Archive for the ‘Police Psychology Theories’ Category

Police Psychology | Those Damn Cameras

Posted: September 10, 2015 in Rank and Leadership
Tags: cameras, police psychology, police stress

Police Psychology | Those Damn Cameras

Body cameras are the latest “big thing” in policing, and thus those in the field of police psychology needs to explore how that affects the job. Although people argue that body cameras are a good thing, they can also impose an incredible amount of additional police stress on cops, which can adversely impact their performance.

Those in police psychology need to explore how the advent of technology, specifically cameras, impacts police work.

As a society, we are obsessed with cameras, recordings, pictures, and the like. Many inventions today have to do with capturing the perfect picture , apps are created in which people communicate just through pictures (instagram) or videos (snapchat). In fact, we have even managed to add the word “selfie” into the dictionary. We have become very focused on visuals—on seeing ourselves and other people plastered across the Internet. Perhaps this is in an attempt to make ourselves feel good, to show everyone how pretty, talented or happy we are. Or perhaps it is a way of communicating with other people, a way to seek other people’s approval or admiration, or even advice. It is plain and simply easier and faster to see “a thousand words” rather than write them (my personal belief for the obsession with visuals when I see how bad people write today). Regardless of the reason, the truth remains: we love documenting our lives and ourselves, and we love seeing (or judging) the lives of others. But, in this world of YouTube and vlogs (video blogs in which people document their daily lives and post them on different media platforms) and body cameras on police officers, where do we draw the line?

The Hawthorne Effect

What if everyone wore body cameras all the time? What if your shrink, lawyer, children, parents, teachers, partners, doctors, and dentists wore body cameras throughout all the interactions they have throughout the day? We’d hear doctors showing no empathy at all for some of their patients, lawyers talking about murder fantasies with some of their clients, psychologists imitating some of their patient’s quirks (c’mon you have to have known), and teachers saying things that would suggest you would never let them around your children. Most importantly, how would a video camera cause us to change our daily behavior? ( I, of course, would never imitate my patient’s quirks, “like, you know what I mean, like,” sorry still there)

Camera,, police psychologypolcie psychology

It is understood in police psychology that when you are being observed, you tend to perform more optimally.

In the early 1900’s, The Hawthorne Works electric factory wanted to see if greater light intensity or low light intensity increased work productivity. They hired people to observe the employees as they worked in dim light and bright light to try to determine which setting was most effective. However, they made a surprising observation. They noticed that the workers performed best, not specifically during bright or dim light, but during the length of the experiment. As soon as the experiment ended, their productivity went down. This became the basis for the observer bias, also known as the Hawthorne Effect, where people tend to modify or improve their behavior when they know they are being observed. You’ve probably experienced this one yourself. Has someone you like ever come watch you perform in a sports game or a play? Chances are if you know they’re watching, you run just a little bit faster, you throw just a little bit harder. You perform just a little bit better. The truth is, when we know we’re being watched, we tend to improve our performance, even slightly. We may not even realize we’re doing this. So if everyone wore body cameras, would we all operate a little more…optimally? Would we be more polite, friendlier, nicer, more effective? If you knew someone was watching you, would you stay at the door just a second longer to hold it for the next person? Would you say hi to the people you passed on the street as you walked home or to work? Would you work harder at the office and take less solitaire, bathroom, and phone breaks if you knew your boss was watching? The thought of being watched at all times would probably give many of us pause before we did something questionable, and would probably help encourage us to do something typically we wouldn’t do.

Not so fast with the assumption, Sherlock! If you knew someone was watching your play, wouldn’t you ham it up a little? Yea, most likely you’d get a little more “porky.” We find that in court all the time when people tape their conversations. There is a downside to being constantly recorded. When we watch videos on the news of people attacking others, or reacting with undue aggression in certain situations, we tend to be extremely judgmental. In all the cases of police brutality that have come out, there have been sides and arguments and he-saids and she-saids. The capability to pause, repeat, rewatch—analyze allows us to pick some little minutia and blow that up. When the media does that, it becomes dangerous. Does a police officer have that right in a split second decisions? Police psychology has to look closely at that. We can explore the “he should have” and the “what ifs.” The truth is, this isn’t always possible in real life. There is no pause button in a real life situation. Sometimes aggression is necessary; sometimes it is the only solution, even if it’s not an easy decision. Body cameras, however, can have the adverse effect of adding a bad hesitation to people’s actions. And, while this hesitation may be good for an average citizen who is debating about stealing a chocolate bar from the local store, it is certainly not good for a police officer who is caught between protecting the public and taking down a perp. All these considerations multiply the police stress that those in police psychology need to deal with.

