Dissertation

The Relations of Psychological Inflexibility and Adversarial Growth following Critical Incidents among Law Enforcement Officers

Baker, Lucas D

2020

Overview

Law enforcement officers (LEOs) face a variety of repeated, unavoidable stressors in the line of duty including frequent exposure to potentially traumatic events (i.e., critical incidents). Researchers have identified many physical and psychological issues associated with such critical incident exposure. Researchers have also outlined a phenomenon in which individuals may ascend to a higher level of functioning than existed prior to a traumatic event as a result of overcoming traumatic stress-related adversity, known as adversarial growth. Yet, minimal research has examined adversarial growth as a consequence of critical incidents among LEOs. Furthermore, researchers have been challenged to identify reliable predictors of adversarial growth. The present study aimed to evaluate an interaction of psychological inflexibility, characterized by a rigid dominance of avoidant psychological reactions to unwanted internal experiences, and the time elapsed since critical incidents (i.e., temporal proximity) as a model to predict adversarial growth in a sample of LEOs. High psychological inflexibility was expected to inhibit opportunities for LEOs to become aware of, and connected with, the value of positive change. Alternatively, flexible responding was expected to facilitate adversarial growth given enough time had passed since the critical incident occurred. LEOs recruited from three geographically distributed U.S. police agencies provided adequate data (n = 277) to assess the above moderation model. Results of a moderated linear regression analysis indicated nonsignificant relations. Neither psychological inflexibility, temporal proximity, or the interaction of the two variables significantly accounted for adversarial growth. These results are discussed in the context of theoretical and methodological improvements for future research. Our model may have benefitted from a broadened account of the complex interactions between critical incidents, personal characteristics (e.g., psychological inflexibility), and organizational factors to improve prediction of adversarial growth in LEOs. Further specification of behavioral processes and contextual variables may support the development of organizational programs within police agencies to foster positive responding to critical incidents.

• Publisher: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
• Subject: Clinical psychology / Law enforcement / Occupational psychology
• ISBN: 9798698567400