. AN APPROPRIATE CONCLUSION SHOULD GO MERELY RESTATING THE THESIS . Rather , towards the future, what has been discovered as a result of doing the synthesis? How do these sources relate to your own tentative thesis for the paper? What avenues for future work does the synthesis open ?

THINK OF THE CONCLUSION AS A BRIDGE TO THE RESEARCH PAPER : IT NEEDS TO STATE EXPLICITLY HOW YOU ARE MOVING TOWARDS YOUR OWN ARGUMENT IN THE RESEARCH PAPER.

CITE AFTER EACH SOURCE.

GUIDELINES: Introduction to Syntheses

WHAT IS A SYNTHESIS?

A synthesis is a written discussion that draws on one or more sources. It follows that your ability to write syntheses depends on your ability to infer relationships among sources - essays, articles, fiction, and also nonwritten sources, such as lectures, interviews, observations. This process is nothing new for you, since you infer relationships all the time - say, between something you've read in the newspaper and something you've seen for yourself, or between the teaching styles of your favorite and least favorite instructors. In fact, if you've written research papers, you've already written syntheses. In an academic synthesis, you make explicit the relationships that you have inferred among separate sources.

The skills you've already been practicing in this course will be vital in writing syntheses. Clearly, before you're in a position to draw relationships between two or more sources, you must understand what those sources say; in other words, you must be able to summarize these sources. It will frequently be helpful for your readers if you provide at least partial summaries of sources in your synthesis essays. At the same time, you must go beyond summary to make judgments - judgments based, of course, on your critical reading of your sources - as you have practiced in your reading responses and in class discussions. You should already have drawn some conclusions about the quality and validity of these sources; and you should know how much you agree or disagree with the points made in your sources and the reasons for your agreement or disagreement.

Further, you must go beyond the critique of individual sources to determine the relationship among them. Is the information in source B, for example, an extended illustration of the generalizations in source A? Would it be useful to compare and contrast source C with source B? Having read and considered sources A, B, and C, can you infer something else - D (not a source, but your own idea)?

Because a synthesis is based on two or more sources, you will need to be selective when choosing information from each. It would be neither possible nor desirable, for instance, to discuss in a ten-page paper on the battle of Wounded Knee every point that the authors of two books make about their subject. What you as a ***** must do is select the ideas and information from each source that best allow you to achieve your purpose.

USING YOUR SOURCES

Your purpose (explanatory) determines not only what parts of your sources you will use but also how you will relate them to one another. Since the very essence of synthesis is the combining of information and ideas, you must have some basis on which to combine them. Some relationships among the material in you sources must make them worth sythesizing. It follows that the better able you are to discover such relationships, the better able you will be to use your sources in writing syntheses. Your purpose in writing (explanatory) will determine how you relate your source materials to one another. Your purpose in writing determines which sources you use, which parts of them you use, at which points in your essay you use them, and in what manner you relate them to one another.________________________________________

TWO TYPES OF SYNTHESES

THE EXPLANATORY SYNTHESIS: An explanatory synthesis helps readers to understand a topic. *****s explain when they divide a subject into its component parts and present them to the reader in a clear and orderly fashion. Explanations may entail descriptions that re-create in words some object, place, event, sequence of events, or state of affairs. The purpose in writing an explanatory essay is not to argue a particular point, but rather to present the facts in a reasonably objective manner. The explanatory synthesis does not go much beyond what is obvious from a careful reading of the sources.

STANDARDS FOR SYNTHESIS ESSAYS

1. Remember that you are using your sources to support your ideas and claims, not the other way around. This means that original thought and insightful analysis are required.

2. Papers should create a "dialogue" between the essay author's (you!) ideas and her sources, and also among the sources themselves. Incorrect evaluations will often summarize one point at a time, with the essay author's idea stated at the end. If you imagine a synthesis essay as a room in which the synthesis ***** is joined by the authors of her/his sources, the better essays have everyone engaged in conversation or debate, with everyone commenting on (or arguing against) each other's ideas directly. In lesser essays, each person in the room stands up in turn, gives a speech, and sits down, with little or no question and answer period in between or afterward.

3. Organize your paper logically:

A. State your thesis clearly and make sure that it reflects the focus of your essay.

B. Make sure your main points are clearly stated (use topic sentences), and connect each point to your thesis as explicitly as possible.

C. Divide paragraphs logically.

D. Provide appropriate transitions both within and between paragraphs.

4. Develop each main idea thoroughly. Use specific examples and source materials appropriately as support. Be sure to integrate source materials smoothly into your own writing using attribution phrases and transitions. Also be sure to avoid unnecessary repetition (repetition is often an organization problem).

