Effects of Coping-Related Traits and Psychophysiological Stress Responses on Police Recruits' Shooting Behavior in Reality-Based Scenarios
Effects of Coping-Related Traits and Psychophysiological Stress Responses on Police Recruits' Shooting Behavior in Reality-Based Scenarios
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DOI：
10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01523
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发表时间：
2019-07-03
影响因子：
3.8
通讯作者：
Plessner, Henning
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Giessing, Laura;Frenkel, Marie Ottilie;Plessner, Henning
警察经常需要在高度紧张的情况下执行任务，在这种情况下，最佳的任务表现对他们和旁观者的人身安全至关重要。然而，压力反应，特别是焦虑和皮质醇水平升高，将注意力从目标导向转向刺激驱动的控制，使警察在压力下射击表现不佳。心脏迷走神经活动和应对相关特征（即，自我控制，寻求感觉）可能有助于个人在压力下保持表现。到目前为止，只有少数研究整合了应对相关的特质，心理生理应激标志物和职业意义上的行为措施，调查警察在压力下的工作绩效。因此，本研究调查了19名警察新兵（M-年龄= 22.84，SD = 3.30）进行了基于现实的射击场景中的两个实验条件内设计：低压力（LS）对一个没有威胁的人体模型，和高压力（HS），涉及对手的身体威胁。心理（即，焦虑，精神努力）和生理应激反应（即，唾液皮质醇、α-淀粉酶、心脏迷走神经活动）以及射击准确性被反复评估。据推测，在压力下，警察新兵将表现出升高的心理生理应激反应和受损的射击性能。心理生理应激反应水平的提高会对射击成绩产生负面影响，而自我控制、感觉寻求和心脏迷走神经活动则会对射击成绩产生正面影响。虽然新兵报告显着更高的焦虑和精神努力在HS的情况下，这两种情况引起了可比的生理反应。总的来说，射击精度很低，在HS场景中没有显著降低。LS场景中的射击表现通过自我控制来预测，HS场景中的射击表现通过任务后心脏迷走神经活动来预测。虽然增加的焦虑暗示成功的压力操纵，生理反应表明两种情况下的压力水平相似，减少了两种情况之间的潜在行为差异。表现效率下降压力下，增加心理努力。自我控制的研究结果表明，抑制消极的压力反应可能会导致受损的目标导向的注意力，从而导致性能递减。对于警察的研究和培训，高现实主义的场景提供了一个机会，调查和体验心理生理应激反应。
Police officers are often required to perform under high-stress circumstances, in which optimal task performance is crucial for their and the bystanders' physical integrity. However, stress responses, particularly anxiety and increased cortisol levels, shift attention from goal-directed to stimulus-driven control, leaving police officers with poor shooting performance under stress. Cardiac vagal activity and coping-related traits (i.e., self-control, sensation seeking) might help individuals to maintain performance under stress. So far, only few studies have integrated coping-related traits, psychophysiological stress markers and occupationally meaningful measures of behavior to investigate police officers' work performance under stress. Therefore, the present study investigated 19 police recruits (M-age = 22.84, SD = 3.30) undergoing a reality-based shooting scenario in two experimental conditions in a within-design: low stress (LS) against a non-threatening mannequin, and high stress (HS), involving physical threat by an opponent. Psychological (i.e., anxiety, mental effort) and physiological stress responses (i.e., salivary cortisol, alpha-amylase, cardiac vagal activity) as well as shooting accuracy were repeatedly assessed. It was hypothesized that under stress, police recruits would demonstrate elevated psychophysiological stress responses and impaired shooting performance. Elevated psychophysiological stress responses would negatively influence shooting performance, whereas self-control, sensation seeking and cardiac vagal activity would positively influence shooting performance. While recruits reported significantly higher anxiety and mental effort in the HS scenario, both scenarios elicited comparable physiological responses. Overall, shooting accuracy was low and did not significantly decrease in the HS scenario. Shooting performance was predicted by self-control in the LS scenario and by post-task cardiac vagal activity in the HS scenario. While increased anxiety hints at a successful stress manipulation, physiological responses suggest similar stress levels for both scenarios, diminishing potential behavioral differences between the scenarios. Performance efficiency decreased under stress, as indicated by increasing mental effort. Findings on self-control suggest that suppressing negative stress responses might lead to impaired goal-directed attention, resulting in performance decrements. For police research and training, high-realism scenarios afford an opportunity to investigate and experience psychophysiological stress responses.