Comments on the articles dealing with individual performance criteria that are included in this special issue of Military Psychology

Individual performance criterion measurement is central to effective personnel management in the military services, and to all other organizations as well. The articles in this special issue summarize the state of the art in all major phases of performance criterion development and assessment. The overall record, while it varies in terms of current progress across the major parts, is admirable. What's next is an equally thorough examination of the utility of validity.

Advancing the Practice of Contemporary Military Performance Psychology:A Full-Spectrum Approach to Psychological Health and Readiness

The Department of Defense (DoD) continues to emphasize operational readiness, lethality, and optimal performance. Performance psychology is a critical aspect of and central dimension to human performance optimization in support of Preservation of the Force and Family (POTFF) and Total Force Fitness (TFF). The delivery of performance psychology services must continue to evolve to maximize its potential for enhancing combat performance and supporting psychological readiness in warfighters across all branches of service. The authors (1) provide a brief history of the evolution of military psychology; (2) explore how performance psychology complements and broadens approaches to support warfighter health and readiness; and (3) present a set of strategies to advance performance psychology services toward an aspirational model. Such strategies will more effectively promote best practices to better target operational performance, complement existing health and medical service delivery, and encompass a systems approach to sustainable training. Moreover, these strategies aim to increase return on investment of psychological readiness efforts for warfighters across all branches of service.

Experience does not equal expertise in recognizing infrequent incoming gunfire: neural markers for experience and task expertise at peak behavioral performance

For a soldier, decisions to use force can happen rapidly and sometimes lead to undesired consequences. In many of these situations, there is a rapid assessment by the shooter that recognizes a threat and responds to it with return fire. But the neural processes underlying these rapid decisions are largely unknown, especially amongst those with extensive weapons experience and expertise. In this paper, we investigate differences in weapons experts and non-experts during an incoming gunfire detection task. Specifically, we analyzed the electroencephalography (EEG) of eleven expert marksmen/soldiers and eleven non-experts while they listened to an audio scene consisting of a sequence of incoming and non-incoming gunfire events. Subjects were tasked with identifying each event as quickly as possible and committing their choice via a motor response. Contrary to our hypothesis, experts did not have significantly better behavioral performance or faster response time than novices. Rather, novices indicated trends of better behavioral performance than experts. These group differences were more dramatic in the EEG correlates of incoming gunfire detection. Using machine learning, we found condition-discriminating EEG activity among novices showing greater magnitude and covering longer periods than those found in experts. We also compared group-level source reconstruction on the maximum discriminating neural correlates and found that each group uses different neural structures to perform the task. From condition-discriminating EEG and source localization, we found that experts perceive more categorical overlap between incoming and non-incoming gunfire. Consequently, the experts did not perform as well behaviorally as the novices. We explain these unexpected group differences as a consequence of experience with gunfire not being equivalent to expertise in recognizing incoming gunfire.

Victims of military sexual trauma--you see them, too

Sexual assault while serving in the military is not uncommon, and the effects linger long after veterans are home--and seeing civilian physicians like you.

Mood, anxiety, and substance-use disorders and suicide risk in a military population cohort

There are meager prospective data from nonclinical samples on the link between anxiety disorders and suicide or the extent to which the association varies over time. We examined these issues in a cohort of 309,861 U.S. Air Force service members, with 227 suicides over follow-up. Mental disorder diagnoses including anxiety, mood, and substance-use disorders (SUD) were based on treatment encounters. Risk for suicide associated with anxiety disorders were lower compared with mood disorders and similar to SUD. Moreover, the associations between mood and anxiety disorders with suicide were greatest within a year of treatment presentation.

[Urgency of an issue of promptness of making decision for evacuation of aircraft]

The goal of the given research was actualization of an issue of promptness of making decision for evacuation of aircraft by the pilot as a method of improvement of the effectiveness of the air staff saving. The aims were review of trends in safety benefits of the air staff in case of evacuation of modern aircrafts and grounding of decision-problem of catapulting. The authors said about importance of training, medical-psychological preparation and entitlement of the air staff to flights. The need for exercise of ability and readiness for timely making decision for evacuation of aircraft steadily with piloting learned behavior is demonstrated. The authors concluded that if pilot has ill health, any emotional disturbance, negative social dominance before the flight, specialists should pay attention to it, because these factors can lead to violation of stability of psychical processes at the supreme moment and bring incorrect actions on.

[Psychophysiological peculiarities of occupational suitability forecasting among signalmen]

Among military signalmen on the initial stage of radiotelegraphist's professional activity the group of the persons (34,3%) which are essentially characterized by worse psychophysiological parameters of central nervous system functioning by visual and acoustical analyzers has been selected. The most informative indicator (functional mobility of nervous processes on the acoustical analyzer) for differentiation of these subgroups has been offered. There is established, that the subgroup of the servicemen with the worse parameters of functional organization of organism on the informative and energy levels can be related to "risk" group. The decisive rules have been developed which allow classifying investigated servicemen on "risk" group and group that is suitable for radiotelegraphist's activity.

[Medical and psychological prediction of professional readiness of graduates of military school]

The authors propose a method for assessing the professional readiness of graduates of military educational institution, taking into account academic performance, the results of sociometric surveys, data on the professional fitness and health. The high efficiency of the developed method for predicting successful adaptation of graduates to serve in the armed forces is showed.

