Impact of Emotional Factors on Law Enforcement Officers

Dmitriy Evgenievich Dikopoltsev

and Grigoriy Alexandrovich Maystrenko

Federal State Institution Research Institute of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia, Moscow, the Russian Federation

Keywords: Emotional factors, law enforcement units, stressful states of the personality, affect, anxiety, resistance to stress,

emotional intelligence, distress.

Abstract: The article analyses the theory and practice of the influence of emotional factors on the professional activities

of law enforcement officers, considers the characteristics of their work from the point of view of psychology.

The aim of the article is the actualization of the need to study the emotional and psychological factors

described in the research, their causes and the formation peculiarities and influence on employees of law

enforcement services. The methodological basis of the work was based on general scientific research methods.

The paper analyses theoretical approaches to the study of stress and stress resistance, as well as factors

facilitating the emergence of stressful states of the individual. The psychoemotional specifics are described

in the activities of law enforcement agencies and the rule of law, as well as factors contributing to the

formation of stress resistance of employees, the concept of “stress resistance” is specificated in relation to the

activities of officers of law enforcement subdivisions, the relationship of negatively coloured emotional

expressions with a low level of productivity in the service is established, individual behavioural features of

employees of units of the penitentiary system, manifested in difficult life situations under the influence of

negative emotions, are studied. The authors developed practical recommendations for improving the

psychological state of officers of law enforcement services, based on the characteristics of their work activities,

identified recommendations for conducting special trainings, teaching stress resistance and increasing the

emotional intelligence of employees of law the penal system in order to prevent distress and form the

necessary individual and personal qualities and skills of self-regulation of negative experiences.

1 INTRODUCTION

The professional activity of the law enforcement

officers places high demands on the emotional sphere

and human thinking abilities. The daily duties of

employees are associated with a huge number of

conflict situations, their working hours are often not

standardized, which is the reason for increased

fatigue, excessive irritation, anxiety and stress.

Scientific studies of the emotional states of the

law enforcement officers prove that many of them, as

a result of excessive work overload, are often subject

to negative mental states, overwork, depressive

moods, anxiety, increased fatigue, irritability,

headache and insomnia. The need for psychological

assistance is constantly growing, and meanwhile, the

problematics of the issue continue to remain poorly

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studied, which increases the relevance of this

research.

Work in law enforcement units refers to the field

of activity with an increased level of emotional stress

and stressful situations. Its specificity makes high

demands on the level of stress resistance, mental and

physical endurance of employees, as well as on their

personal qualities, which contribute not only to the

ability to navigate in difficult situations from a

professional point of view, but also to success in the

fight against crimes. Self-control maintaining is an

important factor in activities related to the legal field

and law enforcement bodies.

Emotions and feelings experienced by a person,

including in the process of performing his

professional duties, are characteristic forms of

reflection of reality. But, unlike cognitive processes,

emotions and feelings primarily reflect a personal

Dikopoltsev, D. and Maystrenko, G.

Impact of Emotional Factors on Law Enforcement Ofﬁcers.

DOI: 10.5220/0010645500003152

In Proceedings of the VII International Scientiﬁc-Practical Conference “Criminal Law and Operative Search Activities: Problems of Legislation, Science and Practice” (CLOSA 2021), pages

405-409

ISBN: 978-989-758-532-6; ISSN: 2184-9854

405

attitude to events and make an assessment of their

significance (Zelenova M.E., Zakharov A.V., 2014).

It should be noted that anxiety and fear that the

employees feel in the process of carrying out their

official duties in dangerous to life and health

situations often lead to affective states, and ultimately

to the complete cessation of necessary actions and

total rejection of the performance of their professional

tasks, which often becomes the cause of tragic

incidents in the service. Due to the fact that many

officers of law enforcement units do not have a good

command of psychological methods of overcoming

and self-control of psychological states in situations

of life risk, the problem of reducing the impact of

negative emotional factors on them requires further

development.

2 MATERIALS AND METHODS

In the course of the study, a complex of general

scientific methods was used that apply to the review

of sources and scientific literature on the emotional

and psychological side of the issue – analysis and

synthesis of the material, the method of comparative

analysis and generalization, which made it possible to

examine both the theory of the considered problem

and the practical actions of employees of law

enforcement units in extreme situations in the

conditions of the penitentiary system.

