Emotional intelligence of the law enforcement officer

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Emotional intelligence of the law enforcement officer

Lopatynska Iryna

PhD in Pedagogical Science, Associate Professor

Donetsk State University of Internal Affairs, Kryvyi Rih

Abstract

The article discusses the features of emotional intelligence, we proposed a model that covers four different levels of emotional intelligence, including emotional perception, understanding of emotions and the ability to control emotions. Of great importance is the police officer's readiness to provide emotionally favorable communication, his ability to be "emotionally intelligent", able to respond to constant requests and challenges from society during martial law. We emphasize that the emotional intelligence of a law enforcement officer is his ability to control his emotions and distinguish between emotions, emotional states and the corresponding emotional levels of others. Law enforcement officers need a high level of empathy in the law enforcement-citizen relationship, which is an integral factor of emotional intelligence, as the process of understanding the emotional state of another creates positive interpersonal relationships, allows communication, and promotes flexibility of thinking.

Key words: emotional intelligence; empathy; emotional conflict; law enforcement officer; cooperation with citizens; martial law.

Лопатинська Ірина Сергіївна, кандидат педагогічних наук, доцент

(Донецький державний університет внутрішніх справ, м. Кривий Ріг)

Емоційний інтелект правоохоронця

Анотація

Вивчення практичного досвіду працівників правоохоронних органів України дозволило визначити, що сьогодні необхідно приділяти більше уваги розвитку емоційного інтелекту та формуванню сприятливої взаємодії правоохоронців із громадянами, а це, у свою чергу, може позитивно вплинути і на подальшу співпрацю, і покращити психічний та емоційний стан громадян України. Нині, у період воєнного стану, ефективна співпраця всіх підрозділів правоохоронних органів України з громадянами нашої країни залежить від розвитку свідомої громадянської та правової культури кожного і є основою сприятливої психологічної, емоційної та соціальної взаємодії в державі. У статті розглянуто особливості емоційного інтелекту та запропоновано модель, яка охоплює чотири різні рівні емоційного інтелекту, включаючи емоційне сприйняття, розуміння емоції та здатність управляти емоціями. Акцентовано увагу на великому значенні підготовленості поліцейського до забезпечення емоційно сприятливого спілкування, його спроможності бути «емоційно розумним», тобто здатним реагувати на постійні запити та виклики з боку суспільства під час воєнного стану. Зазначено, що емоційний інтелект правоохоронця - це його здатність керувати своїми емоціями та розрізняти емоції, емоційні стани та відповідні емоційні ступені інших людей. Також зауважено, що співробітники правоохоронних органів потребують високого рівня емпатії в системі відносин «правоохоронець - громадянин», бо саме це є невід'ємним фактором емоційного інтелекту, оскільки процес розуміння емоційного стану іншого створює позитивні міжособистісні стосунки, дозволяє спілкуватися, сприяє гнучкості мислення, і поліцейському важливо й необхідно використовувати емоційну інформацію для прийняття важливих службових рішень. До того ж у статті досліджено актуальність проблеми емоційного інтелекту, яка наразі набуває все більшої значущості через напружений ритм життя під час воєнного стану й емоційні навантаження громадян України, які в нових реаліях життя є більш беззахисними та більш вразливими, не завжди можуть долати стресові ситуації, що, відповідно, впливає на їхню психіку.

Ключові слова: емоційний інтелект; емпатія; емоційний конфлікт; правоохоронець; співпраця з громадянами; воєнний стан.

Formulation of the problem

emotional intelligence officer mental

Today, the cooperation of all law enforcement agencies of Ukraine with the citizens of our country depends on the development of conscious civic and legal culture of each and is the basis of favorable psychological, emotional and social interaction during martial law in the country. Emotional and psychological training of employees of the National Police, the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine and the Border Guard Service is a necessary and important element of successful interaction with the citizens of our country during martial law. The study of practical experience of law enforcement officers of Ukraine revealed that they do not pay enough attention to the development of emotional intelligence, favorable interaction with citizens, which in turn can negatively affect further actions and harm the mental and emotional state of Ukrainian citizens. Police officers and military, have the responsibility and the expectation to act in the best interest of the people they are sworn to serve and defend. Police officers are expected to safeguard people and property, to protect the innocent, and to respect the rights afforded to all citizens.

