Originally posted: April 28, 2024
Optimal stress is considered good stress – it allows you to be in the “Zone.” R2MR does a good job illustrating optimal stress and performance:
Under high stress or high arousal, your decision making is impacted. In policing, the effect of stress could lead to a misjudgment while driving, a confrontational public interaction that leads to a complaint or worse. Emotional regulation accounts of 29% of errors in decision making.
Here are the effects of stress on decision making:
First responder mental health is about knowing yourself, trusting your loved ones when they tell you something is off, and checking in with your mental health professional to empty the stress bucket. Look after yourself — no one is going to do it for you.
The pie chart in the report displays the conclusions as suggested by the articles reviewed by the author which were used for this critical appraisal. It was not readable when enlarged, so I made my own pie chart: same information, same colour, just placed differently in the chart.
The information is from an article titled, “Police Officers: Stress and Decision-Making,” written by Gurlean Pandher in April 2022. The best I can gather is in April 2022, Gurlean Pandher was a student in the bachelor of law enforcement studies at the JIBC.