A. Khvostov, L. Protsenko, V. Mukhina, A.M.

Stolyarenko, S.L. Solov'eva, K. Selchenok and others

considered theoretical and methodological issues of

the psychology of extreme situations in their research.

I.Yu. Kobozev, A.P. Katunin, A.V. Kondratyev and

others studied the psychological aspects of the

formation of stress-resistant behaviour of employees

of law enforcement units.

However, a number of problems associated with

the analysis of the impact of emotional factors on

employees of law enforcement units have not

received proper coverage in the scientific literature up

to date. The problems of reducing the negative impact

of stress factors on officers, which are the subject of

this article, as well as the development of stress

resistance of employees of these services as the main

way of maintaining their high functional activity in

terms of the successful completion of professional

tasks, has attracted the attention of a small number of

researchers (Pravdina L. R., 2004).

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

In the process of evolutionary development of a

person, the formation of his or her individual

characteristics, emotions have played the role of a

conductor, allowing to quickly and effectively satisfy

all emerging needs in various life situations. On their

basis, the individual makes a different assessment of

relations, objects, opponents, events. It is rather

difficult to overestimate the role of emotional factors

in a person’s life, since emotions can show a personal

attitude to external and internal stimuli, without them

the process of cognition and activity is impossible.

Physiological processes, that control various

emotions, have a rather complex structure, appearing

as a result of the influence of various irritating factors.

Sometimes their appearance is provoked by irritation

that occurs within the body itself (Porshukov A.S.,

2020). An important role in provoking emotional

reactions is played by the reticular formation of the

brain stem, which, in turn, is responsible for the

regulation of our behaviour.

Despite the large number of types of emotions

known to the scientific community, basic ones can be

distinguished, including shame, joy, surprise,

suffering, anger, disgust, contempt, fear. Negative

psychological factors, which include novelty,

unusualness, suddenness, impetuosity, lack of time,

high and prolonged loads, uncertainty, risk – are a

heavy burden on the psyche, make it difficult for a

subject to make decisions (Sidorenko V.A.,

Sukhorukov A.L., Ichitovkina E.G., Soloviev A.G.,

Bogdasarov Yu.V., 2020).

The professional activity of employees of law

enforcement units, related to the performance of

service in the sphere of fulfilling the tasks of the penal

system, is very often carried out in an atmosphere of

information vacuum: ambiguity, insufficient amount

of information, or, conversely, an abundance of it.

The task often consists not so much in clarifying the

information at their disposal, as in the need to act

accurately under the conditions of uncertainty of a

situation (Eremeev S.G., Tyufyakov N.A.,

Shakhmatov A.V., 2020).

Emotional stress at work in the context of an

escalating criminal situation in a correctional

institution and conflicts among prisoners, public

criticism of the activity of penal correction systems

related to the maintenance of convicts, general socio-

economic problems, often contributes to a reduction

of in employees’ emotional resources, the expression

of professional burnout, the formation of

psychosomatic and nervous - mental disorders

(Latyshev A.V., 2020).

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ACTIVITIES: PROBLEMS OF LEGISLATION, SCIENCE AND PRACTICE”

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The professional activity of employees of law

enforcement units has always been distinguished by

the presence of a high level of stress factors. At the

same time, they can be conditionally divided into two

main groups: real and imaginary stress factors. Thus,

the first group includes the crisis of socio-economic

and moral-ethical situations in Russian society. The

second group contains the psychological climate in

the team, the personal qualities of employees, and so

on. They are recognized as imaginary not because

they are absent in reality, but because of their

subjective impact on the personality. Emotional

factors of this kind exert strong psychological

pressure on employees of law enforcement units and,

ultimately, play a negative role in a decision-making

process regarding the field of professional activity,

reduce work efficiency and stress resistance (Sysoeva

T.A., Ovsyannikova V.V., 2017).

The role of psychologists is reduced to the study

of the consequences caused at the physiological,

psychological and behavioural levels, regardless of

the type of these factors. Often, the consequences are

negative – they are emotional shifts, a noticeable

change in the processes of perception of reality,

deformation of thinking and a lack of motivation. A

person under the influence of stress, which has

reached an affective degree, experiences its strong

negative influence. In this case, the form of affective

stress can be thoughtless, generalizing or inhibited

(Vilenskaya G.A., 2020).