The Double-Edged Sword

If you ever go on YouTube and watch people’s daily vlogs you can get a sense for this type of stress. You hear these vloggers explain anytime they do something they think their viewers won’t approve of, “I’m sorry I’m snacking on this chocolate bar. I was just really hungry and was craving sweets.” I have police officers who say things like, “what happens if I have to go to the bathroom. I can’t go behind the storage place like I used to or stop beside the road.” When we are being observed, we feel the need to make excuses to preempt any possible attacks that can be forthcoming based on our behavior. We do this to protect ourselves, as a defense mechanism for our self-esteem. While this may be good in certain situations, in others it would just give people an excuse to judge us, give us a reason to question our own integrity and ourselves. Body cameras are certainly a double-edged sword—they can be extremely beneficial, and yet they can produce some very unfavorable consequences, negatively impacting police psychology and increasing police stress.

3 Steps to Consider When Told You Will Wear a Body Camera

Nothing Changed – Don’t obsess! Since the days of Rodney King every police officer has known that someone has a camera around the corner and the news will only show a piece of the clip is possible. Do you expect it now to be different? If you work in business, every boss can dial you up on the computer at any time, get a video of you, and criticize what you do. This is the world we now live in. Remember this on any job, there is no more of the sanctity of a private conversation. Even without the camera a lawyer or another party will stretch the truth to win a battle and that may include outright lying. Nothing really had changed when you put the camera right on your body.
Judging is for Beauty Contests – Remember how bad it feels to be judged the next time you are in a position to judge. It is easy to say, but not so easy to do. Keep this in mind, people who are constantly judging others are generally not happy people. And if you are not a judgmental person, it is more likely those around you will not be as judgmental of you, although it is not 100 percent, not even ninety percent, or seventy. People do love their judgments, but reducing your judgments can work to reduce theirs.
Learn to Not Be Defensive – This is another one that is easier said than done. When confronted with the stupidity of others, don’t bother to fuel their fire by defending yourself. Don’t give them further reasons to attack you. Do not respond to an attack with an attack back. “Given the situation and the time I had to make a decision that was an appropriate response.” When they confront you hit them with the broken record “Given the situation and the time I had to make a decision that was an appropriate response.” They will stop if they get no other answer, and any other answer will have them trying to convince you more of how you are an idiot.

Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D.

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Police Psychology | The War on Police: “Officer-Directed Violence”

Posted: September 8, 2015 in Public Information Bureau
Tags: officer directed violence, police psychology, police stress

Police Psychology |

The War on Police: “Officer-Directed Violence”

Ron Martinelli, Ph.D., CMI-V, BCFT, CFA

Shannon Miles

Deputy Darren Goforth

Let’s see a show of hands. Every one of you who recognize these names raise em up. Michael Brown? Freddie Grey? OK. Now how about Darren Goforth, Steven Vincent, Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu? No hands? That’s not all that surprising to me as a forensic criminologist and police expert.

Unless you have been hiding under a rock for the past year, you would know that Michael Brown was the felony robbery suspect who assaulted and was shot and killed by a police office in Ferguson, MO. This incident precipitated the forensically false “Hand up. Don’t shoot!” narrative that led to nightly riots and the destruction of parts of the minority business district in that town.

Freddy Grey, as most of us know, was the drug dealing street person in Baltimore, MD, who resisted arrest and died in police custody quite possibly as a result of banging his head against the steel bolted walls of a police transport van. To date, the autopsy results show no direct linkage between Grey’s injuries and police brutality. Yet, six Baltimore police officers have been indicted in his death. Again, anonymous “activist” looters pillaged and burned portions of that city’s minority and elderly community.

Now for the name you may not be familiar with. Darren Goforth, was the Harris County, Texas Deputy Sheriff who was brutally executed this past weekend in an unprovoked and cowardly ambush by a suspect identified as Shannon Miles. Police arrested Miles shortly after the killing and so far he’s not talking. Deputy Goforth and Shannon Miles had never met each other and no connection between has been established. The media so far state that “the motive in the murder of Deputy Goforth is unknown.” Are you kidding me?! Here’s a motive for you. A war against police.