________________________________________

HOW TO WRITE SYNTHESIS ESSAYS

1. Consider your purpose in writing. Read the topic assignment carefully. What are you trying to accomplish in your essay? How will this purpose shape the way you approach your sources?

2. Select and carefully read your sources, according to your purpose. Re-read the sources, mentally summarizing each. Identify those aspects or parts of your sources that will help you in fulfilling your purpose. When rereading, label or underline the passages for main ideas, key terms, and any details you want to use in the synthesis.

3. Formulate a thesis. Your thesis is the main idea that you want to present in your synthesis. It must be expressed as a complete sentence and include a statement of the topic and your assertion about that topic.

4. Decide how you will use your source material and take notes. How will the information and the ideas in your sources help you to fulfill your purpose? Re-read your sources and write down the information from your sources that will best develop and support your thesis.

5. Develop and organizational plan, according to your thesis. How will you arrange your material? It is not necessary to prepare a formal outline, but you should have some plan in mind that will indicate the order in which you will present your material and that will indicate the relationships among your sources.

6. Write the first draft of your synthesis, following your organizational plan. Be flexible with your plan, however, and allow yourself room to incorporate new ideas you discover as you write. As you discover and incorporate new ideas, re-read your work frequently to ensure that your thesis still accounts for what follows and that what follows still logically supports your thesis.

7. Revise your synthesis. Insert transitional words and phrases where necessary. Integrate all quotations so they flow smoothly within your own sentences. Use attribution phrases to distinguish between your sources' ideas and your own ideas. Make sure the essay reads smoothly, logically, and clearly from beginning to end. Check for grammatical correctness, punctuation, and spelling. ________________________________________

TECHNIQUES FOR DEVELOPING SYNTHESIS ESSAYS

SUMMARY: The simplest - and least sophisticated - way of organizing a synthesis essay is to summarize your most relevant sources, one after the other, but generally with the most important source(s) last. The problem with this approach is that it reveals little or no independent thought on your part. Its main virtue is that it at least grounds your paper in relevant and specific evidence.

Summary can be useful - and sophisticated - if handled judiciously, selectively, and in combination with other techniques. At some time you may need to summarize a crucial source in some detail. At another point, you may wish to summarize a key section or paragraph of a source in a single sentence. Try to anticipate what your reader needs to know at any given point of your paper in order to comprehend or appreciate fully the point you are making.

EXAMPLE OR ILLUSTRATION: At one or more points in your paper, you may wish to refer to a particularly illuminating example or illustration from your source material. You might paraphrase this example (i.e., recount it, in some detail, in your own words), summarize it, or quote it directly from your source. In all these cases, of course, you would properly credit your source.

TWO (OR MORE) REASONS: The "two reasons" approach can be an extremely effective method of development. You simply state your thesis, then offer reasons why the statement is true, supported by evidence from your sources. You can advance as many reasons for the truth of your thesis as needed; but save the most important reason(s) for last, because the end of the paper is what will remain most clearly in the reader's mind.

STRAWMAN: When you use the strawman technique, you present an argument against your thesis, but immediately afterward you show that this argument is weak or flawed. The advantage of this technique is that you demonstrate your awareness of the other side of the argument and show that you are prepared to answer it. The strawman argument first presents an introduction and thesis, then the main opposing argument, a refutation of the opposing argument, and finally a positive argument.

CONCESSION: Like the strawman, the concession technique presents the opposing viewpoint, but it does not proceed to demolish the opposition. Instead, it concedes that the opposition has a valid point but that, even so, the positive argument is the stronger one. This method is particularly valuable when you know your reader holds the opposing view.

COMPARISON AND CONTRAST: Comparison and contrast techniques enable you to examine two subjects (or sources) in terms of one another. When you compare, you consider similarities. When you contrast, you consider differences. By comparing and contrasting, you perform a multifaceted analysis that often suggests subtleties that otherwise might not have come to your attention.

To organize a comparison/contrast analysis, you must carefully read sources in order to discover significant criteria for analysis. A criterion is a specific point to which both of your authors refer and about which they may agree or disagree. The best criteria are those that allow you not only to account for obvious similarities and differences between sources but also to plumb deeper, to more subtle and significant similarities and differences.

FIVE SOURCES WILL BE E-MAILED USE THE BEST THREE OF THESE!!!

FOLLOW ALL GUIDELINES AS MENTIONED!!! PLEASE !!!!!

*****

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