Neuroticism among policemen: An examination of police personality.

Compared the neuroticism scores of college-educated policemen, non-college-educated policemen, and college- and non-college-educated civilians (N = 548), using the Eysenck Personality Inventory and the Rokeach Dogmatism Scale. On the whole, policemen scored lower on neuroticism when compared with nonpolice citizens. Noncollege police were significantly less neurotic than college and noncollege civilians on the Eysenck but not on the Rokeach scale. It is concluded that neuroticism was not a major characteristic of this group of policemen. (17 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Industrial-organizational psychology and the police.

Research data and professional opinion on police and police organizations are reviewed from the perspective of industrial–organizational psychology. The following conclusions are drawn: (a) Security and social needs and the need for a structured leadership environment are significant aspects of occupational choice. (b) Police report somewhat lower job satisfaction than other occupational groups. (c) The directive, paramilitary command structure of most police departments coincides with police officers' preferences for that leadership style but masks their considerable discretionary powers. (d) The practice of police personnel administration includes few adequate measures of individual performance or organizational effectiveness. (e) Both positive and negative consequences of college education for police officers have been observed. (f) The validation of selection tests and other predictors is the most active area of personnel research and represents a movement away from the less empirical "screening out" of the "unfit" on a priori standards. (g) Many of those validation studies are methodologically flawed and do not culminate in practical selection procedures that may be implemented. (h) The origins of modal police personality attributes have not been specified adequately although they are usually ascribed to organizational socialization. (4 p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Suicide among police

The author presents and comments on recently acquired police suicide data from several cities in the United States and from the Metropolitan Police Department of London and on extensive archival police suicide files. He also explores some of the psychosocial factors that may affect the high incidence of suicide among people who actively specialize in police work.     

Characteristics of successful policemen and firemen applicants.

The Ss were 243 successful applicants for the positions of policemen and firemen who were placed on the eligibility lists for these 2 positions during 1959-62. Each was studied individually in an 8-hr. examination which included the WAIS, MMPI, EPPS, SVIB, Rorschach, 5 other instruments, and an interview. The results reveal that these successful Civil Service applicants are of high intelligence (IQ 113) and have superior personality adjustment. Interests of policemen applicants are social service in orientation, while those of firemen are primarily technical and business in orientation. The study reveals that, at least in 1 large city, fire and police departments are recruiting superior young men into their ranks. (20 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Police involvement in domestic violence: the interactive effects of victim injury, offender's history of violence, and race

While there is a proliferation of research devoted to ascertaining the efficacy of arrest and other formal sanctions in deterring domestic violence, little research has focused on factors related to the pivotal point at which this formal sanctioning process begins, namely, in a victim's decision to report her victimization to police. This paper is an attempt to rectify this omission by examining those factors most important in predicting the police-reporting behavior of 1535 female victims of intimate-perpetrated violence (e.g., by husbands and boyfriends) taken from the National Crime Victimization Survey during 1987-1992. In addition to predicting the reporting decision of these victims, models predicting various police responses to a victim's report were also examined, including police response times, police actions at the scene, and the probability of an arrest being made. A combination of contextual and demographic characteristics affected the probability that incidents would be placed into the realm of formal sanctioning. Black victims, victims who sustained injury as the result of their victimization, and victims who reported that the offender had not victimized them before were more likely to report their victimization to police. These same factors were also significant predictors of arrest. Police were more likely to make an arrest in incidents in which victims had sustained injuries, when the offender did not have a history of violence, and in incidents which involved Black offenders victimizing Black victims. Implications for the "Battered Women Syndrome" and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

The relationship between coping styles, performance, and responses to stressful scenarios in police recruits.

This study investigated the relationship between coping styles and police recruits' stress responses and performance during a stressful event and the relationship between coping styles and traumatic symptoms. Recruits participated in a simulated stressful policing situation and were scored by expert raters. Distress measures included biological and psychological indicators of stress. Coping styles were associated with subjective and physiological distress but not with performance. Different coping styles were associated with different patterns of traumatic symptoms in the participants. Police recruits appear to rely on their training and skill sets in stressful situations regardless of how they manage their emotional response. Furthermore, the results suggest that different posttraumatic stress disorder manifestations may represent different pathologies, each associated with a different style of coping. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Disability and the law: Attitudes of police, lawyers, and mental health professionals.

