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"Training is seen as the intentional disruption of
civilian patterns of adjustment, replacement of
individual gratifications with group goals,
inculcation of unquestioning acceptance of authority
and development of conformity to official attitudes
and conduct" (Yarmolinsky, 1975, p. 158~.
These authors, along with Arkin and Dobrofsky (1978) and Dyer (1980),
represent basic training as a conversion process that promotes socialization
to military norms. Stress has an integral function in this process, but the
exposure to this environmental context results in the acquisition of stress
coping skills. As one develops commensurate resources for coping,
environmental demands that once functioned as stressors can then be appraised
as "challenges" that can be handled effectively.
In the face of "humanist" criticisms about the nature of basic training,
researchers and other social scholars must bear in mind that military
institutions indeed have intrinsic defense functions and that training
involves preparation for combat with the objective being the destruction of
the enemy. Military organizations must therefore utilize methods and
techniques of training which provide a realistic test of stress tolerance.
"It is more prudent and ultimately more humane, to provide this screening and
learning under conditions in which the probability of death due to error is
very low than it would be to send ill-prepared troops into combat. This
assumption underlies both the process and content of training ant is one often
overlooked in discussion of the efficacy of methods used by the military"
(Novaco, et al., 1983, p. 392).
DETERMINANTS AND MEDIATORS OF STRESS IN MILITARY SETTINGS
Those who function in military settings are at high risk for exposure to
involved in
stressors . Military obj ectives and the nature of the tasks
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achieving them necessarily entail stress. The concept of stress reduction set
forth in this paper, however, asserts that despite the inevitability of
stressor exposure, psychological dysfunction and performance impairment can be
attenuated if suitable coping skills have been developed and are utilized. So
as to better establish this assertion, stress in military settings will be
discussed in terms of determinants and mediators. This will be organized in
terms of key rubrics in the stress fields, namely environmental context,
cognitive factors, behavior patterns/coping, social conditions, and
organizational factors.
Environmental Context
As elaborated in Novaco et al., (1983), combat environments entailed
multiple sources of stress that have cumulative effects. Exposure to harsh
elements in various environmental fields require an adaptive response from the
soldier, including (a) deprivation of food, sleep, or oxygen, (b) extreme
stimulation involving aversive temperatures and noise, (c) disease-engendering
conditions linked to inadequacies in diet, hygiene, and medical care, and (d)
wounds and injuries that induce trauma and confirm the soldiers most basic
fear. However, in addition to these harsh physical circumstances that affect
tissue needs, there is another pervasive dimension of stress in warfare, which
is the threatening psychological ambiance of combat. This psychological
dimension has several components: the continuous threat of death and injury,
the loss of friends, and the recognition of one's own destructive capacity.
Psychological dysfunction in war settings will of course vary with the
intensity and duration of combat, as well as with organizational factors such
as experience, leadership, unit cohesion, and psychiatric management. Yet it
has been estimated that in a high intensity war, approximately one-third of
all non-death casualties will be psychiatric (Small, 1984). Such estimates
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extrapolate from World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and the Arab-Israeli wars, and
some estimates run much higher. Battlefield psychiatric disorders include
psychoses, psychosomatic syndromes, and acute anxiety reactions. Various
forms of withdrawal may also occur, such as drug use and unexcused absences.
Treatment policies of immediacy, proximity, and expectancy to return to combat
have formed the basis of psychiatric case management (Hilber, 1984; Kormos,
1978). Regarding psychosis, Ginzburg (1959) found that combat exposure did
not increase the rate of psychosis among U.S. soldiers, although neuroses
rates were clearly affected.