Analysis of recent research and publications

Actually, the issue of emotional intelligence should be given special attention, so we studied the opinions of many scientists and psychologists who share a common theme: understanding your emotions, the ability to express them correctly and constructive interaction with others can help increase your chances of success. Accordingly, as claimed Daniel Goleman, emotional intelligence is the ability to perceive emotions, access and generate emotions to help thought, understand emotions and emotional knowledge and reflexively regulate emotions to promote emotional and intellectual growth [5].

Considering the features of emotional intelligence, Solovey and Mayer proposed a model that identified four different levels of emotional intelligence, including emotional perception, the ability to reason with emotions, the ability to understand emotions, and the ability to manage emotions. Of great importance is the police officer's preparedness to ensure emotionally favorable communication, his ability to be "emotionally intelligent" with both citizens and in the team. What does it mean to be emotionally intelligent? An "emotionally intelligent" law enforcement officer is a person who has the ability to respond to constant requests and challenges of experience with a range of emotions in a way that is socially tolerant and flexible enough to prevent spontaneous reactions and the ability to delay them when needed.

Police officers are also expected to be trustworthy, ethical, and above all to enforce the law of native country. The very nature and visibility of police work makes it important to understand the impact of emotional intelligence (EI) on police work (Turner, 2009). Emotional intelligence was defined by Peter Solovey and John Mayer as "the ability to monitor one's emotions and the emotions of others, to distinguish between different emotions and determine them accordingly, and to use emotional information for human thinking and behavior" [1].

The aim of the work

Emotional intelligence is currently a hot topic during martial law. Police officers have a very demanding job exercising lawful authority appropriately when dealing with the public. On this basis, we need to explain emotional intelligence and emotionally favorable interaction are important factors in the implementation of positive relations in the system "law enforcement officer - citizen", the effectiveness of which is determined by the degree of readiness of law enforcement officers to perform their duties during the martial law and police readiness emotionally favorable interaction with citizens should be considered in the context of the general readiness of law enforcement officers for professional activities.

Presenting main material

Adhering to moral principle, being faithful to moral conscience, keeping one's word, and standing up for what one believes. It means honesty, uprightness, the avoidance of deception, and steadfast adherence to the standards of behavior. It is one of the values that describe a virtue of always doing what is right, morally and legally. Law enforcement requires police officers to possess a developed sense of morals and emotions [6]. Although police behavior was examined and the current research discovered few explorations on the ethical behavior of, specifically on EI and its impact on integrity.

In fact, emotional intelligence was stronger than IQ in predicting one's career success. This may sound like a bold statement - that understanding and fighting your emotions can lead to greater success in the future. Emotional intelligence plays a key role in all interpersonal interactions in the law enforcement-citizen system - including their cooperation during work, study and counseling. Emotional intelligence affects how a law enforcement officer interacts with his colleagues, subordinates and citizens, but also how they react to it.

The problem of emotional intelligence is now becoming increasingly important due to the hectic pace of life during martial law and emotional burdens of Ukrainian citizens, who in these conditions are the most vulnerable and defenseless. Ukrainians are not always able to cope with stressful situations that directly affect their psyche.

Understanding one's emotional reactions through EI can improve the decision making process [3]. Emotional intelligence refers to how people are able to control their emotions, state of mood and their relationships [5]. EI means having the skills to express feelings appropriately and effectively in the process of supporting others and expressing the empathy to people working together towards a common goal. In our opinion, a high level of empathy in the system of relations "law enforcement officer - citizen" is an integral factor of emotional intelligence, because the process of understanding the emotional state of another creates positive interpersonal relationships, allows communication, promotes flexibility of thinking and original ideas. French sociologist E. Durkheim convincingly confirmed: "...each lawyer should not be limited to the interpretation of legal texts. If in fact he spends all his time commenting on texts, and therefore his only concern for each law - to try to guess what could be the intention of the legislator, he has a habit of seeing the only source of law in the will of the legislator. And this means taking the letter for the spirit, visibility for reality.

