Military psychology is basically the research, design, and application of psychological theories and data experimentation towards understanding, predicting, and countering behaviors either in friendly or hostile manner in the civilian population which can be undesirable, intimidating, or potentially dangerous to the conduct of military operations. It is applied towards counseling and treatment of stress and fatigue of military personnel or military families as well as treatment of psychological trauma suffered as a result of intense field operations. The goals and missions of current military psychologists have been well preserved over the years, varying with the focus and strength of research intensity put forth into each sector. Because of this, the need for mental health care is now an expected part of high-stress military environments.
Historically,
psychological stress and disorders have always been a part of military life,
especially during and after wartime. However, the mental health section of
military psychology has not always experienced the awareness as it does now.
Even in today’s present, there is much more research and awareness needed
concerning this area. And perhaps, one of the first institutions established to
care for military psychiatric patients was St. Elizabeth Hospital in Washington
D.C. (formerly known as the United States Government Hospital for the Insane), where
it was founded by Congress in 1855 and is currently in a state of despair even
though some foreseeable operational plans to revitalize the building was
scheduled to begin in 2010.
Operational Psychology
By function, operational
psychology from the military viewpoint is the use of psychological principles
and skills to improve a military commander’s decision-making as it pertains to conducting
combat and/or other related operations. Well, this is a relatively new sub-discipline
categorization which has been employed largely by psychologists and behavioral
scientists in military, intelligence, and law enforcement arenas. While
psychology has been utilized in non-related health fields for many decades,
recent years have witnessed an increasing focus on its national security
applications. Examples of such applications incorporate the development of
counterinsurgency strategy through human profiling, interrogation, and
detention support, information-psychological operations, and the selection of
personnel for special mission units.
Intelligence Testing in the United States Army
Lewis M. Terman, a
professor at Stanford University, revised the Binet-Simon Scale in 1916 and
renamed it as the Stanford-Binet Revision. This test was the beginning of the
“Intelligence Testing Movement” and was given to over 170,000 American soldiers
during World War 1. In short, Professor Yerkes published and documented the results of
these tests in 1912 and that became known as the Army Report.
Technically, there were
two tests which initially made up the intelligence tests for the military; Army
Alpha and Army Beta. These two tests were developed to evaluate vast numbers of
military recruits that were both literate (Army Alpha Tests) and illiterate
(Army Beta Tests). Whatever it is, the Army Beta Tests were designed to measure
“native intellectual capacity”, as it also helped to test non-English speaking
service members.
The standardized
intelligence and entrance tests which have been used for each military outlet
in the United States has transformed significantly over the years. In 1974, for
example, the US Department of Defense decided that all Services should utilize
the ASVAB for both screening enlistees (future military personnel) and
assigning them to carry out military occupations. Combining selection and
classification testing made the entire testing process more efficient.
Consequently, this particular testing system used in the US military went fully
into effect in 1976.
Note: Kindly look through the “Category” section for the complete list of articles published. Don't forget to subscribe and share our articles as many times as possible on any social media platform.
0 comments:
Post a Comment