Journal of Defense Management
Open Access

Short Note on Military Psychology

Sherin K^{* *}Correspondence: Sherin K, Department of Military Science, Walden University, Washington, USA, Email:

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Description

Military psychology is an application of psychological theories and the experimentation data towards understanding, predicting and countering behaviour either in friendly or enemy forces or civilian population that may be disagreeable, threatening or potentially dangerous to the conduct of military operations and war. The aims and missions of current military psychologists have been retained over the years, varying with focus and strength of intensity to put forth into each sector. The need for mental health care is now a predictable part of high-stress military environments. The importance and severity of Post- Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) has finally gained more credibility than those suffering from it received in the past, and is being stressed in the treatment programs. More extensive postdeployment screenings take place now in problematic recoveries that may be passed unnoticed and untreated.

Military psychology is applied to 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 military operations. Alternative use of military psychology has been in the interrogation of convicts who were thought to be able to provide information that would enhance outcomes of friendly military operations or reduce friendly casualties. Though, in 2015, the American Psychological Association (APA) prohibited military psychologists from any other participation in national security interrogations, deeming such activity unethical for psychologists. Operational psychology is the use of psychological principles and skills to make advance for military commander's decision making as it pertains to conducting combat and/or related operations. This is a relatively new sub discipline categorization that has been employed mostly by psychologists and behavioral scientists in military, intelligence, and law enforcement arenas. However, psychology has been utilized in non-health related fields for many decades; recent years have seen an increased focus on its national security applications. Examples of such applications may include the development of counterinsurgency strategy through human profiling, interrogation and detention support, informationpsychological operations, and selection of personnel for special mission units. Military psychologists perform work in a diversity of areas, to include operating mental health and family counseling clinics, performing to help select recruits for the armed forces, determining which recruits will be the best suited for various military occupational specialties, and performing analysis on humanitarian and peacekeeping missions to determine procedures that could save military and civilian lives. Some military psychologists also work to improve their lives of service personnel and their families. Other military psychologists work with large social policy programs within the military that are aimed to increase diversity and equal opportunity. Additional modern programs employ the skills and knowledge of military psychologists to address issues such as integrating diverse ethnic and racial groups into the military and reducing sexual assault and discrimination. Some military psychologists help to use low-capacity recruits and rehabilitate drug-addicted and wounded service members. They are in charge of drug testing and psychological treatment for the lifestyle problems, such as alcohol and substance abuse. In modern times, the advisement of military psychologists are being heard and taken more seriously into the consideration for national policy than ever before. There are currently more psychologists employed by the US Department of Defense than by any other organization in the world. Psychological stress has always been a part of military life, especially during and after wartime, but the mental health section of military psychology has not always experienced the awareness. Even in the present day there is much more awareness needed regarding this area. There were two tests that initially made up the intelligence tests for the military i.e Army Alpha and Army Beta tests. They were advanced to evaluate vast numbers of military recruits that were both literate (Army Alpha tests) and illiterate (Army Beta tests). The Army Beta test designed to “measure native intellectual capacity.” The Army Beta test also aided to test non-English speaking service members. Military psychology developed well past the areas aforementioned that concerned psychologists up until this time, branching off into sectors that included military leadership, the effects of environmental factors on human performance, military intelligence, psychological operations and warfare, selection for special duties, and the influences of personal background, attitudes, and the work group on soldier motivation and morals. There were significant challenges that blocked the regular use of psychologists to support combat troops in this war. Often, medical officers, including psychologists, were working in severe conditions with undersized field experience.