I am aware that there are normed tests such as the MMPI-2 for pre-hire examinations in police officers. However, I am unable to identify any testing measures which can be utilized to determining psychological trauma in police officers who have been exposed to traumatic experiences? For example the MMPI-2 has never been "normed" on on-duty police officers, therefore it is not a valid psychometric measure.
Matthew,
The most widely used test for screening police-officers is the MMPI-2. The national expert in this field is D. M. Corey who is an ABPP psychologist. Your questions relates to assessing police officers post-trauma which is a somewhat different situation. In this case, you might consider instruments that are for post-trauma evaluation in other groups. Such as the Penn Inventory. Unfortunately, I'm not aware of whether these instruments that have been normed on police officers. As a side, attached is a reference to a fairly good critical incident evaluation handbook. Perhaps the content of this material might be formulated into an instrument that could be normed.
http://post.nv.gov/uploadedFiles/postnvgov/content/Training/Critical%20Incident%20Handbook.pdf
It sounds like you are asking if there are any personality based psychometric tests that would serve to predict the extent that a person who becomes an on-duty police officer would be predisposed to PTSD. This would require a level of psychometric testing with predictive validity that had very robust psychometric specificity and sensitivity. There are currently no psychometric instruments that can accomplish this and I doubt there will be for some time. The human capacity and research resources necessary to undertake such a projective would be considerable. To help you with your research goals I suggest the following: 1. Get a good grounding on how psychometric scales work. Especially construct validity, concurrent validity, criterion validity, predictive validity etc. 2. Gain a general understanding of how diathesis stress models work. They are usually called diathesis models in psychology research and textbooks (the micro-level/individual level), and risk/protective factors or factorial determinants in public health and epidemiology. This will help you look for and understand how measurable environmental factors when exposed to increase the risk of psychopathology... 3. So I think what you maybe after is something like the Kessler psychological stress scale or a similiar screening tool. They identify possible psychopathology that then requires further diagnosis to confirm a particular disorder. There are other such tests but stick to the ones that are known to work. You need to remember that these tests don't rely on predictive validity. They are designed to identify potential disease incidences from known prevalence, which is post exposed to risk factors. Some of the critical incident stuff RD Hill mentioned above might be helpful. Certainly the literature around "critical incidents" would be good foundational knowledge. Hope this helps!
I can say that your question is well studied, but information to the public isn't readily available. Some things that are studied just can't make it to a peer review journal. That said, I'll point you in a direction that can help you. Look at the MMPI-2RF Cynicism Scale.
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