Often overlooked in accounts of battlefield psychiatric dysfunction,
however, are manifestations of stress in the form of anger, hostility, and
aggression. In the earliest work on psychopathy resulting from combat,
Kardiner and Speigel (1947) wrote about aggressive impulses as one of the most
common aspects of traumatic neuroses. These believed that it was related to
the irritability and hypertoxicity of the entire muscular system... Easily
aroused to anger, these patients are very prone to motor expression. They
-either break or tear objects in these fits of temper, or strike the people who
happen to be around them" (pp. 212-213). This is an impulsive aggressiveness
related to an incapacity to process information properly. Explosive
irritability and unwarranted rage were identified by Kardiner and Spiegel as a
stage in the progressive development of incapacitating breakdowns, which begin
with poor appetite and carelessness, then involve irritability and exaggerated
reactions of rage, and culminate in freezing, sleep disturbances, and being
terrified of one's own artillery. While observations during the first and
second World Wars led to these ideas of traumatic neuroses as progressive
disorders, it was learned in subsequent wars that combat stress reactions are
not necessarily progressive and are more dynamic (Bourne, 1970~.
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Physiological activation, however, should not automatically be expected
in combat situations, because psychological defenses can operate to suppress
reactivity. Bourne (1969), for example, found in studies of helicopter
ambulance crews and of special forces teams of enlisted men that urinary 17-
hydroxycorticosteroid (OHCS) levels were relatively low, compared to recruits
in basic training, to the population at large, and to the officers in the
units. He attributed the low excretion levels to affective denials and the
self-perception of invincibility.
Recruit training, while hardly analogous to combat, can be seen as having
parallel dimensions of stress exposure. That is, the training regimen entails
difficult physical challenges and also involves psychological shock associated
with isolation, low autonomy, time pressures, ego threat, social comparison,
and authoritarian control. To a large extent, boot camp can be viewed as a
stress inoculation procedure. Recruit training occurs in an intentionally
aversive environment designed to prepare personnel to function effectively
under the conditions of overstimulation found in combat (Novaco & Robinson,
1984).
The intense demands of the recruit training environment have been found
to be associated with both adverse health reactions and psychoendocrine
effects. Voors, Stewarts, Gutekunst, Moldow, and Jenkins (1968) identified
stress as a precipitant of respiratory infection among Marine recruits, and
Poe, Rose, and Mason (1970) viewed stress as one determinant of 17-OHCS
excretion among National Guard recruits. Bourne (1967), examining Marine
Corps recruit training, reviewed research indicating that during the period of
induction, the degree of psychological stress is reflected by 17-OHCS levels
comparable to those of patients measured during incipient psychosis.
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Following up a study by Rose, Bourne, & Poe (1969) on basic training and
soldiers anticipating combat in Vietnam which found suppressed androgen
levels, Krenz, Rose, and Jennings (1972) studied officer candidates at the
Army Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia. These authors found
significantly lower plasma testosterone levels during the stressful part of
Officer Candidate School, confirming the hypothesis about androgen suppression
as a result of stress. Comparisons were made with non-stressed samples and
with the same subjects under conditions of low stress. They also found
significant elevations of plasma cortisol during the stressful phase of the
training program. Psychiatric interview ratings and questionnaire self-
ratings buttressed the analyses.
Specialized training, such as for the Navy Underwater Demolition Team,
has been found to be highly stressful, with pronounced adrenal cortical
activity (Rubin, Rahe, Arthur, and Clark, 1969). The high failure rate in
this program (30 to 70 percent) is seen to be stress related, and stressful
life events have been found to add to the strain that induces dispensary
visits and then training drops. Symptomatology measures of emotional distress
have been found to be strongly correlated within dispensary visits among those
who ultimately drop voluntarily from training (Rahe, Biersner, Rymen, &
Arthur, 1972~.
The phasic nature of stress during basic training is easily observed and
is commonly reported by training personnel. Empirical studies certainly
support such observations. Stewart, Voors, Jenkins, Gutekunst, & Moldow
(1969) found that sick calls peak during the second and third week of training
for Marine recruits. Similarly, Novaco, Sarason, Cook, Robinson and
Cunningham (1979) found that the majority of psychologically categorized
attrition occurs during the first two weeks of Marine Corps training.