A literature review on the attitudes of police officers, lawyers, and mental health professionals toward the disabled indicates that police officers' attitudes are related to the extent of their formal education and the amount of information they have about relating to persons with various types of disabilities. Lawyers who have disabled clients tend to be more knowledgeable and to have more positive attitudes than lawyers without such clients, but it is not easy to turn lawyers into advocates for disabled clients. Mental health professionals, who may be called on to provide advice to police officers or lawyers or to testify in court cases, have some negative aspects that may impair their helpfulness, but their attitudes are more positive than those of less educated persons. Data also indicate that the attitudes of psychologists are less negative than those of psychiatrists. It is concluded that rehabilitation psychologists need to undertake studies of the attitudes of these groups and to set up programs designed to change the attitudes of members of these professions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Use of the Kuder Preference Record, Personal, with police officers.

What sort of scores do policemen receive on the Kuder? It was tried out on 49 police officers. The scores were compared with ratings by their supervisors, "done under a nine-class forced distribution system." Scores were also compared with published norms. High and low scorers on each of the 5 scales of the Kuder Preference Record, Personal, were described. "Comparison with Kuder norm group data yielded highly significant differences in preferences for avoiding conflict and for directing others." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Management of threats of violence under California's duty-to-protect statute

OBJECTIVE: This is the first study to assess clinical practices under one of the new duty-to-protect statutes, some version of which has been passed in many states. In 1985, California enacted a statute enabling psychotherapists to limit their liability when a patient makes a serious threat of violence by 1) making reasonable efforts to warn the victim of the threat and 2) notifying local police. METHOD: The authors examined all duty-to-protect notifications over a 5-year period in San Francisco by reviewing police and court records. RESULTS: Police received only 337 notifications, typically made by nondoctoral staff members at public facilities such as psychiatric hospitals and crisis clinics. Patients most commonly directed their threats toward family members. Of the patients who made threats resulting in notifications, 51% had prior arrest records, and 14% had subsequent arrests. Only 52% of the patients who made threats were civilly committed. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that 1) clinicians rarely discharge the duty to protect in the manner specified by the law, 2) many patients whose threats result in notifications have extensive involvement with the criminal justice system, and 3) family intervention may have clinical relevance in many duty-to-protect situations.     

Training of policemen in emotional control and awareness.

Describes a new technique designed to increase emotional control and awareness of policemen. The method has grown out of research in stimulated recall. Policemen were confronted with films which encourage them to simulate stressful interactions with demonstrators or rioters. Following the films, a group discussion took place focusing on the Ss' feelings, reactions, and responses to the film actor. The rationale of such a procedure is presented as well as its potential as a tool which can facilitate the training of police through a series of simulated interpersonal situations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A stress inoculation approach to anger management in the training of law enforcement officers

Consultation with law enforcement personnel in the area of conflict-management has typically been concerned with interpersonal rather than intrapersonal conflict. An approach to anger management that is based on cognitive self-control techniques is described as it has been used in the training of police officers. The approach follows a procedure called "stress inoculation" that has been applied to anxiety and pain (Meichenbaum, 1975). Data are presented on the anger experiences of policemen, and suggestions are offered for the selection of police candidates regarding their proneness for provocation.     

A historical survey of police suicide in Queensland, Australia, 1843-1992

Police suicide research has yielded inconsistent results. An opportunity presented to survey Queensland police suicides in a historical context and add to the existing literature; the study describes changes in police suicide over time, the associated characteristics, and opportunities for intervention. Suicides were examined from the origins of police in Queensland in 1843 up to 1992. Suicide rates were higher earlier, around 60 per 100,000, declining to around 20 per 100,000 recently. The recent rate is lower than most other police studies but the same as the general community (employed). Most suicides were associated with psychological and physical ill health, alcohol abuse, and domestic problems, in keeping with general community surveys. However, occupational problems were more evident than is generally the case. The proximity in time of disciplinary events and suicides was striking. Future studies should explore the interactions between these factors.     

Subtyping pathological gamblers on the basis of affective motivations for gambling: Relations to gambling problems, drinking problems, and affective motivations for drinking.

Pathological gamblers who drink when gambling (n=158; 77% men; mean age=36.0 years) completed the Inventory of Gambling Situations (IGS) and gambling and drinking criterion measures. Principal components analysis on the IGS subscales revealed negative (e.g., Unpleasant Emotions) and positive (e.g., Pleasant Emotions) gambling situation factors. Subjecting IGS factor scores to cluster analysis revealed three clusters: (a) enhancement gamblers, with low negative and high positive factor scores; (b) coping gamblers, with very high negative and high positive factor scores; and (c) low emotion regulation gamblers, with low negative and positive factor scores (59%, 23%, and 18% of the sample, respectively). Clusters were validated with a direct measure of gambling motives. Additional validity analyses showed that coping gamblers scored higher than the other groups on a variety of different gambling activities, gambling problems, drinking frequency, drinking problems, and coping drinking motives, whereas low emotion regulation gamblers scored lower than the other groups on gambling frequency, gambling problems, drinking quantity, and enhancement drinking motives. The findings validate this empirical approach to subtyping gamblers and suggest consistency of motives across addictive behaviors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sexual harassment and health among male and female police officers.