The influence of negative emotional factors

contributes to the widespread of various kinds of

psychosomatic disorders among the employees of law

enforcement units. The cause of these problems is the

prolonged pressure of dangerous impulses and states.

The strong feeling of negative emotions and senses

for a long period of time is often transformed into

fairly stable, complex states, considered as integral,

dynamic, which are already part of a personality, in

different aspects reflecting the individuality of the

psycho-emotional sphere of a person at every stage of

his life (Gordeeva T.O., Osin E.N., Suchkov D.D.,

Ivanova T.Yu., Bobrov V.V., Sychev O.A., 2016).

Conflict work situations are often aggravated by

the danger to life, health, financial prosperity,

uncertainty of future events in the absence of a

specific plan for the problem solution. Together, they

provoke anxiety – a person’s tendency to feel

restlessness and fear in the form of a premonition of

a vague, often unconscious, inevitably impending

threat. Anxiety triggers the internal reserves of the

human body even before the expected events occur,

thereby helping to adapt to changes and this state

plays a motivating role in human behaviour, often

contributing to success in the service.

The difference in the results of the impact of

anxiety on a human body can be traced by analysing

the duration and depth of this state, the degree of

adequacy of its manifestation, the reasons, the level

of self-control of a personality and the forms of

emotions expression. For example, anxiety will be a

positive emotional factor if it is based on the fact that

the employee takes his work and the fate of convicts

very close to his heart. Without this kind of emotion,

successful activity is generally impossible and such

anxiety should be a feature of the employee’s

personality, part of his character. Mild forms of

anxiety help the officer eliminate mistakes at work,

foster courage, decisiveness, and self-confidence. But

if the employee’s anxiety appears for insignificant

reasons, is inadequate to the situation, leads to a loss

of self-control, stretches over time, then such a state,

of course, has a negative impact on professional

activity. Another important factor, apparent

psychological stress, has a negative impact on the

working efficiency of the personnel of law

enforcement units (Sidorenko V.A., Sukhorukov

A.L., Ichitovkina E.G., Soloviev A.G., Bogdasarov

Yu.V., 2020).

Stress is a psychoemotional state resulting from

an environment of danger, increased responsibility,

serious mental pressure, the need to overcome

fatigue, and strong exertion. In turn, stressors are

factors that put strong psychoemotional pressure on a

person, complicating the functioning of the psyche.

For example, failures in solving criminal acts of

convicts, fear of criticism or making a responsible

decision, information overload, etc. are stressors in

law enforcement activities. Like anxiety, stress can

have two psychological effects on a person. So, at the

initial stage, it is able to mobilize the internal forces

of a human body, its adaptive capabilities, the ability

to make quick decisions, due to which it acts as a

positive stimulus that affects the effectiveness of

actions in difficult situations. Thanks to this

phenomenon, especially at first, the performance

indicators of the professional duties are improved in

the service. However, prolonged exposure to

negatively coloured emotional factors depletes the

body’s protective reserves, as a result of which stress

can have a destructive effect on the psyche, often

leading to a disorder of its activity and causing

nervous breakdowns.

It is impossible not to mention one more

emotionally coloured state representing professional

interest for studying its influence on the employees of

law enforcement units – frustration. The destructive

Impact of Emotional Factors on Law Enforcement Ofﬁcers

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effects of frustration can be observed in violation of

goal setting, work planning, in cognitive inhibition, in

strong emotional arousal, uncontrolled or partially

controlled aggressive actions. Frustration can

completely erase a person’s creative abilities, deprive

him of an adequate understanding of what is

happening, turn his actions into stereotyped and

inconsistent with the situation (Shamshikova O.A.,

Belashina T.V., 2018).

It can be concluded that there are many negative

emotional factors and psychological states in the

activities of employees of law enforcement units. At

the same time, in the conditions of modern reality, the

success of the work performed by the officers, the

high efficiency of joint well-coordinated actions, the

psychological climate in the team to a greater extent

depend on the skill to control their behaviour and

mood, that is, on the development of the level of stress

resistance (Khachaturova M.R., Fedorova A.A.,

2018).

