Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Date of Degree

9-2023

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Program

Psychology

Advisor

Preeti Chauhan

Committee Members

Philip T. Yanos

Matthew B. Johnson

Leah G. Pope

Amy Watson

Subject Categories

Clinical Psychology | Law Enforcement and Corrections | Social Justice | Social Psychology

Keywords

mental illness, bias, stigma, police, law enforcement, mental health crises, police officer decision-making

Abstract

Police responses to persons with mental illness (PMIs) compared to those without appear to be more likely to result in negative outcomes, underscoring the importance of understanding these interactions and the factors that may influence them. Relatively little research has examined officer attitudes toward mental illness, and no study has examined implicit bias toward mental illness among police officers or how police culture may impact outcomes in mental health crises. The present study sought to: 1) measure explicit and implicit bias toward PMIs among the general public and police officers to understand how these constructs may vary among these populations; 2) examine the role of race on mental health stigma; and 3) assess the role of explicit and implicit bias toward mental illness, as well as police culture, on police officer decision-making related to PMIs. Participants were members of the general public (n = 303) recruited from Prolific and police officers in the United States (n = 198) recruited from Police1 (a policing blog), personal contacts, and email recruitment through police department leadership and administration. All participants completed a series of self-report questionnaires, a memory recall task (Life Story Memory Test (LSMT)), and two implicit association tests. Police officers also completed a mental health attitudes survey designed for law enforcement, a police culture measure, and responded to decision-making questions making based on a written vignette of an officer encounter with a PMI. Results demonstrate divergent validity between explicit and implicit bias measures. Further, police officer attitudes toward PMIs in some instances are significantly more negative than those of the general public. This study was not able to validate the LSMT as a measure of implicit bias and therefore its findings must be interpreted with caution. The LSMT revealed that police officers remembered significantly less negative information than the general public overall and for the White actor compared to the Black actor. Regarding the relationship between bias and police officer decision-making, officers who desired greater social distance from PMIs were less likely to transport them to mental health services, whereas those who endorsed higher levels of microaggressions against PMIs were more likely to transport them to services. Additionally, officers with more negative attitudes toward mental illness were less likely to take action in a mental health crisis. Finally, officer-related procedurally just organizational climate moderated the relationship between bias and officer decision-making such that those with the lowest officer-related culture, and highest levels of implicit bias toward PMIs, were least likely to transport a PMI to services or take action in a mental health crisis. Overall, this study has implications for how PMIs are responded to in mental health crisis incidents and its findings may help to reduce adverse outcomes of police interactions with PMIs.

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