Lecture 2: Police selection and police stress

Question 1

What is police recruitment?

Answer 1

police recruitment is getting a large group of people who are interested (excited and informed) in becoming police officers

Question 2

What is police selection?

Answer 2

is about selecting the appropriate people from that large group of recruits to actually become officers. the process by which agencies select officers from a pool of applicants.

Question 3

Screening out vs. Selecting in

Answer 3

Screening out people with undesirable qualities (impulsivity, violence, past offenders) or selecting in those with desirable qualities.

Question 4

What do all agencies in Canada do in terms of police selection?

Answer 4

All agencies conduct background checks and require medical exams and most use cognitive ability tests and personality tests.

Question 5

What is the multi hurdle approach that some agencies use?

Answer 5

Step 1: information session/qualities and requirements (drivers license, relatively clear criminal record)
Step 2: vision and hearing tests
Step 3: submit online application
Step 4: entrance exam (personality test and aptitude test)
Step 5: forms (applicant questionnaire)
Step 6: polygraph
Step 7: full health (medical/psychological)
Step 8: background and security clearance

Question 6

What are the two stages that developing police selection instruments involves?

Answer 6

Job analysis and construction and validation

Question 7

What is job analysis?

Answer 7

A procedure for identifying the knowledge, skills and abilities that make a good police officer. This can be done formally (using surveys/observational methods) or informally by asking.

Question 8

What are some issues with conducting a job analysis?

Answer 8

the stability of KSA’s changes over time
different KSA’s for different jobs within policing
Agreement on KSA’s

Question 9

What is the construction and validation stage?

Answer 9

In this stage, an instrument must be developed for measuring the extent to which applicants possess relevant KSA’s. An attempt must be made to determine the instruments validity or the extent to which the scores on the instrument relate to measures of actual on the job police performance.

Question 10

What is predictive validity?

Answer 10

the extent to which score on a test (e.g., cognitive ability test) predict scores on some other measure (e.g., supervisors rating of police performance)

Question 11

Issues with construction and validation

Answer 11

Deciding on performance measure (different performance measures provide different results)
Range restriction (screening of unqualified applicants provides restricted range of scores). key measures include: academy performance, supervisor ratings, number of complaints etc.)

Question 12

What are the three selection instruments being used?

Answer 12

Selection interview, Psychological tests, Assessment centres

Question 13

Describe selection interview

Answer 13

Very common in Canada, In recruiting police offciers an interview used by police to determine the extent to which an applicant possesses the KSA’s deemed important for the job.

Question 14

Problems with selection interviews

Answer 14

Low interviewer agreement
Faking good is common
Research on the predictive validity is mixed.

Question 15

What are the two types of psychological tests used?

Answer 15

Cognitive ability tests and personality tests

Question 16

Describe cognitive ability tests

Answer 16

Very common in Canada (RCMP police aptitude test)/. they are a procedure for measuring verbal, mathematical, memory and reasoning abilities.

Question 17

problem with Cognitive ability tests:

Answer 17

they seem to better at prediciting performance during police academy training compared with future on the job performance.

Question 18

Describe Personality tests

Answer 18

Common in Canada (e.g., the RCMP 6 factor personality questionnaire). The most common, the minnesota multiphasic personality inventory (MMPI) and the IPI developed specifically for police selection.

Question 19

Problems with personality tests

Answer 19

Moderate predictive validity (IPI is slightly higher than MMPI)

Question 20

What are assessment centres?

Answer 20

Assesement centres rely on situational tests, involving simulation of real world police tasks and applicant behaviour is assessed by multiple observers. problem: moderate predictive validity.

Question 21

what is stress?

Answer 21

Stress is the automatic state that results when the body must make chnages in order to adapt a demand. Does not matter whether the stress is unpleasant or pleasant.

Question 22

What are police stressors?

Answer 22

Police stressors refer to events that police officers encounter that they perceive as harmful, threatening or challenging. Historically, occupational stressors (e.g., shooting someone in the line of duty) were emphasized

Question 23

Occupational stressors

Answer 23

Human suffering, officers are often exposed to the inequities and brutality of life. Killing someone, a fellow officer being killed, high speed chase

Question 24

Criminal justice stressors

Answer 24

Involve unfavourable court decisions, many decisions are viewed by officers as unfair increasing stress.Legal technicalities, defence lawyers, lenient sentences

Question 25

organizational stressors

Answer 25

Intra organizational like: paperwork, inadequate support, promotion competition. Inter organizational: jurisdictional isolationism

Question 26

Public stressors

Answer 26

Distorted press accounts, reports of incidents are often inaccurate and perceived as derogatory. Public harassment, press accounts, quiet neighbours

Question 27

Which are the most stressfuL?

Answer 27

Different stressors will appear more stressful depending on how we phrase survey questions. More important than category: stress will emerge any time high demand is paired with low control

Question 28

What are acute stressors?

Answer 28

Very serious, short lives. e.g., a shoot out

Question 29

What are chronic stressors

Answer 29

Less serious, long lived. e.g., paperwork

Question 30

What are some psychological consequences of police stress?

Answer 30

depression, burnout, alcohol abuse

Question 31

What are some physiological consequences of police stress?

Answer 31

weight gain, stomach ulcers, death

Question 32

What are some job related consequences?

Answer 32

Low morale, absenteeism, turnover

Question 33

What is Selye’s 3 stage model?

Answer 33

Stage 1: Alarm- Intense arousal, bodies defences are mobilized, fight or flight (muscle tension, adrenaline, increased respiration and blood flow)
Stage 2: resistance- Body actively resists stressors and attempts to adapt
Stage 3: Exhaustion- Physical exhaustion and illness through inability to cope with demands (breakdown can manifest itself in the form of stroke, heart attack and ulcers etc.)

Question 34

Distress vs. Eustress

Answer 34

Distress refers to a condition characterized by emotional upset and/or physical strain. Eustress refers to a pleasurable stress- even though physical and mental stress is placed on the body it has a positive effect.

Question 35

Stress and work performance

Answer 35

There is assumed to be a relationship between stress and work performance (low stress isn’t good, High stress isn’t good, moderate stress is ideal)

Question 36

What are some stress moderators?

Answer 36

Experience, support, personality, coping strategy

Question 37

Prevention and management

Answer 37

Prevention is probably more important but less common (knowledge, relaxation exercises, Big 3; sleep, exercise, have more to your life than just work) Management programs are common (e.g., employee assistance, peer counselling, critical incident debriefing, etc.) but evidence for effectiveness varies

Question 38

What is resilience training?

Answer 38

training delivered to police stressors to improve their ability to effectively adapt to stress and adversity

Question 39

Psychological debriefing

Answer 39

a psychology oriented intervention delivered to police officers following exposure to an event that resulted in psychological distress and an impairment of normal functioning