Many studies reveal that unchangeable static variables, such as prior offending history and membership in high-risk demographic subgroups, consistently predict recidivism. Recent risk assessment research focuses on dynamic attributes — attitudes, values, and interpersonal skills that are modified by new experiences and, thus, may change during the residential stay.
The current work is dedicated to examining one specific dynamic factor – the hostile attributions bias (HAB) – as well as its dynamic change over time. We supposed that the complex nature of cognitive biases can be defined in various ways, e.g. as immanent personality disposition, as social-cognitive interpretation bias, and even as perceptual bias. Therefore, the present dissertational study integrated mixed quantitative and qualitative research, acknowledging that combined approaches are best suitable for assessing complex phenomena in social science research since they can provide real-life contextual understandings and
multi-level perspectives on diverse research questions.
We used a multi-method approach to assess HAB as well as multiple statistical approaches to determine which method is most sensitive to changes in the treatment of distorted cognitions. We evaluated the sensitivity to change of three tools (structured questionnaires, semiprojective tool and computer-based perception task) using three statistical methods for identifying aggregate (group ES, Cohen’s d and SRM) and individual changes over time (RCI, individual ES and SEM). The semiprojective method was shown to be sensitive to identifying the largest proportion of change at both aggregate and individual level. At the individual level all three assessment methods showed sensitivity to change. The use of multi-method research is highly relevant for determining intervention changes in corrective settings. Implications for clinical practice, recommendations for future research, and study limitations are discussed.
Multi-method assessment of the hostile attribution bias in juvenile violent offenders: determining the sensitivity to change of three different assessment methods.