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Findings by McCabe and Board (1976) for psychiatric admissions among airmen in
basic training are also that more than two-thirds of admissions occur during
the first 10 days of training. When these authors examined prior illness
history, they also found that those airmen having prior illnesses actually
completed more training than those who had no illness history, thus supporting
a stress reaction view.
Cognitive Processes
When intense environmental demands are inevitable, as in the case of
combat, captivity, or military training, the most accessible form of coping is
cognitive. The relatively low levels of cortical steroid excretion found by
Bourne (1969) among helicopter ambulance crews and special forces teams in
Vietnam was interpreted as a consequence of defensive denial and perceptions
of invulnerability. Easily recalled in this regard are the classic
experiments by Lazarus and his colleagues (Lazarus, 1966) on denial and
intellectualization as cognitive appraisal moderators of anxiety, as reflected
in physiological and self-report indices. However, classic military research
can be cited here also. Janis' (1951) review of adjustment mechanisms to
recurrent air raids found that complete denial of impending danger and
"reversion" to beliefs of personal omnipotence were typical psychological
defenses. The illusion of personal invulnerability is thought to become
reinforced by "remote-miss" as opposed to "near-miss" experiences. While the
remote-miss survived emerges unscathed from an intact shelter, the near-miss
survivors have had a shocking contact with destruction that shatters their
confidence and exposes vulnerability. Assuming that the Vietnam units had
some near-misses, they seem remarkably to have become inoculated against fear
stimuli and solidified the perceptions of invincibility. Unlike civilians
exposed to air raids, combat personnel are engaged in the warfare, and their
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duties may have attention refocusing and task-orienting qualities that
facilitate coping with fear, but they also are more recurrently exposed to
danger.
We have seen that the basic training regimen is an intentional disruption
of civilian patterns of adjustment (Yarmolinsky, 1975) and has been described
in various ways as a conversion process. O'Neill and Demos (1971) described
how stress can operate to effect an ideological conversion. One element is
that the recruit becomes aware that overt rewards are rare, while punishment
and negative reinforcement (cessation or avoidance of aversive consequences)
are the predominant contingencies. Stressors such as yelling and "incentive
training" (rigorous calisthenics) are often used to shape attitudes-behavior.
In this "conversion process," stress contributes to perceptual "tunnel
vision'' and cognitive rigidity. Lazarus (1966) noted that there is a
constriction of the perceptual field under stress ant argued from existing
research that anxiety resulting from stressor exposure interferes with
learning and performance by narrowing the range of attention and by limiting
perceptual cue utilization. As discussed earlier with regard to arousal
effects, this is Easterbrook's (1959) theory. With regard to basic training
environments, stress can be thought to reduce the capacity for critical
thinking and for intellectual reflection about the recruit's experience.
A third aspect of stress in training regimens is that it heightens
suggestibility and thereby can increase receptivity to institutional
influences. O'Neill and Demos (1971) make this point as a generalization of
Pavlov's principle of transmarginal inhibition. Pavlov discovered that
deviation from previously established response tendencies (the ~inhibition" of
conditioned behavior) resulted whenever the stimulus situation was sufficient
to exceed the "margin" for effective response.
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Pavlov's (1927; 1928) conditioning experiments had been disrupted by the
Leningrad flood (Petrograd, September 23, 1924) which threatened the lives of
his caged dogs who subsequently failed to exhibit their conditioned
responses. His idea of "transmarginal inhibition" was that the animal's upper
limit of cortical excitation had been exceeded and the inhibition occurred to
protect the brain from overstimulation. Stimuli which had at one time
elicited the strongest conditioned responses consequently elicited the weakest
ones as the response hierarchy was reversed (Pavlov's "ultraparadoxical
phase"). As the transmarginal inhibition dissipated, the original response
gradient was restored, and as the overexcited cortex recovered, it could learn
to tolerate increasingly greater levels of stimulation. Epstein (1983)
speculated that Pavlov's observations of traumatized dogs are related to what
Freud saw in traumatized soldiers who exhibited "repetition compulsion," but
Pavlov (1941) actually made similar extensions of his concept to war
neuroses. For Freud the traumatic neurosis occurred due to excessive
stimulation, ant the repetition compulsion was an attempt to retroactively
master the stressful experience.