[Methodology of medical and psychological analysis of the causes of the pilot's errors]

On the basis of the terms of the concept of "personal factors" the author proposes the methodology for medical and psychological analysis of the causes of the pilots' errors. We consider the basic qualities of the pilot: the needs and motivations, professional readiness for flight, health status and functional capacities, professionally important qualities. The author gives the characteristics of the components of the aviation system, which create prerequisites for the occurrence of the pilots' errors.

[Peculiarities of research of flying thinking]

New approach to the research of flying thinking is offered. This approach is based on principals of stage-by-stage approach (research of the reflection of every parameter of flight, than its aggregate in figured and conceptual framework), on the usage of the methods of registration of inner and external characteristics of activity of the air staff with the priority of research of content area and mechanisms of flying thinking, typology of content area and mechanisms of flying thinking. This approach is also based on the effectiveness of reflection by means of correlation of the detected figured and conceptual framework with time and correctness of decisions of test flight tasks and with different psychophysiological characteristics.

[Psychophysiological factors of maintaining mental health in individuals with extreme professions]

The research aims to establish psychophysiological factors of maintaining health in individuals, in whose professional activities on the substantial level there is an extreme component. During the research it was established that the effective work of regulatory mechanisms contributes to the formation of the mental health, which stability is not a factor contributing to the restoration of psychophysiological resources.

Differential brain activation to angry faces by elite warfighters: neural processing evidence for enhanced threat detection

BACKGROUND

Little is known about the neural basis of elite performers and their optimal performance in extreme environments. The purpose of this study was to examine brain processing differences between elite warfighters and comparison subjects in brain structures that are important for emotion processing and interoception.

METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS

Navy Sea, Air, and Land Forces (SEALs) while off duty (n = 11) were compared with n = 23 healthy male volunteers while performing a simple emotion face-processing task during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Irrespective of the target emotion, elite warfighters relative to comparison subjects showed relatively greater right-sided insula, but attenuated left-sided insula, activation. Navy SEALs showed selectively greater activation to angry target faces relative to fearful or happy target faces bilaterally in the insula. This was not accounted for by contrasting positive versus negative emotions. Finally, these individuals also showed slower response latencies to fearful and happy target faces than did comparison subjects.

CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE

These findings support the hypothesis that elite warfighters deploy greater processing resources toward potential threat-related facial expressions and reduced processing resources to non-threat-related facial expressions. Moreover, rather than expending more effort in general, elite warfighters show more focused neural and performance tuning. In other words, greater neural processing resources are directed toward threat stimuli and processing resources are conserved when facing a nonthreat stimulus situation.

[Regularity of psychophysiological adaptation to military-professional activity among staff of Northern Fleet]

There were examined regularities of psycho-physiological adaptation of different categories of military-navy specialists, were detected periods of maximum decrease of compensation abilities among sailor-men and staff reserve of Naval Fleet from students. Were educed psycho-physiological strategies of adaptation of military-navy specialists in dependence of reference level of adaptation capabilities. Was detected the influence on the process of psycho-physiological adaptation to service activity of young specialists of a complex of psychological and social factors. Was educed the influence of ulterior motive on success of psycho-physiological adaptation to new conditions of environment. Was elaborated a complex of measures on optimization of accompaniment of adaptation of military-navy specialists and was given financial evaluation of it's implementation.

Helping military children cope with parental deployment: role of attachment theory and recommendations for mental health clinicians and counselors

Military deployment of a parent carries with it a number of stresses for children, all centering around uncertainty, instability and unpredictability. This article conceptualizes military deployment and relocation stress in the context of attachment theory, and describes the types of adverse outcomes that can occur as the result of impaired attachment. It then presents a set of practical recommendations for mental health clinicians and counselors for helping children and families cope productively and negotiate the developmental hurdles associated with maintaining healthy attachment and family stability in the face of military deployment.

[Peculiarities of psychophysiological status of flying staff of fighter aircraft of land basing]

It was investigated the influence of professional activity on psychophysiological peculiarities of fighter pilot of different types of aircraft of land basing and afloat aircraft. As a result of investigation, it was determined that on base of social parameters they are equal. Airmen of the aviation of land basing have a similar personality profile, but different types of interpersonal relations. Station of depletion among airmen of the aviation of land basing was absent. Among airmen of afloat aircraft every third had a forming stage of depletion, characterized by emotional deficit, personal suspension, psychosomatic and psychovegetative disorders.

[Traumatic stress and personal characteristics of participants in combat operations]

The article presents an analyze of influence of combat traumatic stress on personal characteristics of combat-operations participant of the Afghan war. The research has shown that there are differences in personal peculiarities by veterans, having different psychological pathology. The structure of these violations is interdependent with effective crossing of consequences of psycho trauma. Pathological reactions (chronic post-traumatic stress disorder) is aligned with decrease of psychological functions, emotional disorders (uneasiness, emotional instability, tension) and personal peculiarities (noncomformity, difficultness with understanding of life, low indexes of moral and willed qualities of I-conception). For effective negotiation of consequences of post-traumatic stress it's necessary to solve problems, aligned with understanding of life (finding of purposes and feeling of control under the life) and change attitude to your self in aspect of moral and willed component.