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READINESS TO PERCEIVE VIOLENCE AS A RESULT OF POLICE TRAINING
Author(s) -
TOCH HANS H.,
SCHULTE RICHARD
Publication year - 1961
Publication title -
british journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.536
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 2044-8295
pISSN - 0007-1269
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8295.1961.tb00805.x
Subject(s) - psychology , law enforcement , social psychology , training (meteorology) , applied psychology , cognitive psychology , law , physics , meteorology , political science
A group of men who had undergone a three‐year course in law enforcement were tachistoscopically presented with a ‘violent’ picture to one eye, and a matched ‘neutral’ picture to the other. The results were compared with those obtained from novices in the training programme, and from psychology students. The trained subjects were found to see ‘violent’ scenes fully as often as they saw ‘neutral’ ones, whereas the control subjects reported comparatively few ‘violent’ pictures. It was concluded that specialized training may supplement past experience in areas in which the average person's experiences are inadequate. In this fashion, a person may become perceptually ‘sensitive’ in situations which ordinarily rarely occur.