Returning to the association with recruit training suggested by O'Neill
and Demos (1971), it can be seen that some conditions noted by Pavlov (1928)
for the occurrence of transmarginal inhibition are prolonged anticipation of
rewards under stress, confusion or inconsistency in the conditions necessary
for effective response, and fatigue in the responding subject. Such
conditions are indeed part of the early stages of basic training, and stress
may thus be utilized to "recondition" civilian behavior (previously
established response tendencies).
Novaco et al. (1983) presented a cognitive behavioral analysis of recruit
training adjustment that suggests a different perspective on the basic
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training experience. Their analysis was organized around the concepts of
expectations and appraisals which can be seen to undergo considerable
modification as training proceeds. The initial states of disequilibrium and
disorientation from unexpected events and stimulus overload are coupled with
low efficacy expectations. Similarly, the appraisal systems are commonly
those of threat, antagonism, and failure which correspondingly are linked to
states of anxiety, anger' and demoralization.
Over the course of training, however, these cognitive conditions undergo
dramatic change. Repeated exposure to the environment elements over time,
success experiences, and the coping efforts utilized by recruits work to alter
the expectation and appraisal systems. Recruits have been shown to have
strong shifts towards internal locus of control expectancies (Cook, Novaco, &
Sarason, 1982) and develop stronger efficacy expectations as they succeed on
training tasks. They learn to reappraise their drill instructors' behavior,
their pain experiences in physical training, and their role in the social
unit. Importantly, they learn to develop a task-orientation and not be
distracted by irrelevant stimulation and preoccupation.
Very little appears to be known about the cognitive characteristics of
successful soliders. The extensive study by Ginzberg et al. (1959) primarily
addressed demographic, archival, and managerial factors. More recent works
such as the Sarkesian (1980) volume on combat effectiveness, which addresses
the Vietnam experience, says little about cognitive dimensions beyond some
amorphous reference to the will to fight. While considerable work was done to
understand the stress disorders of Vietnam veterans (e.g., Figley, 1978) there
is a virtual absence of information about cognitive pre-conditions that
heighten susceptibility to trauma. A recent study by Foy, Sipprelle, Rueger,
and Carroll (1984) which looked at promilitary adjustment (along with other
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military and combat factors) in the etiology of postraumatic stress disorder
(PTSD) found no effects for premilitary measures. This index consisted of
items covering family stability, parent relationships, school achievement,
disciplinary problems, and social activity. Of course, post-hoc analyses do
not lend themselves to the assessment of pre-existing cognitive structures and
processes, but given that stress reactions are to a significant degree a
function of cognitive mediation, there would seem to be much value in
obtaining measures that identify cognitive risk factors. Studies that have
sought to differentiate PTSD cases from normal and clinical controls have made
physiological and psychometric assessments (Fairbank, Keane, ~ Malloy, 1983;
Malloy, Fairbank & Keane, 1983) but have ignored cognitive dispositions.
Prisoner of war studies might also be informative about cognitive
determinants of stress, but this work as well has given little attention to
cognitive dimensions as preconditions. Deaton, Berg, Richlin, and Litrownik
(1977) examined the coping activities of Navy POWs in solitary confinement in
Vietnam and found that the most useful activities were associated with the
captor-captive relationship. This involved the prisoners attempting to stay
one step ahead of the captor by anticipating his next move and formulating
contingencies for new situations. Communication loaded high on this factor
and was accomplished by a variety of methods. Similar accounts were given in
the press by interview with those held hostage in Tehran after our embassy-was
taken over in November, 1979. Nardini (1952) reported that survival in
Japanese POW camps was related to strong motivation to live, intelligence, a
sense of humor, controlled fantasy life, and controlled emotional
sensitivity. The latter points relate to Spaulding and Ford's (1972; 1977)
account of the Pueblo crew's captivity in North Korea, which reported that the
men who best tolerated stress were bright, able to isolate their emotions, and
able to entertain themselves with fantasy.
