Big Five Types Of Expert Witnesses Essay

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Forensic psychologists have been under scrutiny whether or not they have the proper training and credentials to be an expert witnesses. The challenges for expert witnesses in the legal system are the problem to be studied (Commons, Miller, & Gutheil, 2004). This is where the study comes into play. Can forensic psychologist be easily swayed to be only one-sided? In other words, if the forensic psychologist does quite of bit of work for the defendant side, will it be easy for the forensic psychologist to accept a bribe in order for the defendant’s side to have the upper hand in a court of law. These types of questions are very important and it is necessary for the American Psychological Association to know if these types of expert witnesses can be un-bias and keep them from being easily bribed (Commons, Miller, & …show more content…

Specifically, the study will investigate if there is a correlation between the Big-5 personality factors and the possibility of high chance of how easy it would be to accept a bribe. One of the predictions of the study is the higher the numbers for the Big-5 personality factors the lower the number of reprimands, except for neuroticism. Neuroticism is the only Big-5 personality factor that should show the opposite for the prediction of the study, meaning if the number of higher percentage of neuroticism the higher number of reprimands. The problem in the research study that will be addressed is; forensic psychologist who accept bribes to provide expert testimony in areas outside of their (“expertise”) boundaries of competence who get reprimanded by the American Psychology Association Board or/and the courts (Commons, Miller, & Gutheil,