Police Psychology: The Way of the World

Posted: August 24, 2017 in Mastering Resilience
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Police Psychology: The Way of the World

by Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D.  ABPP

It was right outside my window, in the front of my driveway.  A cop pulled over two teenaged boys on their bikes after the boys had yelled some obscenities at them and made a not-so nice gesture with parts of their hands.  A woman walking her dog stopped and asked if everything was all right and the officer said these boys had yelled some obscenities at him when he pulled them over to warn them about riding their bikes in the road.  He asked what she thought of that. Read the rest of this entry »

Police Psychology: Sleep – What’s the Point?

Posted: August 16, 2017 in Police Stress
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Police Psychology:  Sleep – What’s the Point?

by Douglas Gentz, Ph.D.

 

Sleeping doesn’t make much sense from a, “survival of the fittest” perspective. How does it benefit an animal or a person to become completely inattentive to their environment – helpless to fight or flee – for six or seven hours out of every 24? Reason suggests that over millions of years those members of any population that slept the least (or not at all) would have been more likely to survive to an age old enough to reproduce and pass their genes to the next generation . . . So there must be a very good reason for the fact that all animals, including humans, have to sleep on a regular basis. The reason has been a mystery until the last few years.

All the cells in any animal’s body take in nutrients (glucose) and O2 to provide the energy the cell needs to work. As a result, every cell produces waste products that have to be moved out of the cell and eventually released from the body. The normal pathway for “emptying the cellular trash” starts with the waste products being carried away from the cell by lymphatic fluid, collecting in the lymph nodes, transferred to the blood stream, and then transported to the kidneys for filtration. Eventually, those toxins are “liquidated” from the body in urine. Read the rest of this entry »

Police Psychology: Rock and Roll

Posted: August 10, 2017 in Rank and Leadership
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Police Psychology:  Rock and Roll

by Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D.  ABPP

 

I was at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last Monday in Cleveland Ohio.  I had been there before and never saw it as part of police psychology, or psychology at all.  This time I did.

I never knew that The Beatles had 13 original albums and 237 original songs in 8-9 years, Taylor Swift was signed as a songwriter at age 14, or that so many rock singers had country singer Johnny Cash as a major influence on their music.  I didn’t know a lot of what I saw, but there is one thing that stood out to me —  becoming a rock star wasn’t all about talent. Read the rest of this entry »

Police Psychology: Emotional/Social Intelligence

Posted: July 27, 2017 in Public Information Bureau
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Police Psychology:  Emotional/Social Intelligence

New Software Upgrade for Police Officers

by William Cottringer, Ph.D.

Effective policing involves excellent use of all cognitive skills, especially emotional and social intelligence (E/SQ) Emotional/social intelligence can best be defined as involving the following group of skills:

1. Self-awareness. This is the ability to know and understand your own emotions, strengths, weaknesses, drives, goals, beliefs, perspectives and values, and to recognize their impact on others. This skill allows you to read others better without imposing your own projections or normal expectations that others should think and behave the way you do. At the same time you are keeping your own limitations in check so you don’t miss the other person’s abilities and weaknesses. Read the rest of this entry »

Police Psychology: Anger!! Part 2 “Seeing Red”

Posted: July 20, 2017 in Mastering Emotions
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Police Psychology:  Anger!! Part 2  Seeing Red

by Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D.  ABPP

 

There are many that believe the expression of “seeing red” comes from when a Matador wants a bull to charge, he waves a red cape at him.  The theory is the bull “sees red” and gets really angry and charges.  Humans that “see red” get very angry and lose control.  In reality, bulls are red-green color blind and don’t see the color red.  A bull’s vision is like: (see below)

A Man Sees

A Bull Sees

As you can see there is a lack of color in the picture of what the bulls sees.  Bulls charge at movement, not color.  But we still use the expression anyway.

When you are working with children on anger control, one exercise you often us is to use the metaphor of the turtle.  The turtle hides in his shell when things go awry, and he collects himself until he feels it is safe again.  You teach the child that the turtle is a smart animal because he hides away from the things that can damage him, and sometimes emotions can damage you, so you have to “hide away” from them until you get yourself collected.  Everything stops inside the shell.  We work with kids on putting their hands up over their head when they are upset, making an imaginary shell.  We even tend to give the turtle a “T” name like, Tucker the Turtle.  Tucker tucks away when upset or angry.  And so forth and so on. Read the rest of this entry »

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