Make no mistake about it. The law enforcement community is under attack. Factually, more peace officers have been injured or killed this year alone than U.S. soldiers deployed overseas on the so called “War on Terrorism.” You didn’t know this? Why not? What you ask is causing this spike in what I refer to as “Officer-Directed Violence?” Well, I’ll tell you.

As a retired cop and now a forensic and behavioral expert; I have investigated hundreds of critical incidents resulting from violent encounters between citizens and police. In fact, my Forensic Death Investigations & Independent Review Team specializes in police-related death cases. Here is what I have found so far.

The uber liberal news media continues to forward a false message to an under or misinformed public that that police are inherently racist and violent.

Rather than endorsing and championing a message that the law enforcement and urban crime plagued communities need to support each other; these actors seem to thrive on creating distrust, dissention and division between police and the public. Of course, they all unanimously deny this is the case. So, what is to be believed? Let’s make you the forensic investigator to analyze a couple of cases from this past week alone.

Last week Louisiana State Trooper Steven Vincent was deliberately ambushed, shot and killed by Kevin Daigle, 54 years old, when the 44 year old officer stopped to render assistance to Daigle who had been involved in a single car accident. So far, the investigation has revealed that Trooper Vincent and suspect Daigle had never met each other. On Trooper Vincent’s dashcam audio, suspect Daigle is heard to taunt the hapless and mortally wounded trooper, saying, “You’re lucky. You’re going to die soon.” Daigle was neither wanted nor mentally deranged. Nothing the trooper did provoked the shooting.

trooper Steven Vincent

Kevin Daigle

In case you might think that there is a racial theme to this article, Trooper Vincent and his murderer were both white. From what we are now learning about murder suspect Shannon Miles’ cold-blooded murder of TX Deputy Sheriff Goforth; like murder suspect Daigle, Miles was also neither wanted by police, nor mentally disturbed. It appears that Miles and Daigle just wanted to kill a cop. But why?

Unprovoked, deliberate, cold blooded murders are actually rare occurrences. Yet, now the stories of murdered officers and the booking photos of their killers appear with far greater frequency on our TV screens now than in past years. We all know that police work is dangerous. For the most part, police are trained and train themselves in officer safety tactics. Responding to violent domestic disputes, armed robberies, gang fights, and active shooters are all part of the job. We accept it. It’s what we do and what the public we serve expect from us. It’s that simple.

However, this new dynamic of the wanton, willful and cowardly assassination of peace officers by ambush is a paradigm shift in the dynamic of officer-directed violence. It is an act of urban terrorism that is no different than if an ISIS cell member had planted and exploded IED under a police officer’s patrol car. There is NO difference because at the end of the day you still have a dead officer that resulted from an unprovoked attack. The purpose of terrorism is not only to kill innocents; but to psychologically paralyze the masses by instilling fear and breaking down the will to fight. Creating fear and submission through random acts of violence is central to the behavioral profile of the terrorist.

Very few of those involved in activist movements are protesting police brutality, racism or oppression. What they are protesting is the rule of law and police-community efforts to fight crime and violence to make communities drug, gang and violence free. That is the real war in America right now. Don’t be naïve. Our law enforcement officers comprise the “Thin Blue Line” of soldiers who separate and protect the innocent from the predatory criminals and the entitled, exploitive “users” who want a lawless society.

When national, state and municipal leaders criticize police for political reasons absent forensic proof; they not only polarize the law enforcement minority communities; but light the fuses of the mentally unbalanced “ticking time bombs” among us who take this dangerous rhetoric as a sign to commit future acts violence upon the police and their communities.

Do you think I’m offering a false narrative? Well then riddle me this. Do the last two names on my list, Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu ring any bells? Well, they should. On December 21, 2014 Anti-Crime Unit NYPD Officers Ramos and Liu were peacefully sitting in their patrol car when they were suddenly approached and shot point blank in the head execution style by suspect Ismaaiyl Brinsley, 26.

Prior to assassinating the officers, Brinsley had ominously posted on his Instagram account, “I always wanted to be known for doing something right. I’m putting wings on pigs today.” His angry rants on social media indicated that he was going to murder police officers in retaliation for the officer-involved shooting/killing of felony robbery and police assault suspect Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO. Like his murderous and cowardly criminal colleagues Miles and Daigle, Ismaaiyl Brinsley was neither a wanted man nor mentally unstable. So what would cause this man to believe in his heart that he was “doing something right?”

