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    How policewomen's experiences of 'male construct' interact with sustainability of career development and promotion practices : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2019) Mace, Stephanie Jane
    Women in today’s New Zealand Police organisation work across almost all roles and ranks, including 14 percent representation at commissioned and non-commissioned officer level. Disparities relating to women and men’s access to senior and high-level roles and workgroups continue to challenge police, despite new policy and performance initiatives for cultural reform. Understanding how policewomen’s experiences of police as a gendered organisation interact with sustainability of career development and promotion practices exposes the rules of formation that permit the conditions and outcomes of structural processes and practices that engender women in police as they negotiate their career progression strategies. 28 policewomen at commissioned and non-commissioned officer ranks were interviewed in a semi-structured conversational style about their experiences. A Foucauldian discourse analysis was applied, attending to the gendered social power relations that define and delimit social practice and the governance of women, both within and outside the workplace. The analysis showed that dominant heteronormative discourses regulate policewomen’s practices of gender coherence within a hegemonic socio-cultural discourse of masculinist rationalisation that differentiates male / female, masculine /feminine as contingent subject positions and investments in compliance and/or resistance to social institutions of work and family. Furthermore, women were positioned within and through discourse as neoliberal active gendering agents whose subjection to, and mastery of, masculinist ideals for leadership shape career progression as the strategic navigation of work and family commitments in accordance with a duplicitous and inegalitarian system. Alternate realities were also presented as reproducing and re-producing masculine values and the gender order for progression in the police hierarchy. This research contributes to the paucity of scholarship attending to the career progression experiences of senior-ranking policewomen in a gendered organisation that function to reproduce dominant discourses as social power relations that intervene in the practices of women and men in police. It may also provide understanding for what may be required to transform and/or vanquish relations of power in order to effect meaningful long-term organisational transformation.
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    Mitigating distress in New Zealand police officers exposed to children's accounts of traumatic experiences : emotion-solving versus problem-solving : a thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masterate of Arts in Psychology at Massey University, Turitea Campus
    (Massey University, 2006) Neilson, Dianne Edna
    Working with children who have been abused can be deleterious. This study examined the impact on state affect after exposure to a child's statement of abuse, assessed which type of solving approach led to less recall of distressing information, and examined which risk factors impacted on state affect and short-term memory tasks. Forty North Island police officers, including a specialised group of forensic interviewers who are trained to interview children who have been abused, participated in this study. Participants showed a decrease in positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA), measured by the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS; Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988), after exposure to one scenario of child abuse. No significant differences on PA and NA were found in relation to whether the scenario of abuse was physical or sexual. Furthermore, no significant differences on the amount of distressing information recalled from the child's statement of abuse were found in those participants who used an emotion-solving approach versus a problem-solving approach. The uniqueness of police work is highlighted, particularly in relation to how they may process distressing information by considering the quality of evidence required to prosecute offenders and recalling details of abuse using criminal offence categories. Limitations of this study are described as well as suggestions for future research directions. Implications for police and forensic interviewing practice are discussed.
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    An evaluation of the Personality Assessment Inventory for personnel selection : a study with the New Zealand police : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology at Massey University
    (Massey University, 2000) Lascelles, Nick
    The Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) was evaluated as an instrument for New Zealand police selection. Recruits (N = 127) attending training were administered the PAI, and the data used to assess reliability, validity, impact of response sets, test fairness, and utility for selection purposes. The PAI was found to be less internally consistent than in other studies, but most scales achieved acceptable alphas. The PAI showed evidence of construct validity when correlated with the NEO-PI-R. PAI scores accounted for 12% of the variance in final grade achieved during training, compared to 8% for the NEO-PI-R. Defensive responding was identified as a considerable threat to validity. Small, but significant differences were found between demographic groups on some scales based on age and ethnicity. While the PAI might be a useful addition to the New Zealand Police test battery, the presence of less than ideal reliability, possibly high levels of defensive responding, and differences between demographic groups means that hypotheses generated from test scores will need to be carefully integrated with other sources of information.