The aims of this study were to investigate whether sexual harassment is related to mental and physical health of both men and women, and to explore the possible moderating effects of gender on the relation between sexual harassment and health. In addition, we investigated whether women were more often bothered by sexual harassment than men, and whether victims who report being bothered by the harassment experience more health problems compared to victims who did not feel bothered. A representative sample of 3,001 policemen and 1,295 policewomen in the Dutch police force filled out an Internet questionnaire. It appeared that women were more often bothered by sexual harassment than men, but gender did not moderate the relation between sexual harassment and mental and physical health. In addition, victims who felt bothered by the harassing behaviors reported more mental and physical health problems than victims who did not feel bothered. The distinction between bothered and nonbothered victims is important because appraisal is an essential aspect in the operationalization of sexual harassment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Pain perception and nonsuicidal self-injury: A laboratory investigation.

People who engage in self-injurious behaviors such as cutting and burning may have altered pain perception. Using a community sample, we examined group differences in pain threshold and pain endurance between participants who self-injured and control participants who were exposed to pressure pain applied to the finger. Participants who self-injured had higher pain thresholds (time to report pain) and endured pain for longer than control participants. Among participants who self-injured, those with longer histories of self-injury had higher pain thresholds. Duration of self-injury was unrelated to pain endurance. Instead, greater pain endurance was predicted by higher levels of introversion and neuroticism and by more negative beliefs about one's self-worth. A highly self-critical cognitive style was the strongest predictor of prolonged pain endurance. People who self-injure may regard suffering and pain as something that they deserve. Our findings also have implications for understanding factors that might be involved in the development and maintenance of self-injury. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Video-based identification procedures: Combining best practice and practical requirements when designing identification systems.

A. M. Levi and R. C. L. Lindsay (2001) argued that when making recommendations for legal reforms, such as those concerning the conduct of identification procedures described by G. L. Wells et al. (1998), psychologists should include the full range of recommendations that will achieve the desired outcome. This is in contrast to the more pragmatic position adopted by Wells et al., who recommended only those changes that they believed were both beneficial and acceptable to the police. The authors of this commentary describe the results of the initial evaluation of a video-based identification parade system developed by the West Yorkshire Police in the United Kingdom and suggest that this might indicate a possible middle ground between these 2 approaches to achieving change in identification procedures. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evaluative judgments of aspects of life as a function of vicarious exposure to hedonic extremes.

In 2 experiments with 156 female undergraduates, the hypothesis was corroborated that vicarious exposure to hedonic extremes—especially the hedonically negative—results in contrast regarding evaluative judgments of aspects of life that have evolved or been acquired in the course of life beyond the laboratory. In Exp I, Ss who wrote about hedonically negative events occurring at the turn of the century expressed greater satisfaction on a composite index of present life quality than Ss who wrote about hedonically positive events. In Exp II, Ss who wrote about hedonically negative events (personal tragedies) scored higher on a composite index of satisfaction with life, health, and physical appearance than Ss who wrote about hedonically positive events. The findings for the composites corroborate a comparison level model of evaluative judgment. The findings for individual items, however, suggest that aspects of life are not evaluated in terms of a single utility scale and standard—the comparison level. Other findings are discussed that appear to contradict a simple affective model of evaluation in which the positivity of evaluations is postulated to increase with the positivity of affective states. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Posttraumatic stress symptoms and subclinical cardiovascular disease in police officers.

The present study examined associations of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms with subclinical cardiovascular disease in police officers. A stratified sample of 100 police officers was randomly selected from the Buffalo, New York, Police Department. Cardiovascular disease biomarkers were assessed by ultrasound of the brachial artery (flow-mediated dilation [FMD]). PTSD symptoms were measured with the Impact of Event Scale (IES). FMD was lowest in the severe PTSD symptom category when compared to the mild PTSD symptom category (1.91 vs. 5.15% increase, respectively; p=.21) even after adjustment for lifestyle and demographics. In conclusion, higher PTSD symptomatology in this police sample was associated with a nearly twofold reduction in brachial artery FMD, a biomarker for subclinical cardiovascular disease. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)