Why would anyone think that the cold-blooded killing of police officers simply sitting in their patrol car; pumping gas; or seeking to assist a motorist in distress as doing the right thing? I’ll tell you why. It’s in large part because national, state, or local leaders they respect; activists who refer to themselves as men of God; and a news media that they trust tell them that the police are violent racists who shoot and kill people who are somehow involved in innocent or benign criminal behavior. “Hands up. Don’t shoot.” If you don’t believe me, then just watch the evening news where you will see protesting crowds walking down streets chanting, “Making bacon; pigs in a blanket.” What do you think they are referring to but the assassination of police officers?

So for me and my brothers and sisters in law enforcement, it all comes down to this. America is at a critical turning point. We can either be destroyed by ISIS and Al Qaeda terrorists from outside of our borders; or we can be destroyed from within by lawless criminal predators and society’s violent criminal activists and police haters. You choose.

The independent monitoring, professional investigation and criminal/civil prosecution of alleged and actual police misconduct is important in any free society. Peaceful protests forwarding this agenda is also appropriate, healthy and needed. However, what is largely happening throughout our nation right now is neither.

It is a forensic fact that only an extremely small percentage of the 900,000 peace officers in this nation act outside the bounds of the law. Police also do a far better job removing bad officers from their ranks than the State Bars do nationally to rid the justice system of bad attorneys; or the commissions on judicial responsibility do in removing incompetent or corrupt judges. That’s another fact.

Honest, hard-working police officers want the bad apples in law enforcement punished and gone as much, or more than you do. However, police officers will not tolerate any threats to their well-being and neither will those of us like me who support them.

So as a law enforcement community and as fellow Americans my brothers and sisters in blue and khaki and I ask you now. Where do you stand?

Stop supporting politicians, the media, corrupt activists and people you know who continue to forward false narratives that encourage and empower police hate, urban terrorism and the destruction of the rule of law. Stand up for law enforcement. Decry the false, hateful and anti-police rhetoric. Push back against politicians and activists who seek to polarize us. Work to strengthen the bridges of unity between police and the public by supporting law enforcement. If you don’t take a positive stand to support your protectors; we will certainly see America slowly but surely destroyed from within. It’s your choice. The real truth here is that ALL lives matter!

Ron Martinelli, Ph.D., is a forensic criminologist, Certified Medical Investigator and police expert who directs the nation’s only multidisciplinary Forensic Death Investigations & Independent Review Team. Visit his police and forensics social media site at www.DrRonMartinelli.com

References

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_military_casualties_in_the_War_in_Afghanistan

http://www.defense.gov/news/casualty.pdf

http://www.statista.com/statistics/262894/western-coalition-soldiers-killed-in-afghanistan/

http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/21/us/new-york-police-officers-shot/

http://ktla.com/2014/12/20/2-nypd-officers-shot-ambush-style-in-critical-condition-alleged-shooter-dead-from-self-inflicted-gunshot-wound-cnn/

Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D.

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Police Psychology | Make Up (of) Your Mind

Posted: September 2, 2015 in Police Stress
Tags: police psychology, police stress, thinking styles

Police Psychology | Make Up (of) Your Mind

Police stress can sometimes originate from cops who are thrust into a work situation where supervisors don’t understand how they think and process information. This is an area where police psychology can be of tremendous help to departmental leaders. The police psychologist is in a position to help administrators understand how officers process information and a little about their style of thinking. To do that, we have to get through the instinct cops have to fight others who are different.

Unlike humans, dogs think and react exclusively through instincts and drives.

Fluffy is a adorable little 4-year old, half-Bichon Frise, half-miniature poodle. She was abused when she was younger by a man who eventually through her out into the wild to fend for herself for a year in Texas. Who knows how this cute little thing was able to exist until the time it was caught by someone and brought to a veterinarian. We adopted her at 3 years old after it had lost a litter of puppies, moved across the country, and was spayed so she could never be a mother again. Despite feeding, training, petting and loving her, she refuses to come to me or any man, only going to my daughter and my wife. In fact, she actually runs and hides under the bed whenever she sees me. I am so nice to her it would make you sick (it’s actually become a joke around my house). After a year in the house, she will start to come in my direction then runs and hides under something. If I grab her, she has become willing to not run away if I am petting her or rubbing her belly, but her initial instinct is to run when I show up (funny, she reminds me of the pretty girls in my college days). Her instincts do not allow her to break though the initial fear that a human male causes.

