The information provided on this website is intended to encourage, not replace, direct patient-health professional relationships. If we view ourselves as “born” or “chosen” police officers, then we start to think we are requisite to society. Throughout our lives we're constantly finding reasons for placing others at a psychological distance, and when we do this, it opens the floodgates for hostile behavior towards them. Choose team leaders carefully by identifying those that are able to nurture collaborative and communicative environments. It’s much easier to say we are born cops and others are born criminals. The first stage is social categorization which simply means we tend to categorize objects so we can understand and identify them, the same way we categorize people so we can make sense of their place in a social environment. She has been writing about online behavior, mental health and psychology issues since 2012. They’re not human anymore, but a dispassionate and negative label, therefore no act of malice against them could ever be bad. Why is this blog about Us vs Them mentality important? It’s an unrealistic expectation that officers, especially those in the urban areas, know only too well that they can’t resolve, and the officers in the smaller departments typically don’t have a need to resolve.

The vast majority of police work involves absolutely zero violence and instead requires skills in conflict resolution, communication, writing, and logic.

Juanita Agboola is the editor in chief of HFNE and an expert in mental health online. Negative comparisons: Comparing a person's attributes to something negative or in a way that insinuates negative qualities.6. Last updated on Humans tend to divide people into groups to have a sense of belonging or identifying with one or another group. How does Samsung health measure blood oxygen? Just like I have for over 25 years. “Us Versus Them” in Policing: What Causes Warrior Cops? By doing so, the category itself will give us information about the people contained in it but we have to consider how biased and full of stereotypes. We have to remember how personal experiences with a certain group will shape our perception, creating stereotypes and prejudice around them. Moreover, we saw how the social Identity Theory by Henri Tajfel gave sense to the Us vs Them mentality by explaining how, as human beings we tend to categorize people and have this sense of affiliation (or affinity) with … There are more than a few recent examples of terrorist-style mass killings that support t… Encourage team spirit as part of the workplace culture. September 30, 2020 by Juanita Agboola. By submitting this form, you agree to receive emails, texts, and phone calls and messages from American Public University System, Inc. which includes American Military University (AMU) and American Public University (APU), its affiliates, and representatives. … Thank you for publishing this article and so many others on InPublicSafety.com. How does Samsung health measure oxygen saturation? How does Samsung health measure heart rate?

There are more than a few recent examples of terrorist-style mass killings that support the need for such training; officers must be able to stop lunatics with assault rifles in elementary schools, churches, concerts, movie theaters, and other public spaces.

Monster...predator...terrorist...illegal...Americans do love their labels. I witnessed the “Us vs Them” mindset during my 26 years as an Officer. Sartre said that those sorts of definitions of other groups are created by the group that it is looking to exclude. In fact, this mentality is so deeply ingrained in the American psyche that many people probably read the quote above thinking it was a motivational message or directive to act, as opposed to a critical observation of the barbaric way we humans treat one another. Your inability, or refusal to rationally comprehend the author’s point is evidence of the problem of officers like you. By self-proclaiming the moral high ground and labeling others as less moral, we relegate them as an "other."2. There are different ways of trying to make sense of such an extreme mentality, but one way is to consider it as a form of us-versus-them thinking—oversimplifying and distorting … This would be the third and final stage where, once we have identified ourselves as part of a certain category or group of people then it is natural to compare our group with other groups and all the differences between them, good or bad. They’re not human anymore, but a dispassionate and negative label, therefore no act of malice against them could ever be bad.

Not sure today’s cadets are capable or willing to learn verbal deescalation skills. How does Samsung health measure calories? They become this label - they now embody your most judgmental views about what a “monster” or “predator” is. For instance, if you have categorized yourself as catholic then chances are you will adopt behaviors associated with the group of people that identify themselves as catholics. This involves insinuating that someone is less than human or lacks the same humanity/morals/values as we do. However, consider how an individual is not limited to belong to only one group having the possibility of belonging to many different groups at the same time, for instance an individual could belong to the group of white, millennials from a certain nationality. To avoid this mindset, officers must first acknowledge that they have consciously, and of their own free will, chosen this line of work. However, it doesn’t mean we are only allowed to belong to one group or the other, in fact, we can belong to many different groups at the same time. Thus, children who receive the most love and physical affection/nurturing from the most caretakers early in life will be the least likely to bully others later on, whereas those kids whose quality of care isn't as good are more prone to aggression and bullying behavior.Social conditioning towards the ‘other’ Yet there's a second, more problematic issue when it comes to bullying, and this is that all human beings (even those who formed healthy attachments early on) have the capacity to compartmentalize certain people as "others" and set them in a category apart from ourselves, thus creating psychological distance between them and us. Moreover, we saw how the social Identity Theory by Henri Tajfel gave sense to the Us vs Them mentality by explaining how, as human beings we tend to categorize people and have this sense of affiliation (or affinity) with one group over another because we perceive the members of the group as being similar among them. The vast majority of police work involves absolutely zero violence and instead requires skills in conflict resolution, communication, writing, and logic.However, to protect the public, officers are trained and equipped to respond to violent encounters. To contact the author, please email IPSauthor@apus.edu. This theory explains how, as human beings we tend to categorize people and have this sense of affiliation (or affinity) with one group over another because we perceive the members of the group as being similar among them. During my 15 years as an officer, I personally never liked using the term “warrior” as it relates to policing. To better understand this, Sartre used an example of a waiter. That’s why self-policing reforms will never work in law enforcement. The “us vs. them” mindset is not an isolated problem in policing but one that exists throughout society.

HFNE is a mental health technology and conference charity. This waiter is acting in bad faith by pretending to himself that his job defines him. Picture a waiter in a café who appears much too committed to his job. Devaluing: Implying that some individuals are of lesser worth than other individuals. They become this label - they now embody your most judgmental views about what a “monster” or “predator” is. These cops believe they are the last hope of stopping society from turning into pure anarchy. The waiter ignores the fact that he is human and has chosen, of his own will, to be a waiter.