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Behavior Patterns and Coping
One of the key factors that has emerged in stress research is the
coronary prone behavior pattern known as Type A behavior. Characterized by
time urgency, competitive drive, and hostility, the behavior pattern has been
found to be associated with risk for coronary artery disease. Recent research
in this area (cf. Chesney & Rosenman, 1985) has given increased attention to
the involvement of anger and hostility as the key risk factor. Longitudinal
research by Barefoot, Dahlstrom and Williams (1982) and Williams et al. (1980)
linked anger/hostility to subsequent disease and mortality. Coupled with
experimental research showing heightened catecholoamine responses among Type
As when faced with challenge or provocation (Krantz & Manuck, 1984), the
involvement of anger has surely been identified, although the nature of the
association remains to be untangled.
This behavior pattern should concern the military and its training
institutions. Each of the three demarcating dimensions has relevance to
military training, particularly for those whose duty it is to train
recruits. Longitudinal studies conducted by me and my colleague Irwin Sarason
have consistently found significant increases in Type A characteristics among
Marine Corps drill instructors. We have found that those men who successfully
complete Drill Instructor School are significantly lower on Type A
characteristics than are those who are dropped, as well as being low on a
variety of other stress risk factors. However, after graduation from Drill
Instructor School and when the tour of duty begins, drill instructors
progressively increase in Type A behavior, particularly the speed/impatience
and anger components. Importantly, these dimensions are inversely related to
performance evaluations by their supervisors. The impatient, irritable drill
instructors are given poor evaluations. These relationships are both
syncronous and predictive (Novaco, Sarason, Cook, Robinson, & Parry, 1983).
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One manifestation of stress and poor coping skills related to anger is
child abuse. While military families are not much different than civilian
families with regard to abuse (Dubanoski & McIntosh, 1984), several types of
stress were found to be related to abuse in military families: family
discord, new baby and continuous child care, ant relocation/isolation. Loss
of control and lack of tolerance were two major reasons for abuse given by
members of the military studied in Hawaii. A study of spousal violence at the
Naval Regional Medical Center in San Diego (Uasileski, Callaghan-Chaffee, &
Chaffee, 1982) found a high level of reported stress in the families in the
preceding twelve months. Low pay, housing problem, and hardship separations
are routine characteristics of military life that impose stress on families
and have been linked to child abuse and neglect among the military (Roth,
1980).
Social Conditions
In the stress field, the topic of social support has become a major sub-
area. It has involved studies of (1) social resources, including measures of
social networks and participation, (2) social behaviors, such as the actual
provision of aid, giving advice, or socializing, and (3) perceptions of
support, that is the individual's assessment of the quality of relationships,
of being cared for and esteemed, and of satisfaction with social
relationships. A good example of the measurement of social support and its
study in experimental contexts is Sarason, levine, Basham, and Sarason (1983).
It is unclear from considerable research how social support operates in
ameliorating stress, but it is a good bet that it has both direct effects on
stressor exposure and buffering effects in enhancing coping resources.
Curiously, in the vast literature accumulating on social support, there is
little if any reference to its relevance to military contexts. Given the
research done at the time of the second World War, this is indeed suprising.
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Interpersonal strain undermines military organizations, because it is
well-established that group cohesion, group identification, and loyalty
motivate men to fight. Interpersonal conflict linked to race, gender, or
economic class can be a source of organizational stress, but the fact that it
disrupts processes of social support constitutes a double risk condition. The
concept of te = ark is nowhere emphasized more than in the military, where
supportive social relationships indeed have life preserving functions.