One of the things that separates us from animals is that we don’t just operate on instincts and drives alone—we process and organize information, and we evaluate many different events through our thoughts. We’ve always been fascinated by the mind and our ability to think. Since the early beginnings of philosophy, our world has been obsessed with the workings of the mind. But this begs the question: is there a right way to think? We all know people who process information faster or slower than us. We all know people who process information differently than us. Some people think in visuals; others think in audios. Some are more abstract and some are stiff as concrete. Some people are random thinkers, and other people are sequential thinkers. What is the difference, and is one better than the other?

Police Stress | Different Styles of Thought

Much like different working styles, learning styles, writing styles, and fashion styles, we all have different thinking styles. One way psychology divides the different styles of thinking is into four categories: concrete sequential, concrete random, abstract sequential, and abstract random (psychologists are always coming up with labels, get used to it).

Concrete sequential thinkers tend to process information in an ordered and linear way. They notice details and have pretty good memories, especially when it comes to remembering facts, formulas, rules, and laws. Their reality consists of all the information they can gather through their own personal senses: then they rely on the rules and laws to make the data fit their world. Abstract sequential thinkers tend to explore the world of theory and abstraction in a sequential and ordered way. They are able to quickly zoom in on key-facts and information and break down complicated concepts into manageable essentials. They can leave the rules and laws, but have to create new categories for their new information. Sequential thinkers tend to suffer from the feeling that they are not smart enough, or that they need to be better, do more, have more control. They organize all their thoughts in addition to most of their actions, hobbies, and possessions. An organized desk or room is a good indicator of a sequential thinker.

Concrete random thinkers are into experimentation and trying new things. They rely on trial-and-error and have no problem exploring options and ideas for themselves. They tend to be intuitive and creative, associating random things that most people may not associate. They do like sequential information from others but process it in random ways. Abstract random thinkers tend to think best through unobstructed and unstructured reflection. These people trust their feelings and emotions and remember information best if it is personalized to them or someone they know and care about. Random thinkers can usually be identified by messy desks, rooms, and workspace. Entropy is not just a concept, but a way of life. These people do not need a clear desk in order to have a clear mind—just the opposite, in fact! Much like their environment, they need a little disorder in order to process information well. Most genius comes from random thinking because it free flows. Okay, I will be honest, I am a concrete random thinkers and as I look at my desk I have a double gulp in the corner, a vaporizer mask on top of a stapler with some plastic forks strewn about, stamps, a Chinese menu, two containers of cinnamon pills, scissors, a client gift of chili olive oil in a boot container from Italy, papers from a forensic case I am doing, and a cell phone of top of that…, you got the idea. I could find anything on my desk with my eyes closed (possibly because the last two year’s junk and important papers are right there).

Police Psychology | The Importance of Flexibility

It is important to understand that no style of thinking is better than another. Each style provides a different way of thinking about things, and all can be equally good! In fact, certain styles of thinking are better for different situations. Although we all have a dominant way of thinking, there is definitely something to be said for understanding the other types of thinking that are out there. We can actually learn from individuals who think using different styles from us and implement the other styles depending on the situation! For instance, you can learn how to break down large projects into smaller steps and pay attention to important details from concrete sequential thinkers. You can learn to try new things and have a divergent way of thinking from concrete random thinkers. From abstract random thinkers you can learn how to remember things through associations, observe a work of art, and how to listen to your feelings when you are working in a group setting. Abstract sequential thinkers can teach you how to research information well and hone in on the important details. And what’s more, if you have an organization with a random thinker at the top, sequential thinkers should handle many other parts of the organization. Matching of random and sequential is essential to organizational growth, team building, and success. In police psychology terms, every department needs a bean counter and a dreamer.

It seems, therefore, that the true lesson here is not how to think, or even the best way to think. Instead, it is important for you to understand you need to be flexible with your thinking. This is especially important for individuals who work in high-stress situations, like those dealing with police stress. As anyone who works in police psychology, the number one on the job stressor is working with bosses. Thinking style differences is something I see pretty often, and I need to encourage my clients to be less judgmental of thinking styles so they can get along and even be in favor with the bosses. There is no one way of thinking! There is no best way of thinking! We need to learn to embrace our dominant style, but accept the other styles as well, and borrow them when the situation demands it. The world is full of greats who each use different styles of thinking, so your thinking style is not better than John’s or Sally’s. How’s that for something to think about?

