Psychology of Deception Detection

For a fascinating overview of of the SCAN process used by police investigators to analyze the truthfulness or deception in statements given by suspects, visit http://www.lsiscan.com . The founder of L.S.I.SCAN, Avinoam Sapir, a former Israeli police lieutenant, provides some provocative interpretations of the JonBenet Ramsey case and O.J. Simpson.

Sapir's Scientific Content Analysis techniques are used to analyse the language in statements given by individuals in their testimony, letters, and interviews. Some of his principles of content analysis are quite similar to the ones used (for a very different purpose) in the Classical Adlerian analysis of oral and written early childhood recollections.

However, some important differences should be noted. SCAN attempts to uncover the core truthfulness or deception in oral and written statements related to an incident; an Adlerian early childhood recollection analysis is focused on uncovering the style of life and unconscious, fictional final goal of the individual. SCAN is concerned with issues of guilt and innocence; Adlerian psycyhotherapy is focused on accepting, understanding, empathizing with and re-educating a client. Another significant difference is that SCAN is attempting to distinguish between "fact" and "fiction," whereas an Adlerian analysis of early recollections assumes a high degree of fiction (even "invented" recollections are quite useful).

For an overview of the Classical Adlerian Case Analysis and Treatment Planning course content, visit http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/hstein/dt301.htm .

Replies:

Re: Psychology of Deception Detection, by Gary Josselyn, 12/3/99 Re: Psychology as Art vs. Science, by Henry Stein, 12/11/99

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