The stress resistance is one of the integral factors

in the psychological preparation of employees for

professional activities. This term is relatively new in

psychology, it is defined as the individual ability to

maintain a calm and balanced mental state in difficult

conditions for successful work [3, p. 52]. Stress

resistance is manifested in the person’s ability to

control oneself in any situation, resistance to

psychological pressure, the absence of vivid negative

emotional reactions to emerging difficulties.

(Pravdina L.R., 2004). Stress resistance is

inextricably linked with the concept of human will.

The employees with a developed will have the

following character traits: purposefulness,

determination, perseverance, endurance and

independence (Khachaturova M.R., Fedorova A.A.,

2018).

In turn, the lack of individual skill not to succumb

to prolonged exposure to stress factors can be

interpreted as his lack of the proper level of stress

resistance, which is one of the elements of the

emotional and volitional sphere development.

Considering the above mentioned information, stress

resistance can be defined as a professionally

significant quality of the personality of an employee

of law enforcement units of the penal system

(Antonova E.A., 2011).

Generalization of the approaches in the scientific

literature allows us to conclude that stress resistance

should be understood as a phenomenon capable of

maintaining the human psyche in a healthy state and

helping to connect the internal resources of the body

to consolidate effective forms of behaviour in the

fight against life’s difficulties (Sysoeva T.A.,

Ovsyannikova V.V., 2017). By developing resistance

to stress, a person increases the level of his emotional

intelligence.

Emotional intelligence is a new term that includes

the developed skill of an individual to consciously

manage his own emotions, to understand and accept

the emotions of the people around him. Thanks to

emotional intelligence, a person has the ability to

adequately analyse the situation and react correctly in

the current circumstances. Using emotional

intelligence, it is possible to optimize the mental state

and behaviour of a person in difficult psychological

situations, otherwise an individual in stress will act

irrationally, sluggishly and inertly.

To neutralize stress factors in difficult conditions,

the selection of personnel for law enforcement units

of a correctional institution should be based on an

analysis of the individual characteristics of people

(their character, abilities, etc.), as well as

interpersonal relationships (Kondratyeva M.V.,

2013). In this case, more attention should be paid to

the chief executives, as well as newly arrived

employees.

An officer of law enforcement units needs to focus

on a specially designed form of behaviour in extreme

situations, which includes the ability not to enter a

state of excessive anxiety, emotional burnout; he

needs, while increasing the efficiency of his work, to

independently control the health and mood.

They should also take part more often in

relaxation sessions, trainings and corrective

measures, which should be organized by

psychologists of the penal system institutions.

Among them, there should be such recreational

measures as: auto-training to relieve neuromuscular

tension; audio and video therapy, aroma and

phytotherapy; conducting a course of

psychotherapeutic sessions using body-oriented,

rational, cognitive-behavioural, and other types of

therapy; the use of physical exercises, breathing

exercises, massage; resort to professional

psychological help.

4 CONCLUSIONS

Summing up, it should be noted that emotions are an

integral part of life, penetrating into all spheres of

human activity. It can be concluded that this issue has

the greatest importance for those areas of professional

activity that are the most difficult to algorithmize,

including the work of law enforcement officers.

Currently, there is an acute need to improve the

methods of forming psychological resistance to the

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ACTIVITIES: PROBLEMS OF LEGISLATION, SCIENCE AND PRACTICE”

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destructive and stressful effects of negatively

coloured emotional factors on employees of law

enforcement units in their professional activities.

In the course of analysing the influence of

emotional factors on the employees of law

enforcement units, the regularity of the appearance of

possible negative emotional states as a reaction to

uncertainty and danger in official activities was

revealed. It was found that these dangerous impulse

are complex, interdependent and can transit from one

negative state to another. The study analysed the most

common emotional factors that have a negative

impact on the professional implementation of officers

of the penal system.

The recommendations developed within the

framework of this article on the psychological

training of personnel, the use of special rehabilitation

measures and techniques in preparing of employees

and staff development, will allow the officers to

improve stress resistance skills and form emotional

intelligence. It can be concluded that with effective

emotional-volitional and professional-psychological

training, with sufficiently responsible individual

work of the employee on himself, any negative effects

of extreme conditions on his personality and

professional behaviour will be successfully

neutralized.

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