The duties of a police officer require them to put their personal fears aside and run into a situation most people would be running away from, considering only the safety of others before their own. However, even decisions where police officers are placed at personal risk of injury, many officers feel they are constantly under scrutiny and criticism by the public and media for their actions. All these may lead to different emotional and psychological conflicts.

The problem of conflicts has attracted the attention of many researchers (Banikina S.V., Grishina I.V. [1], Zhuravlyov V.I. [2]) who substantiated their theoretical foundations, approaches to the classification of conflicts, methods and means of preventing conflicts in society, team and in the system of relations "law enforcement - citizen".

Analysis of the work of law enforcement officers shows that conflicts in the field of emotional and personal relationships are the least studied, which aroused interest in studying this issue. Emotional state, style of communication, tactics of law enforcement affect the formation of interpersonal relationships during the service. The emotional state is conveyed by words, the way the phrase is constructed, the nature of the intonation.

It is important for law enforcement officers to be able to resist the adverse effects of the social environment, learn to overcome conflict situations, cope with negative emotions and maintain their emotional well-being in all life circumstances. in the "struggle" of everyone for their place in the group and in life in general. Manifestation of "struggle" can be different in the form of expression of emotions: joy, surprise, sadness, fear, anger, disgust. Hostile actions are not always, but turn into protest, quarrel, enmity, lack of contact - which leads to a conflict situation. Objectively, a conflict situation is a strong precondition for conflict.

But the conflicting behavior of a citizen is not yet a conflict. Often, interpersonal, emotional conflicts between law enforcement officers and citizens are provoked by feelings, emotions and misunderstandings. And so, emotional conflicts are conflicts that are indifferent to the objects of conflict and are based mainly on motives. The motive for the conflict - its internal psychological cause is the neuroticism of adults, the emergence of internal conflicts, violations in the field of normal relationships, lack of conditions to relieve emotional tension. The motive is the driving force behind the emergence of conflict situations in the relationship of law enforcement officers with citizens.

Conflict situations that occur during the service perform both stimulating and negative function in solving social problems, the formation of healthy relationships of participants in the cognitive process. To prevent the negative direction of the conflict, the police officer must be able to organize collective learning activities, build business relationships with colleagues during the service. The conflict situation will be successfully overcome if the reaction of citizens to law enforcement influence is analyzed, forecast and regulated.

Different researches show that regulation of emotions and behavior is one of the strongest predictors of success and leads to success in the workplace, in social settings and in life for all people in society. Confident police officers that stem from group will have the foundational tools they need for continued success in the institute and beyond. It is important to consider the elements of emotional development. We have defined the elements of emotional development of a police officer. It consists of three main areas of person's self-regulation.

Firstly, interacting with colleagues in positive ways (e.g., sharing, taking turns); avoiding negative impulses (e.g., hitting, pushing, yelling); solving problems with increasing independence; and negotiating solutions to conflicts with colleagues and citizens. Secondly, empathy (understanding others' emotions and regulation of one's own emotions) accurately identifying emotions in themselves and others; managing strong emotions such as excitement, anger, frustration and distress; and being empathic and understanding others' perspectives. And thirdly, reflection (regulating attention and thoughts) focusing attention on activity; screening distractions and planning steps or strategies to complete a task or activity [4].

We can promote emotional intelligence development in group of police officers by implementing teaching practices during education in the university, formulating the understanding to citizens' needs help them feel secure and confident, and acts as a model for effective social behavior. For example, asking questions to help citizens find a solution to various conflicts helps them develop problem-solving skills. Law enforcement officers should be attentive to the emotional skills and needs of each person so you can respond with advice and help every police officer develop their skills. Attention and presence of law enforcement officer can be a pillar of confidence for citizens who are dealing with stressful life circumstances. Workers of law enforcement agencies are to remember that citizens may need support to feel secure and self-assured in environment that is responsive to their needs.

