Dissertation
EFFECTS OF POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS ON POLICE SLEEP AND NEURAL CORRELATES OF DEADLY DECISION-MAKING
Washington State University
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
01/2021
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7273/000005483
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/119032
Abstract
Community and officer safety in use of force encounters is a critically important avenue of research. As a society, we have given police high discretion and relative autonomy regarding the application of force, thus, identifying the mechanisms which lead to these decisions is vital for minimizing the tragedies surrounding improper use of force (Andersen & Gustasfberg, 2016; Cojean et al., 2020). Furthermore, the 24-hour demands of policing necessitate the adoption of non-daytime work schedules that may interfere with the body’s circadian rhythms and ability to obtain an adequate amount of sleep (Kogi, 2005; Vila, 2000). Sleep loss can be a major cause of catastrophic errors in decision-making, and these judgement errors come at the cost of workplace and public safety.
Post-traumatic stress symptomatology and the cognitive impact of sleep loss have the potential to significantly influence the cognitive processes employed by officers in use of force situations (Belenky et al., 1998). The pre-frontal cortex (PFC) is the executive judgement and decision-making center of the brain, responsible for higher order adaptation, awareness, and working memory. PFC regions are associated with the differentiation of nuanced elements of the decision-making process (Tian et al., 2014; Yennu et al., 2016).
Within a sample of patrol officers, the purpose of this study was to examine the effects of PTS symptomatology on police officer deadly force judgement and decision-making performance, sleep health, and decision-related hemoglobin concentration change within the prefrontal cortex. A series of generalized linear mixed effects models were run to ascertain results to the study questions. The findings of this study build upon the police use of force literature by expanding the influence of PTS on performance, particularly the impact of individual PTS domains on specific measures of officer performance.
Results suggest that police performance in simulated deadly use of force encounters may be impacted by the influence of post-traumatic stress and degraded sleep quality. These findings are of consequence as police officers experience higher rates of both compared to the general population (Chopko et al., 2017; Vila, 2000). Measures of hemoglobin concentration change, however, did not differ significantly with either of these measures.
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Details
- Title
- EFFECTS OF POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS ON POLICE SLEEP AND NEURAL CORRELATES OF DEADLY DECISION-MAKING
- Creators
- Elizabeth J Dotson
- Contributors
- David A Makin (Advisor)Stephen M James (Advisor)David C Brody (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology
- Theses and Dissertations
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 148
- Identifiers
- 99900592257001842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Dissertation