Modified Stroop test in psychological diagnosis of pedophilia. A systematic review

Abstract

Purpose: A systematic review of literature was conducted in order to characterize the modified Stroop test in the psychological diagnosis of pedophilia. Views: Clinicians’ testing for sexual preferences, both at the request of the patient and for sexual jurisprudence, lack objective diagnostic tools that have been scientifically verified. In the literature, tasks based on response time are presented, as they allow an indirect conclusion to be made on the presence of pedophilic preferences. These tasks include the Stroop test on emotions. It is indicated that in the future the test may facilitate the diagnostic process conducted for sexual jurisprudence. It has been repeatedly shown that persons who have committed sexual crimes against children have a longer response time when presented stimuli associated with children. The results suggest statistically significant differences in response times between sexual offenders and control groups. In a sexual offender group, a longer response time for sexual stimuli is noted, moreover; sexual offenders against children present a longer response time for words associated with children. Conclusions: The emotional Stroop test can be regarded as a promising diagnostic tool, with further research necessary for the normalization assessment that will enable the test to be used in clinical practice. A significant limitation of the studies analyzed here is their lack of differentiation between persons with diagnosed pedophilic disorder and other offenders. The introduction of such differentiation may enable us in the future to refine the diagnostic process for sexual jurisprudence of sexual offenders against minors.