LS272 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Lewis Terman, Police Psychology, Observational Techniques
14 May 2018
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Chapter II: Police Psychology
Police Selection
• use of valid police selection procedures: set of procedures used to either screen out undesirable
candidates/select desirable ones
• relate to features including: physical fitness, cognitive abilities, personality, performance
Brief History of Police Selection
• Lewis Terman: Stanford-Binet Intelligence Test to assist with police selection in California
• minimum IQ score of 80 for future applicants
• In Canada: includes usage of RCMP’s Police Aptitude Test and Six Factor Personality
• selection procedures used such as background checks, medical exams, interviews, etc.
Developing Police Selection Instruments
• two stages: (1) conducting job analysis & (2) constructing and validating selection instruments
• conducting job analysis:
• involves procedure for identifying the knowledge, skills, & abilities that make good police officer
• can be done through survey, observational techniques by psychologist or an interview
• problems:
• officers’ KSAs not stable overtime = difficult what selection procedures should be testing
• diff. types of officers/policing jobs = characterized by different KSAs
• inds. may disagree over which KSAs important when trying to decide which to assess
• following KSAs essential: honesty, reliability, sensitivity to others, communication skills, high
motivation, problem-solving skills, being a team player
• constructing and validating selection instruments:
• predictive validity: extent to which scores on a test predict scores on some other measure
• measures the relation b/w scores obtained from selection instrument to actual job performance
• selection instrument’s validity = determined by calculating validity coefficients (+1 to -1)
• problems: how researchers measure performance of police officers, even measures on
performance during training often do not generalize to on-the-job performance
Validity of Police Selection Instruments
• the selection interview: most common instruments used, interview used to determine the extent to
which an applicant possesses the knowledge, skills, and abilities deemed important for the job
• psychological tests: two types of tests - cognitive ability and personality tests
• cognitive ability: procedure for measuring verbal, mathematical, memory, and reasoning
• ex; RPAT = Electronic RCMP Police Aptitude Test
• personality tests: two of most commonly are…
• Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory: assessment instrument for identifying
people with psychopathological problems
• Inwald Personality Inventory: used to identify police applicants suitable for police work by
measuring personality attributes and behaviour patterns
• more predictive of police performance than MMPI
• assessment centres: facility where behaviour of police applicants can be observed in a number of
situations by multiple observers
• primary selection instrument used here = situational test (simulation of real-world policing task),
• correlation coefficient was 0.14 and 0.20 on training academy performance -> real job
Police Discretion
• freedom that a police officer often has for deciding what should be done in given situation
• necessary since impossible to establish laws/policies that adequately encompass all situations
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