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OCCUPATIONAL SATISFACTION AND C O M P E T E N C E OF POLICE OFFICERS AS PREDICTED BY THE KUDER INTEREST INVENTORY

William U. Weiss, Ph.D., University of Evansville David Yates, University of EvansvilLe, Kevin Buehler, University of Evansville

ABSTRACT A sample of 77 police officers who had been

members of the Evansville, Indiana Police Depart- ment forat least two years had been given the Kuder Occupa t iona l In te res t I n v e n t o r y pr ior to be ing hired. Each was given the Zytowski Personal Data Questionnaire to obtain self-ratings of satisfaction and duty performance. A high percentage (81%) of the officers who had been hired and whose careers had continued in police work had Police Officer as one of their top ten occupations on the Kuder Inter- est Inventory. The Kuder was less successful at pre- dict ing satisfaction and performance. These data suppor ted the concept that stress and burnout were more important predictors of satisfaction and duty performance than were interests.

The Kuder Occupational Interest Survey (KIOS) is a 100 item interest inventory developed for the purpose of measuring interest- vocational interest estimates, oc- cupational scales, and college major areas (Kuder, 1985). The Kuder employs the lambda statistic (Clemans, 1958), an index of the extent to which an individual's responses are like those of people in selected occupa- tions. Tragically there has been very little work vali- dating the Kuder as a predictor of occupational entry or occupational satisfaction. Zytowski (1976) used the Kuder in a 12 to 19 year follow-up study. Of the indi- viduals who were contacted in this longitudinal study',; 50% were found in an occupation that would have been presented to them in their counseling with the Kuder results. The .06 range was used as the criterion for the presentation of the occupation.~. In other words, the oc- cupations falling in the top .06 as measured by the lambda statistic were presented as possible careers to the subjects. This suggests there is some validity for occupationa/entry in the Kuder Occupational Iaterest Survey. In this study the Kuder had been obtained in the 8th grade, in high school or in college. The Kuder Occupational Interest Profile was the predictor and the following criterion information was collected:

1. Present Job Title and Description, 2. Job Satis- faction as assessed on a 7 point scale on one question,

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and, on a second question, whether the individual would continue to work at the same occupation if given the opportunity to change without loss of income, 3. A self-report of estimated job success, 4. A chronological account of jobs, 5. College major, if applicable, 6. Readministration of the KOIS.

Recently, there has been an emphasis upon the use of psychological techniques in the selection of public service employees. Police Officer candidates are re- quired by law to undergo psychological screening since the public interest must be taken into account because of the sensitive nature of this occupation. Descriptions of psychological batteries for police officers are pre- sented in Blum (19(.,4). He recommends the use of a battery including a personality test, an interest test, a test of values, and an intelligence test. One of tests that he recommends is the Kuder Vocational Preference Record. He recommends further research with this in- strument. Another individual who describes a battery of tests is Spielberger (1979). He recommends a per- sonality test, an interest inventory, and aptitude scales. Wlxile he recommended the Strong-Campbell as an in- terest inventory, he also suggests that more research is needed in the use of interest inventories with police populations. Azen (1973) used the Kuder Vocational Preference Record to select police officer candidates in city of Los Angeles. Fie found that the Kuder Mechani- cal Scale was a predictor of success in police work. Six dichotomous criterion measures of success were em- ployed:

1. Employed or not, 2. Promoted or not, 3. Job type, patrol or other, 4. Low or high supervisors ratings, and 5. Whether or not they had had a job related auto acci- dent prior to 1958, and 6. Whether or not they had a job related auto accident prior to 1970. No specific data exists using the Kuder and police officer candidates since 1973. While there are many validity studies us- ing other instruments such as the CPI [see Hargrave et. al (1986) and Hargrave & Hiatt (1987)1, those involving interest inventories are sparse. No study has ever ad- dressed the validity of the KO1S police officer scale.

Recently, the job of police officer has become more

Occupational Satisfaction and Competence of Police & the Kuder Interest Inventory; Wiess, Yates, Buehler 53

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community oriented. Sophistication and demands have also increased. Because of the sensitive nature of police work, it appears necessary to validate instruments used in police ~lection, It is for this reason that the following research project was developed. The follow- ing hypotheses are addressed in this study: 1. The KO[S Police Officer scale will be related to inter-

est in police work. 2. Levels of community and social interest are strong

among present day police officers. 3. The KOIS police officer occupational scale will pre-

dict satisfaction with police work. 4. Satisfaction with police work will increase with years

of service. 5. There will be a significant positive relationship be-

tween the KOLS police officer occupational scale and job performance.

