NCJ Number
229924
Journal
Aggression and Violent Behavior Volume: 15 Issue: 1 Dated: January/February 2010 Pages: 49-58
Date Published
January 2010
Length
10 pages
Annotation
This paper presents the Extended Mind Theory (EMT) and outlines its implications for the understanding and treatment of cognitive distortions in sex offenders.
Abstract
A recent trend in cognitive science and neuroscience has been the stress on the importance of human embodiment for cognitive development and the way external factors can be viewed as part of human beings' extended cognitive system (Clark, 2008; Johnson, 2007). The aim of this paper is to present the Extended Mind Theory (EMT) and outline its implications for understanding and treating cognitive distortions in sex offenders. The paper first briefly examines the two most prominent theories of cognitive distortions in the sexual offending arena, Abel et al.'s (1984) post offense theory and Ward's (2000) implicit theory model. It then examines their limitations and provides an overview of the EMT. Lastly, the EMT is applied to the sexual offending area and demonstrates the advantages of this novel conception of cognition. References (Published Abstract)