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

Abstract

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.

Burnout and Stress Measurement in Police Officers: Literature Review and a Study With the Operational Police Stress Questionnaire

“…Individually, it leads to poor mental health (Baldwin et al, 2019;Castro et al, 2019), work-family conflict (Griffin and Sun, 2018), non-adaptive coping strategies and job stress (LeBlanc et al, 2008;Zulkafaly et al, 2017), emotional labor (van Gelderen et al, 2007), burnout Keinan, 2005, 2007;Rosa et al, 2015), and even suicide (Violanti, 1996;Blazina, 2017;Costa et al, 2019;Grassi et al, 2018). Organizationally, it affects performance (Shane, 2010;Bertilsson et al, 2019;Kelley et al, 2019), counterproductive work behaviors (Smoktunowicz et al, 2015), and inappropriate interactions with citizens, such as the use of excessive force (Neely and Cleveland, 2011;Mastracci and Adams, 2019).…”

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

“…When job stress becomes chronic, it strongly affects physical and mental health [ 16 , 17 ], and nowadays stress is considered as a psychosocial risk at work [ 18 , 19 ]. When the response to chronic job stress is inadequate, burnout appears as an occupational phenomenon [ 20 , 21 ] defined as a “prolonged response to chronic emotional and interpersonal stressors on the job, [expressed on] three dimensions of exhaustion, cynicism and inefficacy” [ 22 ] (p. 397).…”

“…Furthermore, police officers’ burnout can be related with internal or external aggression, a current social and political concern. Regarding external aggression, excessive use of force among police forces can be a result of high levels of stress [ 2 , 13 , 16 , 28 , 29 , 30 ], which can make police officers assess the situations as more threatening than what they really are [ 31 ]. Regarding internal aggression, several studies [ 7 , 8 , 32 , 33 ] alerted for suicide among police officers due to the easy access to a gun, due to situations which elicit post-traumatic stress disorder, stressful conditions during policing, depression and burnout.…”

A Reasonable Officer: Examining the Relationships Among Stress, Training, and Performance in a Highly Realistic Lethal Force Scenario

“…It is believed that training and experience can improve one’s ability to cope with a threatening stimuli, subsequently affecting the threat appraisal process, which sustains and moderates the fight-or-flight physiology ( Driskell and Salas, 1996 ; Anshel et al, 1997 ; Kelley et al, 2019 ). The current study’s results provided mixed evidence for Hypothesis 2, which examined this relationship.…”

“…While the body’s default response to successfully deal with a threat is to stimulate the fight-or-flight response ( LeDoux and Pine, 2016 ), training and experience are thought to moderate stress by intervening immediately following the initial autonomic stress response ( Driskell and Salas, 1996 ; Kavanagh, 2005 ; Wollert et al, 2011 ). Theoretically, training and experience improve one’s ability to cope with a threat, subsequently affecting the appraisal process, which sustains and moderates the fight-or-flight physiology ( Driskell and Salas, 1996 ; Anshel et al, 1997 ; Kelley et al, 2019 ).…”