Building: Pinnacle
Room: 2F-Harbourside Ballroom
Date: 2016-07-02 03:30 PM – 05:00 PM
Last modified: 2016-05-21
Abstract
There are several personal qualities considered valuable for suitability in a profile of a future police officer. By considering the job descriptions, the area of interpersonal qualities is a central area where the construct of empathy has been considered to be of significant value. The present study focuses on a self-report instrument measuring empathy conceptualised as multifaceted, including information on the cognitive, affective, and contextual dimensions. The aim of the study is to further develop the instrument both at the item level and by investigating the impact of social desirability.
The instrument was administered at two occasions with Swedish police recruits. The first sample-set consists of 176 recruits and the second consists of 178 recruits. The second try-out includes an adapted Swedish version of the 13-item version of the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale. The methodology includes confirmatory factor analysis to evaluate the fit of the models and multiple indicators and multiple causes modelling to investigate the impact of covariates. All analyses are conducted with latent variable software LISREL.
The results indicate that there is support for the theorized factor structure according to the theoretical approach (social cognitive neuroscience) and that there are several improvements in the revision of the instrument. Social desirability may have an impact on the results and is therefore needed to be considered in future studies.
These results are valuable for further steps in a project developed to investigate approaches of how to assess and improve valuable qualities in law enforcement.