The importance of social bonds for military functioning is nowhere better
emphasized than in Grinker and Spiegel (1945), whose work on air combat units
is indeed a historic milestone in the stress field -- e.g., they had a strong
influence on Lazarus (1966). Their account of human functioning and
psychological adjustment under extreme environmental conditions portrayed the
struggle to master the environment, as well as the failures of adaptation.
They worked with combat soldiers in theaters of battle and in hospital
rehabilitation settings where soldiers were treated for "war neuroses."
Regarding the value of social rela~cionships they stated:
n It is an interesting fact that, although the members
of combat crews are thrown together only by chance,
they rapidly become unlaced to each other by the
strongest bonds while in combat. The character of
these bonds is of the greatest significance in
determining their ability to withstand the stresses of
the combat situation" (p. 22~.
The mutual dependence for protection, the family circle of the combat group,
ant the stress associated with the loss of one's brothers-in-arms are vividly
described by Grinker and Spiegel, who state that the loss of friends in combat
is a major source of emotional stress.
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"The men suffer not only from a sense of bereavement
but from having seen the anguish of a bloody and
painful death . . . ache grief pers is ts and, though i t is
dulled by time, new losses may be added to it. In
addi tion, the loss of friends s simulates
anxiety. . . This double load of grief and anxiety is
part of the heritage of emotional stress incidental to
combat" (Grinker & Spiegel, 1945, p . 35 ~ .
Rachman (1978) in his review of studies on combat fears, including a 17 volume
report by Flanagan on U.S. combat air crews during World War II, states that
the information testifies to the overwhelming importance of social bonds. "It
seems that the most important source of motivation was the small social group
of which each soldier or airman became a part" (p. 50~.
It is the identification with a group and it history tht provides
motivation for combat, and a fighting unit's morale is dependent upon faith in
leadership and faith among unit members. nThere is general agreement that a
major factor protecting the individual soldier from being overwhelmed by war-
related stress is the group cohesiveness of the military unit to which he
belongs, the mutual trust of men and officers, and the high morale and
confidence in themselves" (Milgram, 1982, p. 134). In a comparison of Yom
Kippur War combat units, Steiner and Neumann (1982) attributed differences in
posttraumatic stress reactions to differences in cohesiveness of the units,
although they did not control for pre-combat variables.
Several studies of PTSD Vietnam Veterans have found impairments in social
support for this population. Keane, Scott, Chavoya, Lamparski, and Fairbank
(1985) compared PTSD veterans to well-adjusted veterans and to VA medical
service inpatients. The PTSD group had significant reductions after military
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service in their social network size and in various qualitative dimensions of
social support, particularly emotional support. The comparison groups
reported either maintained or strengthened support systems. Because pre-
military adjustment and support did not differ across groups, Keane et al.
speculate that the combat stress and the low levels of subsequent support
interact to produce gradual increases in symptomatology. In a less elegant
study, Stretch (1985) found significant regressions for returning social
support on PTSD symptoms. The retrospective nature of these studies does
curtail inferences about causal relationships, especially since it has also
been found (Carroll, Rueger, Fry, & Donahue, 1985) that PTSD veterans are less
self-disclosing and expressive to their partners, have greater difficulty
adjusting to dyatic relationships, and are more prone to hostility than are
PTSD-negative combat veterans. An interesting extension is that Stretch,
Vail, and Maloney (1985) report PTSD among Army nurses was very significantly
attenuated by social support during Vietnam and upon return home.
Given that supportive relationships promote adjustment during and after
wartime, it is surely a topic that merits attention by the military. Indeed,
promoting social bonding, team-work, and group morale receive extensive
attention by the military, beginning in basic training. However, it is
questionable whether this emphasis gets beyond the "band of brothers" notion
that is functionally associated with combat performance. Effective combat
units operate with a sense of brotherhood, but a person's overall
psychological adjustment is tied to more spheres of activity and
responsibility than combat, and the value of supportive relationships in these
other domains may be too often ignored or taken for granted.
