Hugo Munsterberg is considered the pioneer of forensic psychology. He sought to use psychological methods to determine guilt or innocence in legal cases. Later, Harvey Schlossberg became one of the first police psychologists, providing counseling, assessments, and training to officers. Pre-employment evaluations for police often involve cognitive tests like the Wonderlic and WAIS to assess general intelligence and identify any psychological issues. Police psychologists face many ethical dilemmas around issues of confidentiality, dual relationships with police, and balancing professional standards with police department responsibilities. Validity of police psychological evaluations depends on rational, face, and content validity as well as criterion-related validity. Police psychologists now play an important role in law enforcement through selection and training, organizational

1. POLICE PSYCHOLOGY AND
HOW IT ALL BEGAN
BY: VICTORIA A PULIDO
Unit Two Assignment
August 13, 2012

2. HUGO MUNSTERBERG: FORENSIC
PSYCHOLOGY PIONEER
Hugo Munsterberg is often call the
original forensic psychologist. He
sought out to discover the secret
connections of ideas based on his
association method. Not only to
protect the innocent but to
unmask the guilty.
 Dr. Munsterberg was determined to prove
that the help of the psychologist will
become not less indispensable with the
vulgar ordeals of the third degree in every
form which belongs to the Middle Ages as
much of the wrangling of the attorneys
about technicalities in admitting the
“evidence” appears to be somewhat
outdated, too the methods of experimental
psychology working in the spirit of the
twentieth century.

3. SCHLOSSBERG A MAN IN UNIFORM
CROSSES OVER TO SCIENCE
Psychologist with a Gun
The conducting of evaluations
Psychiatric interviews diagnosis
and prognosis
Marriage counseling
Guidance and counseling to police
w/minor problems
• Psychological testing
Research and operational
consultations to other units within
the department
Instructional services to promotion
classes on recognition of psychiatric
problems
Maintaining of liaison with the
honorary psychiatrists who served
the Medical Division as consultants
Harvey Schlossberg
 For Schlossberg crossing over to policing
was not a difficult task, that was not an
issue because in addition to being a
psychologist he was also a cop. He
trained police officers to help other
officers in trouble and to become group
leaders of police group counseling
sessions. Schlossberg found it was better
to catch problems before they become a
nightmare.

4. WHAT SHOULD THE BEHAVIOR
OF A POLICE OFFICER BE?
A police officer are expected to be conscientious, agreeable, emotionally
stable, self controlled, honest and morally upright. There have been
experiments and assessments designed to establish the well being and
balance of a police officer. These assessments are conducted to identify
the personality traits or degrees of traits that are correlated with or
significantly predict discrete aspects of future success.

5. Pre-Employment Psychological Selection: Cognitive Assessment
The WPT as known as The Wonderlic Personnel Test is one of the most frequently used cognitive
testing devices in private industry as well as law enforcement. The cognitive ability is often
referred to as general intelligence or “g” and is a measure of the level at which an individual learns,
understands instructions and solves problems.
The WPT consists of 50 questions, including worked comparisons, disarranged sentences, sentence
parallelism, the need to follow directions , number comparisons, number series analysis of
geometric and story problems requiring either mathematical or logical solutions.
The WPT correlates highly with the WAIS as know as the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, which
suggest that the Wonerlic taps into various intellectual functions and may be a test of global
intelligence. Research also suggest that scores on the Wonerlic have a test and re-test reliability
ranging from .92 to .94

6. WECHSLER ADULT INTELLIGENCE SCALE
 These tests are useful in assessing general
intelligence as well as more specific
components of intelligence such as
judgment and common sense, general
knowledge and information vocabulary,
speed of eye – hand coordination,
concentration and attentiveness and
social awareness. ***Results from these
tests can indicate various forms of
psychopathology as well as
neuropathology and associated
problems. It also can identify a pattern of
dysfunction or imbalance.

7. ETHICAL ISSUES IN POLICE
PSYCHOLOGY
Ethical issues abound in the specialty area of police
psychology. These issues bring challenges if not daily at
least regularly for psychologists who perform work in this
growing area.
Ethical dilemmas arise in the practice of police
psychology and there are applicable ethical codes of
conduct and practice guidelines relevant to practice in the
area of police psychology
These are the APA Ethical Principles of Psychologist and
Code of Conduct

8. “
”
SPECIALTY GUIDELINES FOR FORENSIC
PSYCHOLOGISTS
By: Police Psychology Services Section of the International Assoc.
Principal A: Beneficence and Non-maleficence; means that psychologists
seek to do good attempt to avoid doing harm
Principal B: Fidelity and Responsibility
Principal C: Integrity
Principal D: Justice
Principal E: Respect

9. THERE ARE A TOTAL OF
SIX COMMONLY USED
DILEMMAS
Common Ethical
Dilemmas:
confidentiality,
Resolving conflicts between
professional standards and the needs
of the responsibilities to perform with
competence
Dual Relationships, Roel conflict and
Boundary Issues
Identifying the client
Dealing with organizational demands
Resolving ethical dilemmas

10. THERE ARE THREE COMPONENTS OF THE VALIDITY OF THE
PSYCHOLOGICAL EVALUATIONS:
RATIONAL VALIDITY
FACE VALIDITY
CONTENT VALIDITY
Criterion-Related Validity in Police Psychological Evaluations

11. POLICE PSYCHOLOGICAL SERVICES
Behavioral scientists specifically police psychologists play an integral
role in law enforcement today. Staff behavioral scientist in the
capacity of police psychologists, organizational development and
human factors/human performance consultants. Many behavioral
scientist who possess specialized training beyond their traditional
clinical training can effectively assist law enforcement management
and various other personnel such as directors of police training
academies to enhance their day to day operations and performances
of each department and staff member

12. THOUGHTS OF THE HERE AND NOW:
The time for such applied psychology is surely near and work has been
started from most various sides. Those fields of practical life which come
first in question may be said to be education, medicine, art, economics
and law. The educator will certainly not resist the suggestion that
systematic experiments on memory or attention cannot be useful in the
policing enviornment. If experimental psychology is to enter into its
period of practical service, it cannot be a question of simply using the
ready made results for ends which were not in view during the
experiment.
Hugo Munsterberg: Forensic Psychology Pioneer

13. References
Hugo Munsterberg: Forensic Psychology Pioneer
http://www.all-about-forensic-psychology.com
Are the American Psychological Association
http://ehis.ebscohost.com.lib.Kaplan.edu
Handbook of Police Psychology