Question

Military history suggests that specific attributes result in better performance. In assessing whether personnel are suitable for certain roles, particularly those high-risk operations discussed by Kennedy and Zillmer (2012), military psychologists consider individual characteristics and attributes. These attributes are generally thought to predict successful performance in high risk roles and circumstances.

In preparation for the discussion forum consider the course materials for the week addressing the personality, cognitive, intellectual, physical, and other individual attributes of military personnel shown to be related to effective performance in high risk and combat operations.

Share your thoughts about the military’s assessment of these individual attributes, discussing whether you perceive the practice as one that contributes to performance in high risk and combat operations as we begin our study of the psychology of combat.

Needs to be 300 words plus...thanks!

Answer 1

The military personnel works in the tough environment with uncontrolled risk factors which affect the behavior of a soldier so that military psychologists work with various attributes of personality as well as behavior.

Researches show that the work under high-risk factors increase the biological imbalance or hormonal changes which affect the performance, as the risk factor increased the behavior changes occurs frequently which affect the behavior towards team and seniors.

The cognition process during high-risk factors experience different qualities and affect the personality as well as the mental adaptation process. A good cognition depends on the condition where a person feels safe of insecure, if the person feels insecure he might be aggressive while if a person working in normal condition, the cognition process changes.

Military personnel gets tough training which makes them physically strong but the absence of mental training and conditioning reduce the ability to handle the situation with calm behavior appropriate and controlled conditions. So a military psychologist works with some important mental process like cognition, thinking, reasoning and ability for problem-solving.

During the training, the mind-body coordination is an important task which helps a personnel to create the balance between mental process and physical abilities because every time these personnel experience different and risk conditions which asses their high-level psychophysiological abilities. The main problem with military personnel is working in isolated conditions because we need family support but military personnel experience lack of this kind of support which create a deviation from normal behavior.

Military personnel is highly trained and professional activist so that they need to maintain all conditions and situations with the highly professional output which creates mental stress. They experience pressure to perform with accuracy every time. These all conditions affect the individual attributes, the assessment gets affected by these factors.

In my opinion, military psychologists need more research in combat areas so that they can evaluate and understand the effects of real situations.        

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