Critical Response Performance and Innovation

Today I want to ask the question, could the Pygmalion effect be having an impact on individual mental health outcomes?

The Pygmalion or Rosenthal effect is a psychological phenomenon in which the leader's high expectations can lead to improved performance and low expectations lead to worsened performance. Subconsciously influencing their actions and behaviours in relation to those individuals leading to the realisation of those expectations.

https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/19-could-the-pygmallion-effect-be-impacting/id1566955084?i=1000608875385

https://open.spotify.com/episode/5Evrt4yvx5vLtlcUWVpDUI

#19 Could the Pygmallion effect be impacting individual mental health? Listen to this episode from Critical Response Performance and Innovation Podcast on Spotify. Today I want to ask the question, could the Pygmalion effect be having an impact on individual mental health outcomes?The Pygmalion or Rosenthal effect is a psychological phenomenon in which the leader's hig...

Are we asking the right questions about veteran su***de in Australia? Should we look at it as a wicked problem, where each individual has their own multifactorial circumstances and co-dependency from their own environment that we can find specific interventions for? Rather than grouping everyone into a causal effect theory from Defence Service?

Rather than classify everyone who has one day of service as a veteran, should we look at separate groups of long-term ex-serving Defence members, combat veterans, early career separation..etc?When you look at the data, each of these groups has significantly different risk ratios and factors.

Does combat create widespread problems? What impact does DVA have? does it create financial dependency? and what effect do the extensive number of charities actually have on outcomes?

The right solutions and interventions exist on the other side of the right questions.

Episode available now on most podcast hosting platforms.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/18-solocast-is-veteran-su***de-a-wicked-problem/id1566955084?i=1000606658985

https://open.spotify.com/episode/3zLutZHj3eNj4cEaFJKsQR

#18 Solocast - Is veteran su***de a wicked problem Listen to this episode from Critical Response Performance and Innovation Podcast on Spotify. Are we asking the right questions about veteran su***de in Australia? Should we look at it as a wicked problem, where each individual has their own multifactorial circumstances and co-dependency from their o...

In this episode, I have the pleasure of speaking to Shaun O'Gorman from The Strong Life Project by Shaun O'Gorman openly about his career, parenting, mentoring others to reach their potential and taking ownership and overcoming his own battle with depression and PTSD.

Shaun O’Gorman is a Human Behaviour, High Performance and Resilience consultant, keynote speaker, and author. After joining the Queensland Police Service in 1989, Shaun worked in the Police Dog Squad for many years as well as the Covert and Surveillance unit working on Major and Organised Crime. While in the K9 unit Shaun was involved in daily high-risk critical incidents ranging from violent street brawls, high-speed pursuits, barricaded suspects, domestic violence, and shooting incidents. The majority of these placed him at high risk of serious injury or even death. He also performed duties with the Special Emergency Response Team (SWAT) as a tactical K9 handler.

Shaun left the QPS and was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The years of exposure to violence and tragedy resulted in clinical depression and a battle with su***de. Shaun spent three nights in a row, a G***k pistol in his hand, laying in bed trying to think of reasons not to end his life. To overcome his mental health injuries, Shaun spent the next 17 years immersed in the study of personal development, human behaviour and high performance with the goal of healing himself and living a happy life. He now devotes his life to helping others using the knowledge and education that helped him help himself.

Hope you enjoy and this episode is available on most podcast-hosting platforms

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/17-shaun-ogorman-from-the-strong-life-project/id1566955084?i=1000601944942

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0CLbEZMIBuzl5k3mIduquW

‎Critical Response Performance and Innovation Podcast: #17 Shuan O'gorman from The Strong Life Project on Apple Podcasts ‎Show Critical Response Performance and Innovation Podcast, Ep #17 Shuan O'gorman from The Strong Life Project - Feb 23, 2023

Using return to work rehab to imprint some experiential learning for use of force encounters integrated with cognitive and emotional awareness training into early stage post surgery return to work rehabilitation program. Early training consists mostly of developing awareness to build the foundation to progress into a more layered approach of cognitive skills, emotional regulation, threat inoculation and motor skill development as the physical injury rehab sensorimotor re-education starts to take place.

