Value changes among St. John's police force

• Main Author: Godsell, Edward Joseph
• Other Authors: Memorial University of Newfoundland. Dept. of Psychology
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 1973
• Subjects: Police > Newfoundland and Labrador > St.John's; Canada; Newfoundland; Newfoundland studies; University of Newfoundland
• Online Access: http://collections.mun.ca/cdm/ref/collection/theses2/id/90895

Thesis (M.A.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1973. Psychology Bibliography: leaves 40-41. The theoretical background for this study was drawn from two areas. Rokeach's theory of values and Stebbins's theory of the definition of the situation. -- The samples were drawn from among the rank and file members of the St. John's Police Force. One sample group consisted of 113 of these constables while the other consisted of 13 constables who had undergone one year of a university police training program. Using the Rokeachean framework two hypotheses were investigated: 1) that the occupation of policemen is a significant socializer of police personnel as reflected by changes in value patterns; 2) that policemen who are enrolledl in the university police training program demonstrate significantly different value patterns when compared with the non-university trained group. The findings indicate that the occupation of policeman is not a significant socializer of police personnel since there are no significant differences in the value patterns of policemen regardless of the number of years of service, also there are no significant differences in the value patterns of non-university and university trained policemen and that policemen enrolled in the university training program do not demonstrate significantly different value patterns when compared with their non-university trained counterparts. Drawing on the theoretical and empirical work of Stebbins and others it was concluded that further research in the measurement of police values is necessary before an adequate explanation of value orientation using the Rokeachean theoretical perspective is generated.