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Organizational Factors
Analyses of stress that are associated with stress reduction strategies
often ignore conditions in the social environment that potentiate stress, as
well as counteracting forces that can moderate stress reactions and even
reduce exposure to stressors. Organizational factors represent contextual
conditions that importantly bear on what stress is experienced, how it is
experienced, and what is done about it.
As Novaco and Robinson (1984) delineate, attention to organizational
variables might begin with organizational conflict at an institutional level,
dealing with conflict between military and civilean organizations. This,
however, is too broad in scope here, but as Novaco and Robinson indicate, the
ambivalent attitudes toward the military prevailing throughout large segments
of society create a backdrop for tension among military personnel. Members of
the armed forces are beset with economic frustrations due to military pay
scales, a relatively low social status for enlisted personnel that provides no
tradeoff for economic shortcomings, and the fact that a distinct appearance
makes soldiers easy targets for the expression of negative sentiment. These
conditions of the social fabric were prevalent during the Vietnam era and were
the cause of much bitterness. As is well-known, the Vietnam veterans carried
the burden of the war's unpopularity, and their resentment followed from their
belief that they had been manipulated and betrayed (Bourne, 1970; Shatan,
1978). Such frictions and social strain are by no means unique to
Americans. French officers who had spent much of their time after World War
II in Indochina began to resent the French people for their lack of sacrifice
and support, including criticism in the French press (Hauser, 1973).
As Perlmutter (1977) has observed, the military is by no means a
cohesive, coherent, monolithic group. There are many divisions and disputes
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between and within military ranks and hierarchies. However, within a given
organizational unit, we can identify stress as arising from at least three
sources: task generated stress, role-based stress, and stress arising from
interpersonal relationships (Novaco & Robinson, 1984). To s = arize briefly
about these stress origins, task stress occurs when task demands exceed
resources or abilities. This may result from a misfit between Job and worker
or because of task multiplicity or because workload is exacerbated by fatigue
and debilicacinE Emily mn=1 Chance ~ ~ -
person's capabilities, but the
Demands of a given cask may be within a
overall job context (workload and
responsibility) and particular exigencies may deplete resources and thus
induce stress.
A good example of task-generated stress can be observed in the work of
basic training personnel. Drill instructors are responsible for recruits over
training cycles of 9-11 weeks. During this period, the drill instructor must
cope with the strain imposed by (1) a rigorous training cycle in which
activities are tightly programmed, (2) extremely long working hours over
extended periods, (3) myriad difficulties associated with managing the
behavior of 60-90 eighteen-year-olds, (4) family strain resulting from the
heavy workload and recent relocation, (5) the presence of constant supervision
and evaluative scrutiny, and (6) competitive pressures among peers and between
units .
Longitudinal research with Marine Corps drill instructors (Novaco,
Sarason, Robinson, & Cunningham, 1982) found stress levels to escalate
significantly as a function of length of time as a drill instructor. Our
assessments were made prior to the start of duty, after three months, and
after one year. Self-repor: physiological, and performance assessment
coverage to confirm the stress increases. Moreover, performance evaluations
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by supervisors are inversely related to job stress, as is a more catastrophic
outcome, namely being relieved of duty for maltreatment, drug use, or poor
judgment.
Role-based stress, which was found by Kahn, Wolfe, Snoek, and Rosenthal
(1964) to affect five of six men in a national labor force sample, often
occurs with regard to conflicts with organizational superiors. In the
military, the rank structure, coupled with authoritarian discipline, embodies
a system of sharply-defined status differentials. The hierarchical structure
of military authority is predicated on the ultimate need to direct troops in
battle. Orders emanating from higher organizational levels are presumed to
reflect superior information and strategy. Yet role conflict emerges in
battle and after fighting has ended, as combat veterans at times are hostile
to the military and its leaders (Grinker & Spiegel, 1945; Cartright, 1975).
