According to a PCT perspective, police officer stress may be understood as the experience of having personal interpretations of the world (referred to in the chapter as “constructs”) invalidated, leading to any number of associated emotions including guilt and anxiety. In order to cope with these emotions and minimize the stress, police officers may use a variety of strategies, among them: hostility, constriction, tight construing, and slot rattling. Hostility is described as a coping technique in which the officer deals with the invalidation by “tampering with the evidence” so that it does validate the constructs of the officer. On the other hand, the strategy of constriction deals with the invalidation of constructs by narrowing the boundaries of the constructs so that the invalidation is avoided. Tight construing is another strategy in which police officers attempt to deal with the invalidation of their constructs by restricting their social world to others who share similar interpretations of the world (constructs), such as other police officers. Finally, slot rattling involves a response to the invalidation in which the officer reverses his or her previously held position on a construct. The author then turns to how a PCT approach can help inform police officer stress assessment, recruitment, treatment, and training. In terms of assessing police officer stress, an analysis of officer’s construct systems using the Life Events Repertory Grid would complement other types of assessments. The assessment of officer’s construct systems may also be useful in the selection process for police officer candidates, since certain features of “construing” may be regarded as more conducive to coping effectively with stress. References