‘Gun! Gun! Gun!’: An exploration of law enforcement officers’ decision-making and coping under stress during actual events

Harris, Kimberly J.; Eccles, David W.; Freeman, Carlos; Ward, Paul

doi:10.1080/00140139.2016.1260165

Cited by 32 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…The BPS model’s focus on appraisals of demands and resources developed out of Lazarus’ theory of cognitive appraisal (see Lazarus and Folkman, 1984; Folkman and Lazarus, 1985; Lazarus, 1991), which has been utilized in the policing literature to explore the role of cognitive appraisals in stress and performance among law enforcement personnel (e.g., Larsson et al, 1988; Harris et al, 2017). Lazarus introduced the terms “challenge” and “threat” as part of his theory, emphasizing that stress was not a unitary construct, but a system of responses that could be altered by changing one’s perception of a stressor (Lazarus and Folkman, 1984; Folkman and Lazarus, 1985).…”

Section: The Biopsychosocial Model Of Challenge and Threatmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding Police Performance Under Stress: Insights From the Biopsychosocial Model of Challenge and Threat

2019

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We examine when and how police officers may avoid costly errors under stress by leveraging theoretical and empirical work on the biopsychosocial (BPS) model of challenge and threat. According to the BPS model, in motivated performance contexts (e.g., test taking, athletics), the evaluation of situational and task demands in relation to one’s perceived resources available to cope with those demands engenders distinct patterns of peripheral physiological responding. Individuals experience more challenge-like states in which blood circulates more efficiently in the periphery when they evaluate their coping resources as meeting or exceeding the task demands. Conversely, individuals experience more threat-like states in which blood circulates less efficiently in the periphery when they view the situation or task demands as exceeding their coping resources. Patterns of response consistent with challenge and threat states have been shown to predict important performance and decision-making outcomes in stressful contexts, and repeated experiences of threat-like patterns of physiological activity are thought to have detrimental effects on long-term cardiovascular health. To date, however, research has not used the biopsychosocial model to understand police decision-making under stress. Here, we review relevant empirical work from the perspective of the BPS model concerning how minority status and power can shape challenge and threat responding and contribute to decision-making under stress. We then detail a research agenda aimed at improving the translational value of research being conducted within the BPS model for understanding complex performance and decision-making in the real world, including among law enforcement personnel.

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Section: The Biopsychosocial Model Of Challenge and Threatmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding Police Performance Under Stress: Insights From the Biopsychosocial Model of Challenge and Threat

2019

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“…Resilient persons frequently use more problem-focused strategies than emotion/avoidance-focused strategies since resilient coping implies a positive adaptation in stressful situations, combining the longitudinal process of resilience with the specific moment were a coping strategy is used to solve the stressful situation [ 38 , 39 ]. Research about resilience and coping among police officers showed that coping strategies are related with job stress [ 40 , 41 , 42 ], and police officers preferred to use problem-focused strategies [ 43 , 44 , 45 ], which increased with job experience [ 40 ] and are related with resilience [ 46 , 47 ]. Moreover, avoidance strategies are related with substance/alcohol use to cope with stressful situations [ 48 , 49 ], while emotion-focused strategies are related with depression, anxiety and poor mental health [ 50 ], as well with burnout [ 51 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Job Stress, Burnout and Coping in Police Officers: Relationships and Psychometric Properties of the Organizational Police Stress Questionnaire

Queirós

Passos²,

Bártolo

et al. 2020

IJERPH

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Policing is a stressful occupation, which impairs police officers’ physical/mental health and elicits burnout, aggressive behaviors and suicide. Resilience and coping facilitate the management of job stress policing, which can be operational or organizational. All these constructs are associated, and they must be assessed by instruments sensitive to policing idiosyncrasies. This study aims to identify operational and organizational stress, burnout, resilient coping and coping strategies among police officers, as well to analyze the psychometric properties of a Portuguese version of the Organizational Police Stress Questionnaire. A cross-sectional study, with online questionnaires, collected data of 1131 police officers. With principal components and confirmatory factor analysis, PSQ-org revealed adequate psychometric properties, despite the exclusion of four items, and revealed a structure with two factors (poor management and lack of resources, and responsibilities and burden). Considering cut-off points, 88.4% police officers presented high operational stress, 87.2% high organizational stress, 10.9% critical values for burnout and 53.8% low resilient coping, preferring task-orientated than emotion and avoidance coping. Some differences were found according to gender, age and job experience. Job stress and burnout correlated negatively with resilient coping, enthusiasm towards job and task-orientated coping. Results reinforce the importance to invest on police officers’ occupational health.

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“…These findings are particularly relevant for research that examines specific facets of decision making in expert populations, such as how option generation influences outcome in lethal force encounters (Suss & Ward, 2018;Ward et al, 2011). Many of these studies use a delayed retrospective report method (Harris et al, 2017), but given the current findings, a high-fidelity simulator may provide an additional tool for expert populations in dissecting the decision-making process.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 85%

Measuring Lethal Force Performance in the Lab: The Effects of Simulator Realism and Participant Experience

et al. 2020

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Objective The goal of the current study was to compare two types of shooting simulators to determine which is best suited for assessing different aspects of lethal force performance. Background Military and law enforcement personnel are often required to make decisions regarding the use of lethal force. A critical goal of both training and research endeavors surrounding lethal force is to find ways to simulate lethal force encounters to better understand behavior in those scenarios. Method Participants of varying degrees of experience completed both marksmanship and shoot/don’t shoot scenarios on both a video game and a military-grade shooting simulator. Using signal detection theory, we assessed sensitivity as a measure of lethal force performance overall. We used hit rate to assess shooting accuracy and false alarm rate to assess decision making. Results Results demonstrated that performance was correlated across simulators. Results supported the notion that shooting accuracy and decision making are independent components of performance. Individuals with firearms expertise outperformed novices on the military-grade simulator, but only with respect to shooting accuracy, not unintended casualties. Individuals with video game experience outperformed novices in the video game simulator, but again only on shooting accuracy. Conclusion Experience played a crucial role in the assessment of shooting accuracy on a given simulator platform; decision-making performance remained unaffected by experience level or type of simulator. Application We recommend that in expert populations or when assessing shooting accuracy, a military-grade shooting simulator be used. However, with a novice population and/or when interested in decision making in lethal force, a video game simulator is appropriate.

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‘Gun! Gun! Gun!’: An exploration of law enforcement officers’ decision-making and coping under stress during actual events

Cited by 32 publications

References 42 publications

Understanding Police Performance Under Stress: Insights From the Biopsychosocial Model of Challenge and Threat

Understanding Police Performance Under Stress: Insights From the Biopsychosocial Model of Challenge and Threat

Job Stress, Burnout and Coping in Police Officers: Relationships and Psychometric Properties of the Organizational Police Stress Questionnaire

Measuring Lethal Force Performance in the Lab: The Effects of Simulator Realism and Participant Experience

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