Forensic Psych Exam |Questions with
100% Correct Answers
What are some examples of internal and external stressors commonly experienced by
police officers? - ✔External:
Ongoing frustration with law process
Police-citizen relationships
Law-enforcement approaches to immigration
Policies and procedures regarding undocumented immigrants
Internal:
Addiction
Depression
Health problems
Sexual harassment
Lack of Accomplishment
What kinds of stressors do the families of police officers experience? - ✔Shift work
and overtime
Officer's cynicism, need to feel in control at home, inability/unwillingness to express feelings
Fear that the officer will be hurt or killed
High expectations for officers children
Avoidance, teasing or harassment of children bc of their parents job
,Presence of a gun in the home
Discuss police suicide, including reasons, substance use factors, cognitive factors that are
predictive of suicide. - ✔Reasons: Physiological reactions to critical incidents, relationship
difficulties, internal investigations, financial difficulties, frustration and discouragement, easy
access to weapons
Difficulties in maritial/intimate relationships, legal problems, internal investigations
Alcohol abuse (25-40%)
Cognitive rigity, depression, frustration, discouragement
How do police psychologists work to mitigate suicide? - ✔Improving the
sophisticated screening procedures and rigorous evaluations at the time of hiring
Increased use of stress awareness training, better police training, increased counseling
opportunities
How is a police psychologist like an embedded journalist - ✔go in, have to live like
and understand to be effect
What is cultural competency? Why is it important for a police psychologist to have cultural
competency? What is the culture that requires competency? - ✔understanding police
culture, why they are hesitant to accept certain things, difficulties
What does a police psychologist do? - ✔
How are psychological evaluations of fitness used in hiring decisions? What factors go
into building an assessment? - ✔WHO WOULD MAKE A GOOD COP
RELIABILITY (consistent answers from the same questions)
, VALIDITY (testing what you want to test)
What is the job and what characteristics make a good police officer
Describe the main personality inventory used in assessment of potential police officers. - ✔
What is a fitness for duty exam? How is it different than a psychological evaluation used to
make hiring decisions? What are some of the difficulties encountered by police psychologists
when evaluating fitness for duty? - ✔Is a person ready to return tot he job after a
traumatic event?
Assessment using inventories, interviews, full job history including commendations
and complaints, medical information
Confidentiality
Type mandated by the organization; results are not confidential
Goal of the psychologist is full disclosure but the goal of the person being evaluated is to
return to duty and so they may not fully disclose
Interventions and/or accommodations
Does the person being evaluated need ongoing support?
Why is policing stressful? What evidence suggests that policing is a stressful occupation?
Consider the organizational stressors and task-related stressors. - ✔Organizational
stressors
Shift work, poor training, excessive paperwork, etc.
Task-related stressors
Boredom, fear, repeated traumatic exposure
100% Correct Answers
What are some examples of internal and external stressors commonly experienced by
police officers? - ✔External:
Ongoing frustration with law process
Police-citizen relationships
Law-enforcement approaches to immigration
Policies and procedures regarding undocumented immigrants
Internal:
Addiction
Depression
Health problems
Sexual harassment
Lack of Accomplishment
What kinds of stressors do the families of police officers experience? - ✔Shift work
and overtime
Officer's cynicism, need to feel in control at home, inability/unwillingness to express feelings
Fear that the officer will be hurt or killed
High expectations for officers children
Avoidance, teasing or harassment of children bc of their parents job
,Presence of a gun in the home
Discuss police suicide, including reasons, substance use factors, cognitive factors that are
predictive of suicide. - ✔Reasons: Physiological reactions to critical incidents, relationship
difficulties, internal investigations, financial difficulties, frustration and discouragement, easy
access to weapons
Difficulties in maritial/intimate relationships, legal problems, internal investigations
Alcohol abuse (25-40%)
Cognitive rigity, depression, frustration, discouragement
How do police psychologists work to mitigate suicide? - ✔Improving the
sophisticated screening procedures and rigorous evaluations at the time of hiring
Increased use of stress awareness training, better police training, increased counseling
opportunities
How is a police psychologist like an embedded journalist - ✔go in, have to live like
and understand to be effect
What is cultural competency? Why is it important for a police psychologist to have cultural
competency? What is the culture that requires competency? - ✔understanding police
culture, why they are hesitant to accept certain things, difficulties
What does a police psychologist do? - ✔
How are psychological evaluations of fitness used in hiring decisions? What factors go
into building an assessment? - ✔WHO WOULD MAKE A GOOD COP
RELIABILITY (consistent answers from the same questions)
, VALIDITY (testing what you want to test)
What is the job and what characteristics make a good police officer
Describe the main personality inventory used in assessment of potential police officers. - ✔
What is a fitness for duty exam? How is it different than a psychological evaluation used to
make hiring decisions? What are some of the difficulties encountered by police psychologists
when evaluating fitness for duty? - ✔Is a person ready to return tot he job after a
traumatic event?
Assessment using inventories, interviews, full job history including commendations
and complaints, medical information
Confidentiality
Type mandated by the organization; results are not confidential
Goal of the psychologist is full disclosure but the goal of the person being evaluated is to
return to duty and so they may not fully disclose
Interventions and/or accommodations
Does the person being evaluated need ongoing support?
Why is policing stressful? What evidence suggests that policing is a stressful occupation?
Consider the organizational stressors and task-related stressors. - ✔Organizational
stressors
Shift work, poor training, excessive paperwork, etc.
Task-related stressors
Boredom, fear, repeated traumatic exposure
