Date of Conferral

2020

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Psychology

Advisor

Greg Murphy

Abstract

Studies have found that police officers often experience stress. The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine if the cognitive appraisal of perceived stress of police officers differed between two police groups, those assigned to regular policing duties and those assigned to hot-spot policing. The survey chosen for this study was the Cognitive Appraisal Questionnaire, with composite scores taken from the Threat/Anxiety/Guilt Domain. The final sample (n = 109) comprised police officers from a midsized police department in West Texas. A one-way ANOVA was conducted to test the hypotheses and compare the two types of policing. A regression was also conducted on years of service and levels of stress from the Threat/Anxiety/Guilt Domain. The results from the ANOVA showed that there were no differences in perceived stress between the two groups; therefore, the null hypothesis was accepted. The regression showed there was a relationship between years of service and levels of stress. This study has implications for positive social change in that understanding the stressors that police officers face each day can lead to the development of healthier officer coping strategies and may motivate police departments to develop readily available psychological support and interventions for their officers.

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