Interleaving this cognitive, emotional and technical skills approach framework with a physiological reconditioning program takes advantage of an ideal period to develop pre-experience to return to work as a more proficient operator.

Using some ecologically valid scenarios to reduce inattentional blindness, expand perceptual understanding and increase response prediction has shown some great results for de-escalation and decisive action when needed. This provides an effective method for not only imprinting experiential learning of over a hundred use of force encounters within a short time period, but also varied perceptions and action outcomes for prediction and response selection. Essentially providing decades of experience within a few short months.

Watching the performer move towards equipment and change posture in preparation for action is a strong indication that the right neural networks are firing.

Today's episode is a special edition dedicated to those who serve in the Queensland Police Service and broader Law Enforcement community, as a special thank you for doing what you do in keeping us safe and to try and offer something back to help, in your time of need.

In this interview, I have the pleasure of being joined by Melanie Freeman to cover topics around leadership, social connection and growth following traumatic events.

Melanie is a registered psychologist and management consultant and has practiced for over 25yrs. Most of her work is in developing the capability of leaders and teams and this includes first responder populations. Melanie has also worked as an army reserve psychologist for over 20yrs, 12yrs of that with Special Operations.

I hope you enjoy this episode and that it provides some valuable information, if you or any of your team are experiencing difficulty please do not hesitate to reach out to your network and support systems to seek professional guidance or help.

If you want to reach out to Melanie or learn more from the resources she has made available please head to;

https://performance-science.com.au/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/performance-science-hpo-pty-ltd/

Stay safe and look after each other.

https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/special-episode-overcoming-trauma-leadership-connection/id1566955084?i=1000590556360

https://open.spotify.com/episode/7N3BgykQnULAMyYvLcEpIo

‎Critical Response Performance and Innovation Podcast: Special Episode - Overcoming trauma. Leadership, connection and growth with Psychologist, Melanie Freeman on Apple Podcasts ‎Show Critical Response Performance and Innovation Podcast, Ep Special Episode - Overcoming trauma. Leadership, connection and growth with Psychologist, Melanie Freeman - 18 Dec 2022

Following up on the Trigger Warning research for healthy populations, similar findings have been revealed for individuals with Trauma Histories.

Although there are several considerations and individual circumstances, these research projects and results are worth considering for when such warnings may be necessary for individual health and well-being and when they may be unnecessarily influencing potentially negative outcomes.

Although these findings do generate thought, there is still very little research to draw specific conclusions and definitely requires more focus to help determine the appropriate use of such warnings.

Article availalbe at: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2167702620921341

Are Trigger Warnings good, bad or indifferent?

The research on trigger warnings indicates that they may actually prime individuals to perceive they are more prone to and experience greater anxiety from exposure to perceived stress and could actually be doing more harm than good.

There are some similarities between this and the research on Post Traumatic Stress or Growth, depending on how individuals were pre-primed for exposure as either a negative or positive. Combined with the research on stress outcomes and pre-stress expectations, there are some strong indications that the way we prime people could be the most significant influence on their outcomes.

This could be particularly important for any organisation where stressful events are part of the job requirement, to ensure they are priming their workforce for the best possible outcomes.

There is similar research from clinical populations that I will make available shortly.

Original research is available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0005791618301137

𝐌𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐒𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐈𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐚 𝐇𝐲𝐩𝐞𝐫-𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐒𝐮𝐫𝐠𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐄𝐧𝐯𝐢𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐝 𝐌𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐄𝐦𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲 𝐛𝐲 𝐁𝐨𝐭𝐡 𝐇𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐄𝐦𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐄𝐯𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧

Research showing a 6-day hyper-realistic training environment utilising role switching improves Hardiness and EQ in medical students, with no effect of gender but some associations with higher scroes and older age.