3 Steps to Understanding People’s Thought Process

Know Thyself — Look closely at your own style of thinking and make sense of it. No one is pure to any style, but what is your predominant style of thinking?. How do you react when you have a lot of data? What does your desk look like? What does your home look like? Do you like to function with a lot of unfinished projects or do you have none? Are you a list maker? There are tons of ways to identify yourself, so do it.
Identify Others – It is not easy to not be judgmental of others style or organization, but you must do it (especially hard for you “sequentials”). Don’t be judgmental when you see people who have everything counted out or listed, or when someone has a ton of disorder in their life. Remember, what makes us different is what makes us strong. The best teams are built with complimentary types rather than someone just like you.
Remember the Fluff – My little dog Fluffy is a sweet dog, despite running away from me. But, when another man or dog approaches, or knocks on the door, she will come up and bark viciously to protect me, all fourteen pounds of her (even though she hides behind me, big guy-little dog, she’s not stupid). She is faithful to what she is and I am her friend. Always be faithful to your team, defend their style, whether they are sequential or random, abstract or concrete. That goes a long way, and believe it or not, will increase you understanding of their thought processes more than anything you can do.

Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D.

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Police Psychology | Mental Shortcuts

Posted: August 19, 2015 in Motives and Opportunity
Tags: heuristics, police psychology, police stress

Police Psychology | Mental Shortcuts

Lately police officers are are being accused of using a lot of shortcuts in their psychology and mental processes. Profiling, prejudice and discrimination are buzz words for mental shortcuts and they have been used with police personnel all too much. This is a major concern in police psychology and police stress. We all look for shortcuts, whether it is a shortcut to get to the closest coffee shop before we crash from being overworked (despite already consuming 5 cups today), or a shortcut to help us finish our paperwork faster before the boss come crashing in your door expecting you should work even more than there are hours in a week (okay I am feeling a little overworked lately, what gave it away). Shortcuts, when used correctly, can be extremely useful as they maximize the amount of output you get for your invested time and effort. This is the primary reason shortcuts are so highly revered—we are always looking for tips and tricks, the “cut to the chase” part, the “in conclusion” or “lesson”. We live in such a fast-paced world that we need these shortcuts to help us cope. (That’s one of the reasons I include 3 simple steps at the end of all my blog posts. You’re welcome.)

The Tale of the Dog Poop

In police psychology we encourage people to use heuristics in order to save their cognitive energy.

In psychology, we have a word for mental shortcuts. It’s called heuristics, which are rules of thumb, or tricks we use to speed up problem solving. When you use a heuristic, you are speeding up the cognitive process by immediately jumping to the most likely conclusions and solutions. Often, when you implement heuristics, you focus on one aspect of a problem or situation and ignore everything else. For example, if you see dog poop on the sidewalk, without even thinking about it, you would walk around it. You wouldn’t bother to evaluate the situation and examine the poop to see if it really is poop. You wouldn’t stop to consider if walking over it or around it is the faster route to your destination. You wouldn’t stop and wait and see what other people are doing. Instead, without breaking stride, you would avoid the dog poop and not give it another thought. That’s what heuristics allow us to do: make decisions quickly and effortlessly. Using a heuristic to help you problem solve is like using the escalator for a four-floor incline instead of the stairs. Both things will get you to the top, but one will get you there a little faster and with much less effort on your part.

Heuristics, Errors and Police Psychology

Here’s an example: Jamal is 6’11’’ 20-something African American that looks very athletic. What is his career? Professional Basketball player or a lawyer? You probably answered the former because it is easier to picture a tall, athletic, African American basketball player than it is to picture the same individual as a lawyer. In reality, there are about 1.3 million lawyers in the US and about 500 NBA basketball players. This is because you typically watch basketball games on TV where you see some people like this, but it is rarer to watch lawyers sit around and debate on TV, so examples of tall, athletic, African American lawyers won’t pop into your mind as easily. Do we call that height profiling?

Another example of availability heuristics shows up in a different fashion. Studies show that after Shark Week, there are less people who go to the beach. This is because after watching program after program showing various shark attacks, it is relatively easy for you to associate the ocean with sharks and thus scare you away. As soon as some time passes and images of shark attacks become less available to your mind, you will stop associating the two things with each other. You are just as likely to be ‘shark sushi” after a few weeks as before, but it doesn’t feel that way so you use a heuristic.

