The effect of the perceived role of a model on the learning of operational police officers

Abstract

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the effect of the perceived role of a model on the learning of operational police officers. Bandura (1969) has suggested that modeling is an efficient and effective means of enhancing both the quality and quantity of acquisition in the learning situation, and that the characteristics of the model are influential in the processes involved in modeling. This investigation attempted to determine the extent to which learning and the evaluation of the learning situation are differentially influenced by the characteristics of the model as perceived by the observers. The characteristics of the model investigated in this study were prestige and status, in terms of the model's possession of academic credentials and/or police experience. The study was an attempt to provide empirical information upon which improvements in law enforcement educational and training efforts might be based. Subjects consisted of 92 male, Caucasian operational police officers from the municipal police department of a major city in the Southwestern United States. All subjects were actively pursuing either the baccalaureate or master's degree in Law Enforcement and Police Science from Sam Houston State University. All subjects viewed a 17 minute video-taped presentation concerning the findings of a major research project dealing with police attitudes toward various aspects of police work. The subjects were equally and randomly assigned to four experimental conditions. One group was informed that the model was a police captain who held the Ph.D. degree. The second group was informed that the model was a police captain who had never been to college. The third group was informed that the model was a Ph.D. who had never been a police officer. The fourth group was given no information concerning the academic or experiential credentials of the model and served as a no-treatment control group..