What Can Police Officers Learn From Positive Psychology?

Let me know if this comes close to describing police officers in your neighborhood:

Idle on the side of the road is a lone police officer with a laser gun pointing to an endless parade of cars. Their task is simple. Look at the gun and determine if someone is speeding excessively and also be on the look-out for reckless drivers.

Any rational person would be bored senseless. But that's not my major concern. Negative emotions can influence our behavior in powerful, pernicious ways. When we experience negative emotions our attention narrows such that we are less open to new information, less willing to compromise, and more likely to rigidly adhere to initial reactions and stereotypes. When in a negative mood, we tend to judge people more harshly. When in a negative mood, we are particularly aggressive towards people that are different from us (what we might call our "out-group") which may be based on age, education, gender, race, political orientation, or religion. Our biases are bigger, badder, and stronger when we are in a funk.

Are police officers aware of how boredom impacts their decisions? Are police officers aware of which citizens fall into their "in-group" and "out-group?" And don't respond with a statement that they are trained not to show biases. Everyone has biases. If you want to fear anyone, fear the person who denies biases while claiming that they respect and care for everyone equally. Return to this column in 150 years when a gay atheist makes it to a presidential primary.

We know that being in a positive mood tends to widen the array of thoughts, behaviors, and executive functioning capacities at our disposal. Positive emotions ensure that we remain attentive and open when interacting with other people, with sufficient stamina to exploit rewarding opportunities. Yet, the United States opts for a highway patrol program where police officers are susceptible to being in a negative mood at the least opportune time- right before they are about to make moral judgments.

Here is my brief suggestion: allow police officers small personalized strategies to put themselves in a good mood. Let them listen to soothing, melodic sounds of their own choosing (commercials and channel switching on the radio is often more frustrating than pleasurable). Let them spend some time outside of their car where they can physically stretch. Let them stand in the sunlight so that they can increase their serotonin levels while observing their surroundings. When police officers are in a good mood, they are more perceptive, think more clearly, and show greater kindness and compassion.

The aim is not to make police officers happy, the aim is to create the optimal environment for them to serve and protect the community. It is far too easy to overlook how our mental content and environment influences our ability to do this.

If you think this research on emotions is only relevant to police officers, you are mistaken. How about courtroom judges who feel fatigued after listening to dozens of cases in a row? How about overwhelmed stay-at-home parents who are expected to be attentive, accommodating lovers when their partner returns from the office?

Know thyself.
If you want to accelerate the process, learn about and apply the latest advances in psychological science.

Dr. Todd B. Kashdan is a clinical psychologist and professor of psychology at George Mason University. He is the author of Curious? Discover the Missing Ingredient to a Fulfilling Life. For more about his speaking engagements, books, and research, go to www.toddkashdan.com or Research Laboratory

 

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Comments

[Fareeha Aziz]

07:48 PM on 05/17/2010

I read this before but wasn't able to comment at the time. Anyway I mentioned this to a police officer I know and he thought it was very interesting as well!

[Ben Rubin]

01:13 PM on 05/03/2010

Thanks for another thought-provoking article! This is a question that is generally applicable, but applying it to this particular case: what do you think are the main barriers to this type of change at the personal and institutional levels? If you could conduct one study of police officers, designed to gather information in the service of making a positive change, what would it be? Would it be to reveal to officers their biases in evaluating different kinds of people (in an anonymous, nonjudgemental context)? Would it be to directly determine the effects on personal well-being of certain specific changes such as those you suggest? Do studies of workplace happiness reveal patterns that suggest specific approaches work better for some people but not others (e.g. based on vocation, personality trait, past experiences, etc.)?

[ToddStark]

11:35 AM on 05/02/2010

What a great idea! I think this would be met by some incredulity and ridicule at first (you're talking about a machismo culture in many places, this at first would come off as "coddling" officers), but I think it would ultimately be accepted as a great benefit to all. Addressing the best state of mind to do our job, whatever the job, is a relatively new idea to be taken seriously and has tremendous potential once we can show real benefits. There is some skepticism of this, partly because it was abused with a lot of unsubstantiated mysticism in the past, but I think we are starting to be in a good position now to do it in a credible and effective way. Thanks for your fascinating insights in this area.

[jobucks]

06:11 AM on 05/02/2010

@HuffPost, my, this login procedure is clumsy. Why so?

@Todd, in that irritable mood but having persisted ~ do we have to be so complicated? Why subject people to such mindless work in the first place? And why spend money on something so negative?

All we have to do is put up "smiley faces" that give us feedback on our speed. Most people are grateful and comply immediately.

If you haven't seen these signs, they hibernate until you approach. Then they reflect back your speed. If you are within the limit, they smile. If you are outside the limit they tell you your speed. Extremely effective.

[Todd Kashdan]

10:27 AM on 05/02/2010

Jobucks, I couldn't agree more. The highway patrol approach to law enforcement is relatively antiquated. From a cost-benefit analysis, it is even more clear that your approach is better. The salaries, the quality of life, the false positives, the false negatives, the time wasted in lost productivity in court arraignment procedures, and the list goes on. There are a few outlier, wacky drivers that require direct intervention and this is where highway officers help out. But creating an entire system to catch outliers is inefficient. If a police chief from the 30's popped onto the scene today, they would find nothing different except for laser guns. That's sad. Where is the innovation and creativity? When it comes to protecting moral foundations such as harm and fairness, there is no room to linger on the status quo.