This paper proposes and showcases a methodology to develop an observational behavior assessment instrument to assess psychological competencies of police officers. We outline a step-by-step methodology for police organizations to measure and evaluate behavior in a meaningful way to assess these competencies. We illustrate the proposed methodology with a practical example. We posit that direct behavioral observation can be key in measuring the expression of psychological competence in practice, and that psychological competence in practice is what police organizations should care about. We hope this paper offers police organizations a methodology to perform scientifically informed observational behavior assessment of their police officers’ psychological competencies and inspires additional research efforts into this important area.
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Background: Functional Capacity (FC) is a multidimensional construct within the activity domain of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health framework (ICF). Functional capacity evaluations (FCEs) are assessments of work-related FC. The extent to which these work-related FC tests are associated to bio-, psycho-, or social factors is unknown. The aims of this study were to test relationships between FC tests and other ICF factors in a sample of healthy workers, and to determine the amount of statistical variance in FC tests that can be explained by these factors. Methods: A cross sectional study. The sample was comprised of 403 healthy workers who completed material handling FC tests (lifting low, overhead lifting, and carrying) and static work FC tests (overhead working and standing forward bend). The explainable variables were; six muscle strength tests; aerobic capacity test; and questionnaires regarding personal factors (age, gender, body height, body weight, and education), psychological factors (mental health, vitality, and general health perceptions), and social factors (perception of work, physical workloads, sport-, leisure time-, and work-index). A priori construct validity hypotheses were formulated and analyzed by means of correlation coefficients and regression analyses. Results: Moderate correlations were detected between material handling FC tests and muscle strength, gender, body weight, and body height. As for static work FC tests; overhead working correlated fair with aerobic capacity and handgrip strength, and low with the sport-index and perception of work. For standing forward bend FC test, all hypotheses were rejected. The regression model revealed that 61% to 62% of material handling FC tests were explained by physical factors. Five to 15% of static work FC tests were explained by physical and social factors. Conclusions: The current study revealed that, in a sample of healthy workers, material handling FC tests were related to physical factors but not to the psychosocial factors measured in this study. The construct of static work FC tests remained largely unexplained.
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Research on psychological treatment of depression in inpatients is not conclusive,with some studies finding clear positive effects and other studies finding no significant benefit compared to usual care or structured pharmacotherapy. The results of a meta-analysis investigating how effective psychological treatment is for depressed inpatients are presented. A systematic search in bibliographical databases resulted in 12 studieswith a total of 570 respondents. This set of studies had sufficient statistical power to detect small effect sizes. Psychological treatments had a small (g=0.29), but statistically significant additional effect on depression compared to usual care and structured pharmacological treatments only. This corresponded with a numbersneeded- to-be-treated of 6.17. Heterogeneity was zero inmost analyses, and not significant in all analyses. There wasno indication for significant publication bias. Effectswere not associatedwith characteristics of the population, the interventions and the design of the studies. Although the number of studieswas small, and the quality ofmany studieswas not optimal, it seems safe to conclude that psychological treatments have a small but robust effect on depression in depressed inpatients. More high-quality research is needed to verify these results.
De technische en economische levensduur van auto’s verschilt. Een goed onderhouden auto met dieselmotor uit het bouwjaar 2000 kan technisch perfect functioneren. De economische levensduur van diezelfde auto is echter beperkt bij introductie van strenge milieuzones. Bij de introductie en verplichtstelling van geavanceerde rijtaakondersteunende systemen (ADAS) zien we iets soortgelijks. Hoewel de auto technisch gezien goed functioneert kunnen verouderde software, algorithmes en sensoren leiden tot een beperkte levensduur van de gehele auto. Voorbeelden: - Jeep gehackt: verouderde veiligheidsprotocollen in de software en hardware beperkten de economische levensduur. - Actieve Cruise Control: sensoren/radars van verouderde systemen leiden tot beperkte functionaliteit en gebruikersacceptatie. - Tesla: bij bestaande auto’s worden verouderde sensoren uitgeschakeld waardoor functies uitvallen. In 2019 heeft de EU een verplichting opgelegd aan automobielfabrikanten om 20 nieuwe ADAS in te bouwen in nieuw te ontwikkelen auto’s, ongeacht prijsklasse. De mate waarin deze ADAS de economische levensduur van de auto beperkt is echter nog onvoldoende onderzocht. In deze KIEM wordt dit onderzocht en wordt tevens de parallel getrokken met de mobiele telefonie; beide maken gebruik van moderne sensoren en software. We vergelijken ontwerpeisen van telefoons (levensduur van gemiddeld 2,5 jaar) met de eisen aan moderne ADAS met dezelfde sensoren (levensduur tot 20 jaar). De centrale vraag luidt daarom: Wat is de mogelijke impact van veroudering van ADAS op de economische levensduur van voertuigen en welke lessen kunnen we leren uit de onderliggende ontwerpprincipes van ADAS en Smartphones? De vraag wordt beantwoord door (i) literatuuronderzoek naar de veroudering van ADAS (ii) Interviews met ontwerpers van ADAS, leveranciers van retro-fit systemen en ontwerpers van mobiele telefoons en (iii) vergelijkend rij-onderzoek naar het functioneren van ADAS in auto’s van verschillende leeftijd en prijsklassen.