Article available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7714941/

Although training for combat or the Use of Force has come a long way, it unfortunately still lacks a lot of the required elements to improve the transfer of training and leaves our responders at risk of suboptimal performance.

Although simulated training and static marksmanship have a place, the problem is people learn to "game" what successful performance looks like in the activity or environment. One limitation is the development of simple rules or heuristics for perception and action, based on associating specific visual information or cues they are attending to within the scenario and the corresponding response. Unfortunately, these cues are often very different from what we think they are and can be specific to the activity reducing the transfer to real-world performance.

The risk here is that when they encounter real-world use-of-force situations, these cues are not present which creates ambiguity, which when coupled with the increase in threat (another topic) results in early anticipatory defensive action and false positive. Since, ultimately, the main motivation in a gunfight is not to come second.

Understanding the human factors of Use of Force behaviours is pivotal in increasing the transfer of training from the training environment to real-world performance.

Training to survive a threat situation Army’s 17th Sustainment Brigade brushed up on warfighting skills on a Combat Behaviours training course.

𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐃𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐔𝐬𝐞 𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐥𝐲 𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐜𝐞

𝐀𝐛𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭
Police shootings have become one of the most “visible and controversial” aspects of the criminal justice system . Yet, very little empirical effort has been devoted to understanding the underlying systemic vulnerabilities that likely contribute to these tragic outcomes. Using a randomized controlled experiment that incorporated a police fi****ms simulator and 306 active law enforcement officers, this study examined the effects of dispatch priming on an officer’s decision to use deadly force. The findings suggest that officers rely heavily on dispatched information in making the decision to pull the trigger when confronted with an ambiguously armed subject in a simulated environment. When the dispatched information was erroneous, it contributed to a significant increase in shooting errors. The results contribute to a broader understanding of officer decision-making within the context of police shootings and introduce the theoretical concepts of cognitive heuristics and human error to the research on police use of deadly force.

Dispatch Priming and the Police Decision to Use Deadly Force - Paul L. Taylor, 2020 Police shootings have become one of the most “visible and controversial” aspects of the criminal justice system . Yet, very little empirical effort has been dev...

Great research demonstrates that the perception individuals have around exposure to stress has a significant impact on their outcomes. Priming front-line workers that stress can be positive or adaptive over negative and maladaptive could be significant in their future health and well-being.

𝐃𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐀𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐬 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐡 𝐌𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫? 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐡 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲

Objective
This study sought to examine the relationship among the amount of stress, the perception that stress affects health, and health and mortality outcomes in a nationally-representative sample of U.S. adults.

Methods
Data from the 1998 National Health Interview Survey were linked to prospective National Death Index mortality data through 2006. Separate logistic regression models were used to examine the factors associated with current health status and psychological distress. Cox proportional hazard models were used to determine the impact of perceiving that stress affects health on all-cause mortality. Each model specifically examined the interaction between the amount of stress and the perception that stress affects health, controlling for sociodemographic, health behavior, and access to healthcare factors.

Results
33.7% of nearly 186 million (n=28,753) U.S. adults perceived that stress affected their health a lot or to some extent. Both higher levels of reported stress and the perception that stress affects health were independently associated with an increased likelihood of worse health and mental health outcomes. The amount of stress and the perception that stress affects health interacted such that those who reported a lot of stress and that stress impacted their health a lot had a 43% increased risk of premature death (HR = 1.43, 95% CI [1.20, 1.71]).

Conclusions
High amounts of stress and the perception that stress impacts health are each associated with poor health and mental health. Individuals who perceived that stress affects their health and reported a large amount of stress had an increased risk of premature death.

Does the Perception that Stress Affects Health Matter? The Association with Health and Mortality This study sought to examine the relationship among the amount of stress, the perception that stress affects health, and health and mortality outcomes in a nationally-representative sample of U.S. adults.Data from the 1998 National Health Interview Survey ...