Military psychology involves explaining or application of human behavior in relation to the military. This paper integrates a brief definition of psychology and military psychology in order to provide a comprehensive understanding of military psychology. The purpose of the paper is to present a research done on the psychology and its role in the military. The paper helps us understand the usefulness of psychology in the military. It also provides a solution to where and when the military psychological test should be carried out. Several journals are used to provide a solution to the questions: who does the psychological job in the military? What are the types of psychological effect faced by the military? How to handle a military personnel in a periodic healthcare service? What type of psychological support is needed for a military family?
Keywords: Military psychology, Psychology.
Psychology and Its Role in MilitaryIntroduction
Psychology involves scientifically studying the mind and behavior of a human being. It is a multidisciplinary field of study that comprises of sports, social behavior, clinical, cognitive processes, and human development. Psychology has been present for over one hundred and fifty years. The main role of psychology as a science is to systematically investigate causes of behavior by use of objective techniques in observing, analyzing, and measuring supported by the generalizing, explanation, prediction and theoretical interpretations (Schultz " Schultz, 2015).
Psychology studies a vast range of phenomena: perception and sensation, memory and learning, child development, social behavior, language and thinking, intelligence, social behavior and personality among others. Moreover, psychologists study these subjects from diverse, and corresponding psychological views. Every perspective in psychology is based on a mutual set of assumptions of what is crucial to study and how to do it and the nature of people. Some psychologist examines how human process information, others study the brain in detail, others study the effect of society and culture, and some conduct deep analysis on the role of evolution (Schultz " Schultz, 2015).
Military psychology is critical as it helps soldiers recover from the emotional trauma they get in the war, and inspire hope to the veterans. The military psychologist also called clinical military makes it a priority to have a psychologist onboard, on every war trip they go. Clinical military demand has grown significantly due to the creation of awareness and the numerous military activities over the past year (Xue et al., 2015).
Literature Review
The military children have an advantage over the other non-military children. Military children have access to health services, housing, recreation facilities, school, support service, and sports. This enables the military children to cope with circumstances associated with military families such as, a parent being away for a long time which can come unexpected, frequent relocation, psychological and medical consequences of placement despite in access to improved services. The psychological effect affects military children differently, the older a child gets the more the psychological needs (Park, 2011).
Most of the military personnel are spouse, mothers, and fathers, and in some cases, they fail to make it home. The military psychology is responsible to offer psychological support to the family or spouses. Some of the military personnel become violent to their families and in rare occasions hurt their family. Such soldiers and the family require psychological support to be able to cope with the situation (Schultz " Schultz, 2015).
Despite being psychologically screened before and after deployment. The military personnel member is expected to take an annual health and psychological assessment. All members of the military service must complete a health risk appraisal before visiting their health care providers. Health risk appraisal is used by the military psychologist to assess their patients. HRA includes questions regarding alcohol consumption but it doesn’t include suicidal or depression question. The private healthcare providers aren’t allowed to ask follow-up questions regarding psychological health conditions. They are only allowed to document any of the unresolved health concerns that came up before or after deployment assessment result (Park, 2011).
Critical Analysis
In the military, a military psychologist is responsible for treating and diagnosing the military personnel. They are deployed together with the military members to support them in their duties. Clinical military work in the veterans’ homes where they take care of the veterans. A military psychologist can be a research psychologist specialized on factors affecting military personnel or military personnel themselves or even civilians. Moreover, they help the family members of the military personnel who is affected physically or emotionally during the war or another significant phenomenon (Park, 2011).
Psychologist in the military must have unique knowledge and vast skills since the branch of psychology are very diverse. For instance, some psychologist focuses on the assessment of aptitude, relationship and marriage counseling and helping deployed soldiers in their centers. While other psychologists are hired to help the military commanders come up with a training program (SERE) Survival, Escape, Resistance and Evasion for elite soldiers and navy seals (Schultz " Schultz, 2015).
Psychologist in the military devotes most of their time trying to prevent, rather than treating the patient from psychological problems. In case a problem kicks in despite prevention measures, they try to treat it at its first stages before it becomes unmanageable. Military psychologist encourages healthy behavior and good stress management techniques to the military personnel they help. The military psychologist is a critical body in the military that is crucial in the preparation of the military before being deployed. Some of the militaries may be suffering from PTSD or grief after losing a comrade, they need psychological help to overcome all this (Xue et al., 2015).
The main role of the military psychologist is to treat, assess and diagnose military personnel of any mental disorder. They also offer therapeutically services, such as training, psychoeducational programs, and counseling the military clients. A military psychologist is involved in deep research on the factors that affect military especially when in combat, improving the treatment of PTSD and how to effectively handle military personnel psychological needs (Xue et al., 2015).
Some of the militaries are affected physically and emotionally during the war. Some of them lose parts of their body such as legs and hands or even the whole lower body party. To ensure that a solder with such effects remains positive in life, it’s important to carry a psychological procedure such as counseling. According to some ex-military personnel, a smell or an event in their present life can act as a reminder of the phenomenon they faced during the war. The military psychologist must work hard to make the affected military the positivity of what they do; protect their nation from invasion by enemies (Hawkins et al., 2018).
Before military is deployed, military psychologist ensures that all members in that battalion are fit for deployment to minimize the level of casualties. Those unfit for deployment are left behind and are helped to recover. After every combat before the soldiers are psychologically assessed again to ensure they don’t pose threat to the general public and their families. In the training before being recruited into the military, a psychological assessment is carried out and those found with the questionable psychological profile are denied the chance to join the service (Xue et al., 2015). Those who get a chance to join the service undergo a thorough psychological treatment to ensure they are ready to face the unknown in the enemy lines. Soldiers who are physically and emotionally fit tend to serve well and don’t act out of emotions, they make educated decisions free of biasness and in doing so keep their colleagues safe. Conclusion
When military personnel is deployed in the war zones, it may result in adverse psychological conditions such as PTSD, depression, interpersonal violence or suicide. In turn, any of the above-mentioned effects may have several sequelae comorbidities that may impact the family way of life or health significantly. Some of the conditions such as PTSD are complicated in nature and calls for further research to understand them better. To avoid further complication on the affected patient, its best to take care of the effects immediately a patient shows signs. Multiple levels of prevention strategies are required to fully address the influence of the psychological health effects at each level. Finally, military personnel are crucial to the stability of any country and require to be physically and emotionally fit to do so.
References
Hawkins, S. A., Vie, L. L., Wolf, P. S., Lester, P. B., Whittaker, K. S., Hawkins, J. N., " Perez, A. L. (2018). Measuring Job Performance in the Army: Insights from Evidence on Civilian Stress and Health. In Occupational Stress and Well-Being in Military Contexts (pp. 49-68). Emerald Publishing Limited.
Park, N. (2011). Military children and families: strengths and challenges during peace and war. American Psychologist, 66(1), 65.
Schultz, D., " Schultz, S. E. (2015). Psychology and Work Today: Pearson New International Edition CourseSmart eTextbook. Routledge.
Xue, C., Ge, Y., Tang, B., Liu, Y., Kang, P., Wang, M., " Zhang, L. (2015). A meta-analysis of risk factors for combat-related PTSD among military personnel and veterans. PloS one, 10(3), e0120270.
