A psycho-educational model to facilitate the mental health of senior male officers and their families experiencing aggression
- Authors: Boshoff, Erika
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: Aggressiveness , Police psychology , Police - Family relationships
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral (Thesis)
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/270375 , uj:28737
- Description: D.Ed. (Education) , Abstract: When senior male officers and their families feel that they are under threat of any kind, they tend to be suspicious, agitated and often aggressive in their reactions. The immediate psycho-social environment elicits these reactions, and they always have personal and collective implications. There is an important familiar component to aggression, antisocial behaviour, crime and violence. Essentially all officers are in some way affected by aggression, whether they are targets of it, engage in it themselves, or are charged with observing and controlling it in others. Facing circumstances like: new or changing environments, lack of discipline, lack of support, excessive work demands and management challenges lead senior male officers to become anxious and feel resentful towards others. But they do not have the necessary channels to diffuse or release their levels of frustration in an appropriate and constructive manner. It is in this context that one needs to explore and understand the experiences of aggression of senior male officers and their families in their life world. It is therefore important to become mentally and emotionally sound in order to express one’s needs and feelings in a constructive way. The overall purpose of this study was the description of a psycho-educational model to be used as a framework of reference for the facilitation of mental health of senior male officers and their families. To achieve this purpose the following objectives were pursued, namely: a) To gain an understanding of the experience of aggression of senior male officers and their families within their life world. b) To develop a psycho-educational model based on this understanding. c) To describe guidelines for the implementation of the model...
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Die polisiebeampte se belewenis van trauma en trauma-intervensieprogramme
- Authors: Boshoff, Pieter John
- Date: 2011-11-21
- Subjects: Police social work , Police psychology , Psychic trauma treatment
- Type: Thesis
- Identifier: uj:1699 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/4043
- Description: M.A. , Despite the fact that the helping professions in the SAPS make use of a multi-professional team approach to provide a service with regards to trauma intervention, statistics confirm that there is still a high occurrence of stress-related problems amongst police officials'. The aim of this study is to explore and describe the police officials' experience of trauma and the trauma intervention programmes in the SAPS, in order to create guidelines and to make certain recommendations with regard to client-focussed programmes for police officials' attached to the high-risk units in the Eastern Cape. The aims of this study were best realised by the exploratory and descriptive goals of fundamental research as expounded by de Vos et al. (1998). The exploratory and descriptive goal ofthe problem is best achieved by combining the qualitative and quantitative approaches to research, as proposed by Cresswell (1994). For the purposes of this study, the researcher has first made use of a qualitative approach to research. The population with regards to this phase of the study consisted of the police officials' attached to the high risk units in Port Elizabeth. The researcher made use of the purposive sampling method in order to select the participants of the focus group. A semi-structured interview schedule, consisting of four pre-designed questions, was employed in order to obtain maximum information on the subject. The four questions are as follows: experience of trauma, impact on and reaction to trauma, coping with trauma and the experience of trauma intervention programmes. The themes arising from the findings are divided into eleven categories including the classification of their respective sub-categories. The categories are as follows: 1) the concept trauma, 2) traumatic incidents, 3) trauma reinforcers, 4) post traumatic events, 5) post traumatic stress disorder, 6) social support, 7) avoidance/denial, 8) problem-focussed coping, 9) consumer orientation, 1 0) consumer satisfaction and 11) a core marketing strategy. A quantitative approach was used during the second phase of the study, whereby the themes that resulted from the findings of the focus group interview, were distributed amongst the police officials' representing the high risk units in the Eastern Cape. The latter was done in order to explore the extent of the items arising from the focus group in the population. For the purposes of the second phase of the study, the researcher employed the simple random sampling method, whereby 10% of the population was selected. The researcher made use of the group administered method whereby respondents were involved in a group and were thereby provided with an opportunity to complete the questionnaire. The social workers responsible for the high risk units in the various areas in the Eastern Cape were trained as field workers in order to facilitate the completion of the questionnaire by means of the group administered method. The following conclusions were drawn from the findings. Firstly, it is concluded that the police officials' attached to the high risk units in the Eastern Cape are exposed to a variety of traumatic incidents. The latter vary with regards to occurrence and intensity. The nature, frequency and intensity of the incident have an influence on the extent to which police officials' experience these incidents as traumatic, and this also influences the cumulative impact thereof on the individual. The internal and external stress factors which police officials' are exposed to on a daily basis in the carrying out of their duties, also plays an important role in the extent to which police officials' are capable of coping with trauma. In some cases it is experienced so intensely that it leads to a traumatic reaction by some police officials'. Secondly, it is concluded that police officials' generally react differently, depending on their exposure to trauma. These reactions are generally similar to the symptoms of post-traumatic stress and post traumatic stress disorder. Thirdly, the conclusion is reached that police officials' reveal different coping styles. These vary with specific reference to social support, avoidance/denial and problem focussed coping mechanisms. Lastly, it is concluded that the trauma intervention programmes are not consumer orientated as a thorough needs assessment is not done and police officials' individual needs, expectations, perceptions and preferences are not taken into consideration most of the time. Police officials' are also greatly dissatisfied with the programmes because the elements of the marketing strategy, with specific reference to product, place, cost and promotion as expounded by Terblanche (1993), do not live up to their expectations and perceptions of the programme. Finally, the findings were compared with each other, whereafter certain conclusions were reached and a number of recommendations were made.
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Sielkundige profiele van misdadigers : 'n prosesstudie in die Suid-Afrikaanse polisiediens
- Authors: Maree, Gerhardus Johannes
- Date: 2014-04-03
- Subjects: Criminal psychology , Criminals - Psychological aspects , Police psychology
- Type: Thesis
- Identifier: uj:10524 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/10025
- Description: M.A. (Clinical Psychology) , Criminological trends indicate that there is a move in the direction of sexual, violent sexual, and motiveless violent offenses in society. One of the aspects of psychological involvement in combating crime is profiling, where the scene of crime is analyzed to provide the investigating officer with an indication of the personality type of the person who may have been involved in committing the crimes. An overview of the literature indicates that the profiling of serial crimes takes place according to a certain process, involving an analysis of the physical evidence from the scene of the crime, the use of decision-making process models and crime appraisal, and the eventual compilation of a profile. The problem that has been investigated involves the dynamics of profiling in the South African Police Service using registered psychologists who do not have experience in the process, do not know how accurate the compiled profile is nor how the information at their disposal has been used to reach certain conclusions regarding the biographical details of the offender. A qualitative approach was followed in this investigation. The research participants were expected to scrutinise a case study of a real murder, and to generate hypotheses regarding certain biographical characteristics of the offender who was unknown to them. These data were collected by means of a structured questionnaire which was evaluated and interpreted in a qualitative manner. In general, the research participants were able to reach conclusions about the personality profile of the unknown offender. Consensus was reached without the participants discussing the results which suggests that the training of psychologists provides valuable insights and skills which enable them to perform the profiling task with a considerable degree of accuracy.
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The relationship between personality and coping amongst members of the South African Police Service
- Authors: Govender, Shane Alvin
- Date: 2010-04-19T07:43:44Z
- Subjects: South African Police Service officials and employees , Police job stress , Police psychology , Adjustment (Psychology) , Personality
- Type: Thesis
- Identifier: uj:6785 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/3215
- Description: 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.
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