The representative heuristic, which is when we make decisions based on how close an example matches to our ideal or expected vision, rather than based on facts or probability. For example, I am a balding greying fifty-nine year old man with absolutely beautiful 8-year old daughter who was adopted from Russia. People assume it is my granddaughter and some even say it, “Your granddaughter is beautiful.” When I respond, “that’s my daughter you idiot, so shove your heuristic up your butt,” they get a little embarrassed and sometimes even a little offended, but I GET ENTERTAINED. (okay, I only think it, I do not say it.) Mis-identification is one of the major problems with heuristics.

We also tend to use the confirmatory bias, or the base-rate fallacy when we use heuristics. If I were to give a jar full of 1000 jelly bean to a group of kids and say you could keep them if you guess how many. I would start off with saying 300, all guesses would be in that range despite there being 1000 jelly beans in the jar. As each child guesses closer to 300, it becomes hard to go outside that number. This would involve seeking out information that specifically supports an opinion or certain information you have, while ignoring examples or incidents that would suggest otherwise. More telling is the base rate fallacy in diagnosis. If you have a patient with some very specific symptoms that match an incredibly rare disease, it is still a much more realistic assumption for you to make that he has a more common disease, even if the symptoms don’t match that generic disease perfectly. That is when a heuristic become dangerous.

This is the main problem with using heuristics: it leads us to make many errors in judgment. At the same time, we need to rely on heuristics or else we would expend too much cognitive energy and resources on small problems, like how to avoid dog poop in the middle of the sidewalk. Heuristics help speed along the mental process, increase our efficiency, get our butts moving, and direct us where to focus—but they must be tempered, controlled and evaluated before we give them too much credence. Heuristics lead to prejudice, stereotyping, profiling and media reports of judgement errors that make us look like idiots. Heuristics are often automatic and subconscious, and we need to bring them into the consciousness to control them. And in the age of cell phones, body cameras, and people willing to criticize your every move or lack of filtering, there is less tolerance for our brain farts caused by an old heuristic.

3 Steps to Bring Your Heuristics into Consciousness

Educate Yourself. I know his sound a little too obvious to be in one of my steps, but heuristics is an important concept and you need to know the breadth of heuristics. There are social heuristics like imitating success, conformity and tit-for-tat, and personal heuristics like availability, representativeness and past going forward. You’ve got to understand how these heuristics affect your life in order to make a change. So the first step is to spend an hour reading on heuristics. Even Wikipedia has good articles at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heuristic and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_heuristics. Knowledge will give you the major tool you need to go to the next step.
Recognize. You have to get yourself in the mode of seeing when you are using a mental shortcut in a situation. Prejudices, stereotypes and biases are sometimes good, but often lead you down a wrong path. Remember, the way people change is to first analyze what they are doing, then change while in the process. You must see yourself for what you are doing first, then you can move forward.
Apply Filters. The last step is to apply filters to what you are doing. Think before your speak or act. Try to see the situation from a different angle. “Why is the person saying this?” “Will I get any advantage from adding my two cents at this point?” These kinds of things will slow you down, but may help you by not making a huge mistake. When solving a problem ask yourself, “how would _____ fix this?” the blank of course being someone you respect to handle the problem. The goal is not to end shortcuts, but to cause yourself to not waste words and energy in areas that could do you detriment.

Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D. ABPP

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Police Psychology | Locked Away in Your Cell

Posted: August 5, 2015 in Mastering Emotions, Police Stress
Tags: police psychology, police stress

Police Psychology | Locked Away in Your Cell

The introduction of the cell phone has created many new issues for those in police psychology.

Police psychology has had a new enemy these days, and it’s not typical ol’ police stress. The Cell Phone. You ever hold your cell phone up at a concert to demand an encore? That means you are cool! Scan a document into you cell phone. That’s really cool! Bluetooth music from cell phone to your car radio. You’re cool. How about take a picture using your cell phone? Too ordinary, not so cool. Play a video game using your cell phone? You’re just normal. Who doesn’t do that? Research has shown that the average age for a child to get a cell phone is six years old. Yes, 53% got it by six year old. That’s crazy! When I was in high school, I didn’t have a cell phone. Of course, they didn’t even exist. Yet, today you’d be hard-pressed to find a middle-school student today who is not obsessed with his or her phone. It’s the Swiss army knife of the 21^st century. Yech!

