Year: 2010
Type: dissertation
Abstract: When we drove into the centre, just as we crossed the bridge and turned right, they started shooting RPG's at us [...].Immediately, I thought: "well, this is it" [...].We just did not see it coming.Although you expect such a thing to happen, you think "where did this come from?" [...] Then it is for real.We returned fire fiercely, 'Then (i.e., during the ambush) you just fall back on your drills, you notice that you are only executing your drills.And the rest (i.e., of training), you don't think about that'.'It was acting on drills.What you have learned.Just fall back on drills.And that means accelerating (i.e., driver of a vehicle) for one, keeping communications open for the other, and firing for a third 'Thus, training all possible drills and skills to the extent that they are fully automated, appears to be the panacea for effective coping under acute stress.However, it is not possible to train for every possible situation.This is especially the case for military operations nowadays, which can be highly This situation was an important turning point during the ambush that positively affected the turn of events for the stranded group, but also shows how decision making can be impaired by stress.What makes the difference in such situations is how people cope with the stressful situation.Lazarus and Folkman (1984, p. 141) define coping as 'constantly changing cognitive and behavioral efforts to manage specific external and/or internal demands that are appraised as taxing or exceeding the resources of the person'.In other words, coping refers to the way people regulate their behavioral and cognitive reactions during a stressful situation.Effective coping during acute stress situations encompasses all behavioral and cognitive reactions that enable an individual to effectively control the source of threat.Some quotes that illustrate effective coping during the ambush: 'At one moment (i.e., in one of the vehicles during the ambush) when things calmed down, I changed my loading clip and that all happened automatically.' 'We received fire from all sides and then I said: "move away from the vehicle" [...].I thought: when we stay here too long, we are just attracting incoming fire, and everybody will come here.''When we ran across the street (i.e., stranded group, after leaving the vehicle) [...], he ran past that wall and knew that he had to keep a meter distance to the wall, otherwise it can hit the wall and then you.' ' [...] it was very difficult to think, it took a lot of effort.Therefore, with everything we did we said "ok, take it easy and think: what are we going to do?"' Set-up of the study In order to measure coping under acute stress, several basic military training institutions of the Dutch Defense Force were requested to participate in the research.The study is based on three samples coming from different basic military training programs.First, the basic military training part of the officer cadet education of the Netherlands Defence Academy (18 weeks) participated.Second, the basic military training of the Dutch Army Air Mobile Brigade (22 weeks) participated.Third, the basic military training of the Dutch Marine Corps (33 weeks) participated.We studied two cohorts of each of these programs.The first cohort of the Netherlands Defence Academy was a pilot study in which 94 cadets participated.In the second cohort of the Netherlands Defence Academy 264 cadets participated.In total 236 recruits of the Air Mobile Brigade participated, and 170 recruits of the Marine Corps participated in this study.Participation was voluntary.Samples sizes can differ per chapter, because of attrition 3 and not all the participants were present at all measurements.In addition, the data from the Marine Corps were not included in all chapters, because sample size was sometimes too low to include them in the analysis, and because we were not able to collect performance measures in this sample.The purpose of basic military training is to familiarize cadets and recruits with military life, teach basic military skills and drills, and enhance stress resilience.For the latter purpose stressful exercises are used, such as working at great heights, in caves or under water.For the present dissertation, four measurements were conducted during these basic military training programs.Survey sessions in classrooms were conducted at the beginning, middle, and at the end of basic military training, in which person characteristics and perceived organization culture were measured.Stressful military exercises were used 4 to examine appraisal, coping behavior and performance under acute stress.For the 3 Attrition is about 15-20 % for basic military training at the Netherlands Defence Academy and about 50 % for basic military training of the Air Mobile Brigade and the Marine Corps. 4 These exercises were conducted as usual, except that we requested the cadets and recruits, and sometimes the military instructors to fill out a questionnaire afterwards. Chapter 2The influence of person and organization characteristics on coping and performance under acute stress: A conceptual model 5
Author: R. Delahaij
Language: English
Topic: Stress and Burnout Research
Subfield: Social Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2133326613