Effects of anxiety on the execution of police arrest and self-defense skills

Abstract

We investigated the effects of anxiety on the execution of police officers' arrest and self-defense skills. Police officers (n=13) performed three tasks in which they kicked, blocked, or restrained an opponent who attacked them with a rubber knife (low anxiety, LA) or a shock knife (high anxiety, HA) in a within-subject design. We analyzed performance (on a 5-point Likert scale), movement times, posture, and movement velocity and acceleration. Results revealed that performance was worse in the HA compared to the LA condition. Furthermore, analysis of full-body movement showed that under increased anxiety, police officers' performance contained characteristics of avoidance behavior, such as faster reactions (to reduce the time being exposed to the threat), leaning further backward (kick), and ducking down (block). In line with recent theoretical developments, it appears that under increased anxiety, police officers were less able to inhibit stimulus-driven processing (fear of getting hit) and enforce goal-directed processing (perform the skill as well as possible) leading to avoidance behavior and a decrease in performance.

Effects of reflex-based self-defence training on police performance in simulated high-pressure arrest situations

“…The average anxiety scores (FIRST: M pre = 5.2, SD = 2.2, M post = 4.4, SD = 1.9; ASDS: M pre = 5.2, SD = 2.3, M post = 5.1, SD = 2.4) showed that anxiety scores were relatively high (see Renden et al 2014 for comparable scores in high anxiety scenarios), indicating that participants experienced the scenarios as threatening. Average anxiety scores ranged from 3.5 (SD = 2.0) in 'passive aggressive' to 6.3 (SD = 2.9) in 'handgun attack' .…”

“…Both scales have good psychometric properties (anxiety thermometer: test-retest correlations between .60 and .78, RSmE: test-retest correlations between .71 and .81) and were used in earlier ASDS experiments (e.g. Nieuwenhuys et al 2009;Renden et al 2014). …”

“…We expected no effect of the ASDS training on performance because (a) of the above-mentioned weaknesses of the current training methodology, (b) the less efficient ASDS performances of officers in threatening situations in previous experiments (e.g. Renden et al 2014;Renden, Landman et al 2015), and (c) because officers are familiar with regular ASDS training (they do not learn anything new, this is what they normally train).…”

“…Anxiety has been demonstrated to have a negative influence on ASDS performance (cf. Renden et al 2014, Renden, Landman et al, 2015, Renden, Nieuwenhuys et al, 2015. In short, the limited time for training and the difficulty of performing under anxiety put a strain on officers' ability to perform well in violent situations (Nieuwenhuys and Oudejans 2012;Ericsson 2014).…”

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“…Finally, affective components influence the emotional state in which the defender has to perform (functionality), like anxiety caused by situational constraints creating pressure on the performer [Nieuwenhuys et al 2009;Renden et al 2014] or emotionladen situations [Headrick et al 2015]. This allows the performer to experience the emotions associated with the task and how this impacts their thoughts and action (e.g.…”