Prisoner to Your Cell

Cell phones have changed policing and many other jobs in society. For instance, with the aid of a cell phone, you can always be contacted. Your boss and your work are never more than a phone call or text message away. There is no such thing as getting away from it. Many people even use their cell phone to keep up-to-date with work information even when they are taking a personal day, or when they are on vacation. In police work specifically, cell phones have also changed the job in other ways. Traffic accidents are now reported or even recorded live through cell phone use. Apps such as Waze allow people to report where police officers are located so people can slow up and avoid tickets. Perhaps most chillingly is the idea that your family can constantly contact you, even when you are in the middle of a high-stress situation. I have had two cops report to me that their spouses called them in the middle of a shoot out. Even in American Sniper, the main character was talking to his wife in the middle of a battle. That does happen in real life. That’s one way to keep your head out of a game that is literally life or death, and it’s an issue that crops up pretty frequently in police psychology, as it is one of the leading causes of police stress. Cell phones also increase a sense of urgency in people. This messes up the time management matrix that is so important for keeping your life organized and prioritized properly. When everything, however small and inconvenient, suddenly becomes much more urgent, you are forced to push the real substance of life into the backseat.

As someone involved in police psychology, I’ve noticed people are so wrapped up in their cell phones, that they don’t pay enough attention to the important things anymore.

Another area that cell phones have changed our lives is during meals. You can be at a family meal in which everyone is silently staring at their personal devices, or on a date where the person pays more attention to their phone screen than they do to you. Talk about the grass being greener, people are on the phone on a date! Cell phones have severely impacted the extent to which we can communicate in person with each other. If you have not experienced a meal like this, go to a restaurant and take a good look around. Guaranteed many of the patrons there will be on their phones, or will have their phones right there next to their plates in case a text message or notification comes up that requires their immediate attention. I mean, it really is too much to ask your best friend to pick out an outfit all on her own. It’s obviously time-sensitive information for you to know the latest celebrity gossip the second it is posted online.

The Cell Phone Addiction

“Addicted”—it’s a strange word. It means you are so dependent upon something that to give it up would cause unpleasant effects on your mental or physical well being. It is sad to think that today we are so dependent upon technology, and specifically our phones, that many of us experience a moment of panic if we can’t find our cellular devices. In fact, many people today are choosing to forgo a house phone in favor of just using their cell phones. Unfortunately, this change isn’t all good. Just like people ignored the cigarette research 50 years ago, we are ignoring that talking on a cell phone, even hands free causes many car accidents, especially in the young. Twenty-seven percent of accidents are directly related to the cell phone, at least as of three years ago. The current statistics are sure to be higher. I watch as many of my clients and friends struggle to communicate in person. Talking to people face-to-face makes them uncomfortable. I know, as someone involved in police psychology, I talk to people for a living, but everyone (no matter how uncomfortable it makes you) still needs to develop and nurture basic communication skills in order to survive in this world. In addition, I see many of them struggle with separation. Having a cell phone makes people feel connected, and giving that up, even for a split second, is so horrifying to many people that it drains them emotionally and mentally. Kids throw tantrums when their cell phone or tablets are taken away. When you find undue emotional reaction to being without a cell phone, you are definitely in trouble and should consider weaning yourself off a little. Just like any addiction, you cannot be expected to quit cold turkey. You need to leave your cell phone alone in steps—baby steps. Start off small and build up slowly from there. Here are some tips to help wean you off of technology. If a slow process doesn’t work, there are even cell phone addiction rehabilitation program like the one at reStart in Washington State.

3 Steps to Change Your Cell Phone Habits

Stay in the Moment. It is alright to use your cell phone to check messages or see what is going on when waiting in line at a post office or at the grocery store, but when you are face-to-face with another person, shut it down. Make sure you connect more with people, not a cell phone. On your deathbed you are not going to want to be comforted by a piece of technology. Let people know you are into what they are saying to you and who they are. It will make a big difference in your life.
Start the Weaning. If you are texting ten hours a day, go to nine. Five hours a day go to four. Find a way to cut back a little and you will gain control over your cell phone use. Weaning off of a device which has become so vital in our society is difficult, but you can do it. Start the process.
Turn it off at times. This is a hard one, but when you are on vacation, or home really sick for a day, or you are on a date, turn the damn thing off! Whatever is there will be there most likely in an hour or two. Practice times where the off switch just turns it off. Cell phones are high maintenance and high stress. Turn it off and deal with whatever is going on whether it is a trip to the lake or a clogged throat. If you need to cut out some stress at a time in your life, shut the phone off.

Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D. ABPP

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