Abstract
M.A.
The South African Police Service (SAPS) has an immense responsibility in terms of
providing a safe and secure environment for every individual residing in South Africa.
Members of this organisation conduct their duties under difficult and often dangerous
conditions. These taxing working conditions add tremendous stress to the lives of police
officials (Violanti, 1997). The stressors faced by police officials may vary with regard to
frequency and intensity. Stressors associated with the working environment may spill
over into their personal lives and may also lead to negativity at work which can also
affect the quality of service that should be provided by police officials in South Africa.
Various factors can be implicated in the stress process (Sulsky & Smith, 2005). Specific
ways of coping have been identified in previous and current literature (Suls & Fletcher,
1985; Swanepoel & Pienaar, 2004). The present study focused on identifying a
relationship between personality and coping. The coping styles that South African police
officials employ also received some attention. Personality was defined as characteristics
of the person that account for consistent patterns of feelings, thinking and behaviour.
This study focused on the Five Factor Model in the conceptualisation and understanding
of personality.
The main aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between personality and
coping amongst members of the SAPS. Each participant (N = 125) completed a consent
form, a biographical questionnaire, the Coping Orientations to Problems Experienced
questionnaire (COPE; Carver et al., 1989) and the Basic Traits Inventory (Taylor & De
Bruin, 2006). The first research question related to coping strategies South African
police officials employ. The second research question focused on what the relationship
between the individual Big Five personality traits (Openness to Experience,
Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism) and the coping
styles (Problem-focused Coping, Emotion-focused Coping and Dysfunctional Coping) of
police officials in South Africa.A non-experimental survey design was implemented in this study. Differential and
inferential statistics were used to identify the most commonly used coping strategies and
the relationship that exists between coping and personality. Examination of the
individual personality traits in relation to coping was done through the use of Pearson’s
product-moment correlations. The data was analysed using the Statistical Package for
the Social Sciences (SPSS, version 15). The results indicated that Extroversion (r =
0.27; p < 0.01), Conscientiousness (r = 0.31; p < 0.01), Agreeableness (r = 0.40; p <
0.01) and Openness to Experience (r = 0.45; p < 0.01) had statistically significant
positive relationships with Problem-focused Coping. Neuroticism (r = 0.39; p < 0.01)
showed a statistically significant positive correlation with Dysfunctional Coping.
Openness to Experience (r = 0.23; p < 0.05) and Agreeableness (r = 0.35; p < 0.01)
displayed a statistically significant positive correlation with Emotion-focused Coping.
Results in this study indicate that members of the SAPS lean towards using Problemfocused
and Emotion-focused strategies rather than Dysfunctional Coping strategies.
This study has implications for organisations such as the SAPS as it shed light on the
different ways in which individuals are predisposed to cope with stress. It also highlights
the influence of personality in the stress process and offers insight into possible ways in
which individuals generally cope with stress.