Emotional intelligence is supported through positive and consistent relationships among colleagues and society. Law enforcement officers are to be ready to support positive emotional development by crafting emotionally supportive environment in the society that skillfully connects new experiences with citizens' experiences. To develop positive relationships among the citizens for appropriate public behaviors, it is necessary: provide opportunities for them to develop new emotional skills; give explicit guidance; engage with citizens in a two-way relationship to build favorable emotional skills; reflect a national ethic of caring and nurturing. Promotion with citizens' confidence and development of new patriotic skills by engaging them in problem solving attending, to signs of personal experiencing unusual stress in their lives.

Conclusions

To sum up, we stated that there is a correlation between emotional intelligence and decision emotional conflicts among police officers. The study supports the importance of emotional intelligence for the development of decision making among officers. Based on the review of literature and the data gathered we are sure that emotional intelligence is the ability to perceive emotions, access and generate feelings to help thought and understand emotions of others. The regulation of emotions and behavior is one of the strongest qualities that help to avoid conflicts in the service of law enforcement officers. it is important for the officer to treat people with empathy, respect, and ability to identify their own and others' emotions. Emotional intelligence for law enforcement officers is critical for fulfilling their responsibilities and for the people they serve.

Список використаних джерел

1. Гришина Н.В. Психологія конфлікту. СПБ, 2008. 544 с.

2. Журавльов В.І. Основи педагогічної конфліктології: навчальний посібник. Харків, 1995. 184 с.

3. Carmeli, A. & Josman, Z. (2006). The relationship among emotional intelligence, task performance, and organizational citizenship behaviors. Human Performance, 19 (4), 403-417.

4. Colfax, R.S., Perez, K.T., & Rivera, J.J. (2010). Applying emotional intelligence (EQ-I) in the workplace: Vital to global business success. Journal of International Business Research, 9, 89-98.

5. Goleman, D., Boyatzis, R., & McKee, A. (2013). Primal leadership: Unleashing the power of emotional intelligence. Boston, MA : Harvard Business Review Press.

6. Gleason, T. (2006). Ethics training for police. Police Chief, 73 (11). URL: http://www.policechiefmagazine.org/magazine/index.cfm?fuseaction=display_arch&article_id=1054&issue_id=112006 (дата звернення: 01.03.2022).

7. Goleman, D. (1995). Emotional intelligence. New York, NY: Bantam Books.

8. Goleman, D. (1998). Working with emotional intelligence. New York, NY: Bantam Books.

References

1. Hryshyna, N.V. (2008). Psykholohiya konfliktu [Psychology of conflict]. SPB. 544 s. [in Ukrainian].

2. Zhuravl'ov, V.I. (1995). Osnovy pedahohichnoyi konfliktolohiyi: navchal'nyy posibnyk [Fundamentals of Pedagogical Conflict: Tutorial]. Kharkiv. 184 s. [in Ukrainian].

3. Carmeli, A. & Josman, Z. (2006). The relationship among emotional intelligence, task performance, and organizational citizenship behaviors. Human Performance, 19 (4), 403-417.

4. Colfax, R.S., Perez, K.T. & Rivera, J.J. (2010). Applying emotional intelligence (EQ-I) in the workplace: Vital to global business success. Journal of International Business Research, 9, 89-98.

5. Goleman, D., Boyatzis, R. & McKee, A. (2013). Primal leadership: Unleashing the power of emotional intelligence. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press.

6. Gleason, T. (2006). Ethics training for police. Police Chief, 73 (11). URL: http://www.policechiefmagazine.org/magazine/index.cfm?fuseaction=display_arch&article_id=10 54&issue_id=112006.

7. Goleman, D. (1995). Emotional intelligence. New York, NY: Bantam Books.

8. Goleman, D. (1998). Working with emotional intelligence. New York, NY: Bantam Books.

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