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In this exercise, we are going to focus on the importance of identifying an escalation in intensity of the dominant cluster and how it impacts threat recognition.

(Video Source: Washington Post)

Click the “More” button to view the exercise.

The Workout

  • Watch the video through in it’s entirety to see this interaction between a police officer and a person who was reported as being suspicious as they solicited for snow-removal work
  • 1: Identify the cluster of behavior that the man (blue jacket) is in at the beginning of the video with the observations needed to support that assessment and whether you assess that display of behavior as being a high or low intensity display of the cluster.
  • 2: Identify the cluster of behavior that the man in the blue jacket is in just before he strikes the officer with the snow shovel, the observations to support that assessment and whether you assess that display of behavior as being a high or low intensity display of the cluster.
  • 3: If you have a different answer of the intensity of the display for the last two questions  identify the likely “trigger,” the thing the police officer did that caused the person to escalate/de-escalate in their intensity of the cluster.
  • Note: when differentiating between a low intensity and a high intensity of a display of behavior, we are searching for differences in how exaggerated a behavior is and how strongly it is displayed.
  • Write your answers on a sheet of paper before viewing our answers

[expand title=”View Our Answers”]

  • Beginning Of Video
    • Cluster
      • Dominant Cluster
    • Observations
      • Disagrees verbally with the officer, in response to “there is no snow to be removed” he says “there is snow to be removed.”
      • Says he will not give the officer his name.
      • Points in a dominant way – finger pointing and the “knife hand” – when he says who he was talking to
    • Intensity of Display
      • Low Intensity
      • He is being assertive and standing his ground as he is being challenged about his work, but the display of dominance would not indicate that he is likely to become violent at this moment in time.
  • Before Striking Officer
    • Cluster
      • Dominant Cluster
    • Observations
      • States more strongly that he will not give the officer his name
      • Starts yelling that he is “just doing my business” – talking at a louder level
      • Begins leaning in towards the officer
      • Gives the officer a command “go back to your car”
      • Starts making his body look larger as his arms (especially the one with the shovel) begin spreading out
      • Closes the distance to the officer
      • Pushes the officer
      • Drops back into a fighting stance with legs spread to swing the shovel
      • Ultimately, hits officer with snow shovel
    • Intensity
      • High Intensity
      • While many of the observations are the same as ones made at the beginning of the video, they have become more exaggerated, revealing a higher intensity of the fight response.
  • The Trigger
    • It is likely that when the officer asked for the man’s name a second time and stated that it is against the law to not tell him his name, that he has been identified as being suspicious and says “let me tell you something,” that the perceived threat to the man increased.
    • As the perceived threat (the officer being on the porch, accusing him) increases, the low intensity display of dominance (fight repose) elevated to a higher display of dominance and led the man to strike the officer with the snow shovel.
  • Add a comment with the assessments that you made, but that we didn’t make, so that we can check for those assessments and provide feedback on those specific observations.  We will add them to our answers in the post itself for future viewings of the exercise.[/expand]

Enhance The Workout

  • Repeat
    • The first goal of the exercise is to expand the file folders for the dominant cluster and see different ways that different people display the manifestation of the fight response, so watch the video as many times as needed to ensure that the assessment in this video is one you can make quickly and intuitively through repetition.
    • The second goal is to identify shifts in behavior that show when a person is escalating in intensity as that is what reveals that he is preparing to strike and fight the officer, so as you re-watch the video, focus on identifying that shift in intensity as well.
  • Reflect
    • When you consider that the clusters reveal the body’s response to stresses and threats, one thing to be aware of is how you are influencing how much stress a person perceives.  Meaning, when the officer comes back to ask what his name is a second time, he communicates to the person that he is going to get that information and that it is important to him.
    • Whenever you increase the perceived threat to someone, you should anticipate that the person’s response could change as well, so whenever you do this, you want to ensure that you are in a position to handle whatever shift occurs.
    • What could the officer have done differently before asking that question a second time? Could he have put himself in a different location? Could he have changed his posture? It is a question of “just in case” this causes a problem, am I ready?
  • Act
    • Either at work or through a video online, find a situation where a person giving a presentation is challenged by a member of the audience through tough questions, observe how the person responds.  What happens to their posture? Their gestures? Their words?
    • Does their behavior escalate to become more dominant, or do they acknowledge the difference in opinion and calm the situation down?
    • Build file folders for these types of conversations using something from your life to cement this exercise in your brain.