6. Consistently high correlations will exist between cer- tain social-community oriented KOIS occupational scales and police satisfaction and performance.

7. Job sattsfaction will be related to desire to change occupations.

Method In a medium sized midwestern city, Evansville,

Indiana, a police merit commissk~n has assembled a hiring list for the city police departn~ent every two years. From 1981 to 1989, the Kuder Occupational Interest In- ventory was administered to the final pool of police officer applicants. The 1981 and 1983 candidates re- ceived the I979 revision. The remainder of the appli- cants received the current revision. A total of 275 Kuderswere obtained. All hirees had been administered the Kuder. In testing the hypotheses above, the Zytowski Personal Data Questionnaire was adminis- tered to the police officers on the force as of December, 1992. "total number of subjects in the study who com- pleted the Zytowski Personal Data Questionnaire was 77. Complete cooperation in data collection for the study was obtained from Art Gann, Evansville Police Chief and from the Evansville Police Depa~tf~-~ent.

As was stated above, the Zytowski Personal Data Questionnaire includes measures of both satisfaction and competence. These measures and the one related to occupational opportunity, will be used to assess the current satisfaction of the officers on the Evansville Police Department.

The following statistical tests will be performed utilizing the statistical package SYSTAT.

1. T e s t i n g H y p o t h e s i s 1. The percentage of the 77 officers who had the

Police Officer scale of the Kuder among their top ten occupations will address the first hypothesis with re- gard the Kuder Police Officer scale and its relationship to interest in police work.

2. Testing Hypothesis 2. The percentage of the 77 officers who have the oc-

cupations nurse and elementary school teacher in their top ten will be identified.

3. Testing Hypotheses 3,4,5,6, and 7 Acorrelation matrix will be developed relating the

variables of job satisfaction, competence, occupational opportunity, and years of service to three KOIS scales police officer, nurse, and elementary education teacher as well as to one another.

RESULTS Data were assembled using the rank of the Kuder

Lambda score. Since the Kuder (1985) describes the order of the

occupations as being significant in using the instrument in counseling, the Lambda scores were ranked, and the ranks were used to develop answers to the hypotheses.

It is clear that the Kuder Police Officer Scale is re- ]a ted to entry into the occupation of police work. Sixty- two (62) of the 77 officers currently on the Evansville Police Department had the Police Officer Scale as one of their top 10 occupations. Police work would have been one of the occupations recommended to 81% of the officers current}y on the force, were they to seek employment counseling. Even more striking is the fact that two occupations strongly related to community and social interest were also prominently represented in the top ten ranks. These were the occupations, nurse and elementaryeducation teacher. Seventy-three (73) of the 77 officers-95% of the total- had the occupation nurse in their top 10 and 70 of the 77 officers-92% of the total- had the occupation, elementary education teacher in their top 10 ocaJpations.

"Fable 1 presents correlations of various Kuder scores with satisfaction, perform a nee and occupation a l opportunity (Occopt). In this ranked data, a rank of 1 is the highest possible on the KOIS.

Clearly the only two of these variables are related to either satisfaction or performance. Occupational op- portunit , a question about desire to take a job other than police work is obviously related to bum-out of police officers on the job. Years of service is also re-

54 Journal of Pofice and Criminal Psychology 1995 Voi. 10, No,4

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]ated to satisfaction; as years of service increase so does dissatisfaction. It is a positive correlation because years increase and numbers increase with increasing dissat- isfaction.

None of the Kuder interest variables proved to be related to satisfaction or performance after 2 to 10 years on the force. As might be expected, however, satisfac- tion and performance are positively related to one an- other.

D i s c u s s i o n The Kuder Occupational Interest Inventory failed

to provide any predictability with regard to perfor- mance or satisfaction. One must remember that the measure of performance was a self-evaluative measure. There was evidence for some small non-significant predictability on the part of the part of the KOIS with regard to performance. The large majority of officers had high scores on the Police Officer scale of the KOIS and in counseling u~ , police officer would have been one of the choices that would have been suggested. In addition, modern day police officers are very strongly socially oriented and fit in quite well with the new emphasis on communi ty policing

Table 1 Correlation Matrix for Kuder Scores with

Satisfaction, Performance and Occupational Opportunity

Variable Satisfaction Performance Occopt

Satisfaction 1.000 .388" -.436" Performance .388 1.000 -.227 Police Rank ,083 -.211 -,154

EIEd Rank -.135 -.187 ,029 Nurse Rank .016 -.082 -.061

Yrs.serv .437"* .171 -,257"

Total Group (N=77) Note. Occopt = Occupational Opportunity; EIEd Rank = Elementary Education Rank; Yrs.serv = Years of service. *it<.05. **It<.01

Failure of the Kuder to predict long-term satisfac- tion appears as a failure on the part of the test; how- ever, if one considers the mult i tude of other factors which impinge upon police officer performance, the like- lihood that a test such as the Kuder could in fact pre- dict success seems remote. The major factor in the

performance of police officers is job related stress and burn-out.