The killing of unpopular officers by their own troops occurred not only in
Vietnam but has been recorded in the American Revolution and the Civil War
(Walton, 1973).
More commonly, role-based stress arises when a set of role demands
contain internally contradictory expectations, such as between military
obedience and the sense of professional competence or ethics. Another role
conflict arena involves the conflicting demands of occupational roles and
family roles. Relocations and other routine disruptions of family life
constitute very significant sources of stress.
The organizational environment of recruit training has been studied with
regard to psychological variables of expectations, intentions, role
attractiveness, job satisfact on. and motives related to employee turnover.
Studies of attrition in recruit training, such as Mobley, Hand, Baker, and
Meglino (1979), have generated multiple regression models that account for
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small but significant proportions of variance.
Studies focused on person-
centered variables have ignored environmental conditions that may be important
determinants of an individual's desire to disengage from the military and/or
the organizational actions that result in separation or discharge.
The stress perspective leads itself to accounting for environmental
factors, and this of course has guided my work with Irwin Sarason which was
concerned with Marine Corps recruit attrition, performance, and adjustment.
We assumed that the nature of environmental demands or stressors in recruit
training are determined not only by the rigorous tasks and challenges
specified by Marine Corps training standards but also by the particular way in
which the training regimen is operationalized by training unit personnel,
specially the drill instructor team. Our conjecture was simply that some
training personnel, especially drill instructors, may intensify the stressful
nature of recruit training beyond the demands inherent in the training regimen
and that this amplification of stress would result in higher rates of
attrition, as well as impairment in performance and psychological adjustment.
This general proposition involves a complex set of hypotheses about
training unit social climates, drill instructor characteristics, unit
performance, and recruit psychological variables. The testing of this
proposition also involved the evaluation of alternative hypotheses in
accounting for attrition, namely one concerning pretraining variables and unit
composition, and another which specified the standards of unit leaders as the
reason for variation in attrition. Our analyses found virtually no support
for the initial composition or the training standards hypotheses, but
considerable support was found for our training unit environment hypotheses.
This was achieved in several archival investigations and in the testing and
tracking of a month's cohort, which was then replicated by a second cohort-
OCR for page 105
Stress Reduction ~9
testing (Novaco, Sarason, Cook, Robinson, ~ Cunningham, 1979; Sarason, Novaco,
Robinson, & Cook, 1981). These studies pointed to the social environment
established by drill instructor teams as a key factor determining attrition,
adjustment, and performance.
STRESS REDUCTION
Both individuals and organizations act
become victims of it.
as architects of stress as well as
The objective, traditions, and policies of
organizations shape the work social environment, affecting the demands and
contingencies that impinge on its members. Correspondingly, the goals,
habits, and expectancies of individuals create recurrent behavioral contexts
and activate events that cause stressful dimensions. Because of these
proactive and transactional aspects of person-environment relationships,
strategies of stress reduction should not be preoccupied with after-the-fact
intervention. While empirical research on this point is grossly lacking,
stress reduction theoretically and pragmatically can be achieved by optimizing
environments and behavior patterns.
Comprehensively, stress reduction entails remediation procedures,
regulatory techniques, and preventive strategies. Remediation Procedures are
interventions implemented to curtail and treat stress reactions. Various
psychological and medical procedures are available for such therapeutic
action. Regulatory techniques are psychological coping tactics utilized to
counteract precursors or elements of stress reactions, particularly with
regard to tension, emotion, and cognition predisposed to stress. Behavior
patterns linked with recurrent stress episodes might also be modified in a
self-regulatory effort. Preventive strategies involve proactive personal and
oganizational action design Lo reduce exposure to stressors, to develop skills
Representative terms from entire chapter:
basic training
