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This study had four aims. First, it intended to detect the high risk police group and the risk variables of police cynicism and burnout. Second, it attempted to link police character, cyni- cism and burnout into a causal model. Third, it compared several causal developmental process path models of police burnout in order to ascertain whether different types of policemen were different from each other in terms of developmentalprocess.Forth, it offered an empirical test of the police cynicism/character and burnout relationship to demonstrate whether the police cynicism theory Niederhoffer(1967) proposed was applicable for all kinds of policemen. In order to accomplish the above objectives, this study const- ructed three instruments: "Police Character Scale", "Police Cyni- cism Scale" and "Police Burnout Scale". Data were collected from 1510 Taiwan policemen aged 20 to 65 yr, from different education levels and ranks. Main findings of this study were as follows: 1.The high risk group were the police who was youger, lesser work experiences, lower ranks, not married, divorced or separated from his spouse,and the police who perceived not to be provided opportunities for further education was also included.Especial- ly, if these policemen''s emotionality score and cynical hostil- ity score were high,then they would incure cynicism and burnout more easily. 2.There were differnces within defferent kinds of policemen''s burnout deveolpmental processes. 3.The police character, cynicism and burnout could be linked into a causal model as the priori hypothesis suggested. 4.The resultes of this study verified Niederhoffer(1967)''s theory on police cynicism.
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