Police officers are frequently viewed as being unable
to perform the duties assigned to them by society.
Criticism has focused on inappropriate reaction to social
unrest and an inability to control crime. Improving the
selection process of police officers has been proposed as
an appropriate means of improving police officer
performance. The problem is how to improve the selection
process to select individuals who will perform at the
highest level.
This study attempted to determine if personality
traits of standout police officers, as measured by
psychological tests, differ significantly from
personality traits of recruit police officers.
Considerable research in Oregon has been done on
personality traits of police officers. The research has
dealt with testing police officer applicants and recruit
police officers. This study compared the psychological
profile of police academy trainees with the psychological
profile of standout police officers. The standout police
officers were identified in a study by John Koroloff.
The standard t test was used for a comparison of
personality traits based on test scores from the Law
Enforcement Assessment and Development Report (LEADR),
the Psychopathic Deviate scale (PD) and the MacAndrew
Alcoholism scale (MA) of the Minnesota Multiphasic
Personality Inventory (MMPI), and the Wonderlic Personnel
Test. The LEADR consists of the 16 Personality Factors
(16PF), the Clinical Analysis Questionnaire (CAQ), and
second-order factors. A comparison was also made of the
age difference between the two groups.
The hypothesis that there is no statistically
significant difference between the two groups was only
partially supported. Statistically significant
differences were found on the Intelligence, Low Energy
Depression, Paranoia, Psychasthenia, Depression, and
Psychoticism scales of the LEADR; on the Psychopathic
Deviate and MacAndrew Alcoholism scales of the MMPI; and
on the age difference. / Graduation date: 1992
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ORGSU/oai:ir.library.oregonstate.edu:1957/36345 |
| Date | 09 July 1991 |
| Creators | Stevenson, Carl W. |
| Contributors | Ovando, Carlos |
| Source Sets | Oregon State University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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