CRIM 3652 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Statistical Hypothesis Testing, Occupational Stress, Job Satisfaction
14 Dec 2016
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Week 2 Readings and Review for Exam
Definition of Boredom: Boredom is a lack of interest or engagement and sense of
‘functionless repetition’ in work life. Boredom can create opportunities for imagination to
come alive.
How was boredom operationalized in the article we read in this course?
• Since boredom creates opportunities for cops imaginations to come alive, they are
always searching for the possibilities of something exciting.
• Example: street crime detectives are tasked with “hunting” for illegal weapons,
criminals with active warrants and narcotic raids.
• They have learned to control their boredom by finding leisure in their work day,
this includes: “Job endurance” making boredom bearable by having
conversations, games and humor.
What are the traditional elements of boredom?
• “A fundamentally negative subjective state where the individual experiences little
interest in what is currently happening.”
• Traditionally, the concept is thought of as a toxic affect.
• Something being considered too easy and therefore tedious, something too
puzzling and therefore irritating. Certain people or activities can trigger boredom,
ex, you dislike the activity or the person, unwillingness induced by an
environment, fatigue brought on by dullness or exhaustion in one’s patience.
• Boredom represents a kind of emptiness we struggle to fill
• “expresses a dissatisfaction” when conditions are uninteresting; they are
restless and irritable.
What is the relationship between boredom and engagement?
• “Real Police Work” entails courage and the potential for danger, though
opportunity to engage in ‘Real Police Work’ is limited. The symbolic meaning of
policing and the internalized role of the officer are as “crime fighter.”
• Stereotypical “crime fighter” image that pervades officer and public expectations
of the job
• Boredom lurks in the periphery of excitement and engagement
• Detectives thus find ways to stymy boredom and enliven their work
• Crime fighter tasks sustain a cops collective occupational identity
• Boredom emerges from the disparity between what detective work promises (real
crime fighting) and delivers (periods of boredom).
• The gap between expectation and reality
What is boredom drive?
• Barbalet proposed that a sense of boredom had a positive result: boredom drive.
Boredom occurs “if a person anticipates the possibility of something else” that has
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Document Summary
Definition of boredom: boredom is a lack of interest or engagement and sense of. Boredom can create opportunities for imagination to come alive. Expresses a dissatisfaction when conditions are uninteresting; they are restless and irritable. What is the relationship between boredom and engagement: real police work entails courage and the potential for danger, though opportunity to engage in real police work" is limited. What is boredom drive: barbalet proposed that a sense of boredom had a positive result: boredom drive. Boredom occurs if a person anticipates the possibility of something else that has not yet occurred. A person who feels bored will seek ways to release that boredom by finding that something else. a sense of curiosity and exploratory behaviour . functions to reduce boredom . This drive to avoid boredom, however, may not increase the quality of an actor"s behavior.
