Psychology and the Law
Fall 2021
Orientation/Overview of Forensic Psychology
Terms
Broad v. narrow definitions (*** IMPORTANT ***)
Forensic (clinical) psychology
Amicus Curiae Brief
Therapeutic jurisprudence
Mental Health Courts
Joint-degree program
Specialty program
General program
Legally informed clinician
Proficient clinician
Specialist clinician
People/Court Cases (hint: focus on why the people and court cases are important)
Example: McNaughten – do not pay much attention to the story behind this case. The importance of
McNaughten is that this case is a prominent early example of the intersection of psychology and the legal
system and the case resulted in the modification of early ‘insanity’ standards. Although I gave you the answer to
this one, McNaughten is still fair game for the exam so please be sure to know this.
Hugo Munsterberg/ “On the Witness Stand” (*** IMPORTANT ***)
Muller v. Oregon/Brandeis Brief
Brown v. Board of Education (*** IMPORTANT ***)
Lockhart v. McCree/death-qualified jurors
McCleskey v. Klemp
for admission to graduate school? (hint: see comments by Margaret Bull Kovera and Diane Sivasubramaniam)
What are the differences between a master’s degree and a doctoral degree? What are the differences between a
PhD and PsyD? (hint: focus on time to completion, competitiveness, and differences in clinical and research
training) (*** IMPORTANT ***)