Coping patterns of law enforcement officers in simulated and naturalistic stress

Psychophysiological and self-report measures of reactivity were obtained from 135 police deputies exposed to a stressful film. Subjects categorized according to trait anxiety level and character defense pattern were encouraged to anticipate benign or threatening experiences or were given no preparatory information. In general, information abetted stress reduction; individual personality variables also influenced reactivity. The vigilant coper group uniformly demonstrated intolerance for uncertainty, whereas the responses of the neutral and avoider groups were separable according to anxiety level, in which lower anxiety facilitated adaptation to the stressor. The dramatic correspondence of supervisory ratings of field performance and the data for the no-warning condition suggests that the demands for success in law enforcement service were approximated by the simulated stress procedure.