This problem has been described in a number of different sources. For example , McCafferty, F.L., Godofredo, D.D. and McCafferty, E.A. (1990) describe post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the police of- ricers. They state that the police officer is exposed to stress outside the range of usual human experience, which often leads to demoralization and predisposes him to a post traumatic stress disorder similar to that found in the Vietnam veteran. The common traumas that police of-ricers undergo involve serious threats to themselves and serious threats to their fellow police of- ricers. They witness criminals, riots, and corruption, the serious injury, or death of citizens, bombings, and critical incidents involving the officers being shot at and shooting at someone. PTSD is statistical[y much higher in police officers.

A discussion of post-traumatic stress disorder by Spragg (1992) suggested the serious stresses to which police officers in Australia are exposed. A British study done by Muss (1991) dealt with the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder which was attributed to

police officers and their iob stresses in the West Midlands. Stress and suicide in police officers was discussed by McCaffer~.', EL., McCafferty,, E. and McCafferty, M.A. (1992). They con- cluded that police officers are ex- posed to extraordinary stress and have increased potential for the de- velopment of psychiatric illness. In a related issue, Stith (1990) demon- st'rated that domestic violence also has an effect upon the mental health of police officers.

That burnout and stress are factors in dissat isfact ion is evi= denced by the fact that dissatisfac- tion increases with years of service. The o c c u p a t i o n a l o p p o r t u n i t y (Occopt) variable assesses desire to

seek other employment. The signifi- ~" cant negative correlation with satis-

faction is suggestive that factors overriding interest are significant in satisfaction after having been on the police force for some years. There- fore in order for interest to be a factor in satisfaction, the overriding importance of stress, anxiety, and burn- out must be controlled. The data suggest that these factors are much more significant and on a long term

Occupational Satisfaction and Competence of Police & the Kuder Interest Inventory; Wiess, Yates, Buehler 55

basis are far more important to satisfaction and duty performance than are interests.

REFERENCES Azen, S. P., Snibbe, H. M., & Montgomery, H. R.

(1973). A longitudinal predictive study of success and performance of law enforcement officers. Journal of Ap- plied Psychology, 57(2), 190-192.

Blum, R. H.(Ed.) (1964). Police Selection. Spring- field, IL: Charles C. Thomas.

Clemans, W. V. 1958). An index of item ".riterion relationship. Educational and psychological Measu reme, t, 18, 167-172.

Hargrave, G. E. & Hiatt, D. (1987). Law enforce- ment selection with the interview, MMPI, and CPI: A study of reliability and validity. Journal of Police Science and Administration, 15(2),110-113.

Hargrave, G. E., Hiatt, D. & Gaffney, T. W. (1986). A comparison of MMPI and CPI test profiles for traffic officers and deputy sheriffs. Journal of Police Science and Administration, I4 (3)~ 250-253.

Kuder, G. F. & Zytowski, D. G. (1991). K~eder Occu- pational Interest Survey General Manual Chicago, Illi- nois. Science Research Associates [nc.

McCafferty, F. L., Godofredo, D. D. & McCafferty, E.A. (1990). Posttraumatic stress disorder in the police officer: a paradigm of occupational stress. Southern Medical Journal, 83(5), 543-547.

McCafferty, E L., McCafferty, E. & McCafferty, M. A. (1992). Stress and suicide in police officers: para- digm of occupational stress. Southern Medical ]oun~al, 85(3), 233-243.

Muss, D. C. (1991). A new technique for treating post-traumatic stress disorder. British journal of Clinical Psychology, 30, 91-92.

Spielberger, Charles D.(Ed.) (1979). Police Selection and Evaluation. New York: Hemisphere Publishing Corp.

Spragg, G. S. (1992). Post-traumatic stress disor- der. Medical ]ournal qf Australia, 156(10), 731-733.

Stith, S. M. (1990). Police response to domestic vio- lence: the influence of individual and familial factors. Violence and Victims, 5(1), 37-49.

Zytowski, D. G. (1976). Predictive validity of the Kuder Occupational Interest Survey: A 12 to 19 year follow-up. Journal qf Counseling Psychology, 3, 221-233.

55 Journal o1 Police and Criminal Psychology 1995 VoL 10, No.4