Date Thesis Awarded
12-2018
Access Type
Honors Thesis -- Access Restricted On-Campus Only
Degree Name
Bachelors of Science (BS)
Department
Psychology
Advisor
Jaclyn Moloney
Committee Members
Christopher Ball
Daniel Runfola
Abstract
In recent years, the public and media have raised their expectations for how police officers should conduct themselves but they sometimes only highlight the exceptional situations where officers made an egregious error on national news. Studying personality traits of officers may be one way to gain a more holistic perspective of the average police officer. Empathy and neuroticism were looked at in relation to job performance in 66 campus police officers. The findings did not support the hypothesis of a negative relation between neuroticism and job performance and a positive relation between job performance and empathy. However, there was a positive relation between age and impulsiveness and venturesomeness and total years as a law enforcement officer. There was also a negative relation between neuroticism and impulsiveness. Studies of officers’ immediate reactions in situations that they encounter while working should be conducted to capture the characteristics of police officers which may prove integral to the job.
Recommended Citation
Marcovici, Isabel, "Police Officers and Personality Characteristics" (2018). Undergraduate Honors Theses. William & Mary. Paper 1269.
https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses/1269
