Enhancing Human Performance Issues, Theories, and Techniques, Background Papers (Complete Set) (1988) / Chapter Skim
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PART IV. Stress Management
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Stress and Performance Seymour Levine Stanford University School of Medicine
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These responses have been involved in mechanisms as basic as immunological function, metabolic function, and fundamental psychological processes, such as memory and learning. Since one of the primary problems in stress research is conceptual, and this problem takes many forms, there is a great deal of confusion in the field.
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Problems with this view have occurred at several levels. First, there was an early emphasis on the physical and chemical aspects of the stressful stimuli, and we now know that psychosocial stimuli are also potent elicitors of the stress response.
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We believe that much of the controversy over stress theory can be eliminated through clarification of the "afferent limb," that is, by focusing on the nature of the stimuli that provoke physiological responses rather than on the physiological responses themselves. This type of investigation requires an unusual integration of physiology and psychology -- disciplines which have traditionally been separated -- and puts the major emphasis on psychological variables.
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(1951) examined the physiological response of participants in the Harvard Boat Race.
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There is abundant evidence indicating that the hormone function of other endocrine systems -- including insulin, growth hormone, and prolactin -- can also be influenced by psychological variables. In addition, it has been demonstrated recently that the endorphins are also extremely responsive to stress.
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. That rapid hemorrhaging induces adrenocortical activity, while slow rates of hemorrhaging do not, once again indicates that the rate of stimulus change is one important parameter for the induction of pituitary-adrenal activity.
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Page 8 of a stressor AS Z three_, or the coping responses that are available to the subject, may well determine the physiological response. It may be insufficient, therefore, to merely describe the stimulus operations involved in producing a stressor.
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Thus, the habituated organism has an internal representation of prior events with which to deal with the environment -- expectancies -- and if the environment does not contain any new contingencies, the habituated organism no longer responds with the physiological responses related to the alerting reaction. Activation of the pituitary-adrenal system by any change in expectancy can also be accounted for by invoking the powerful explanatory capacity of the Sokolov model.
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. Thus, minor changes, such as placing the animal in a different cage, but one identical with its home cage, resulted in an elevation of plasma corticosterone, but one that was significantly less than when the animal was placed in a totally novel cage containing none of the elements of its familiar living conditions.
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. Dogs were subjected to a series of electric shock which were either controllable or predictable.
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than do control animals. Thus, an organism exposed to an uncontrollable and unpredictable set of aversive stimuli not only shows a dramatic increase in adrenocortical activity while exposed to these conditions, but there is also a long-term effect in other unrelated test conditions.
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Thus, not only is an elevation of plasma corticosterone observed when reinforcement is eliminated, but if the animal receives less reinforcement than it has previously become accustomed to, then elevations of plasma corticosterone also occur. A similar phenomenon can be observed when using aversive stimuli.
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In the case of habituation, it is presumed that the organism has changed its evaluation of the stimulus through repeated experience and has developed a set of expectancies concerning the benign characteristics of the stimulus or environment. Coping, on the other hand, is a more active process and can be defined in terms of the absence of a physiological response even under conditions in which the aversive stimulus continues to be present.
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Control, in and of itself, can reduce an organism's physiological response to such noxious stimuli as electric shock. It has been observed that rats able to press a lever to terminate shock show less severe physiological disturbances (e.g., weight loss and gastric lesions)
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The effect of control on plasma cortisol levels was also demonstrated very clearly in a recent experiment on dogs (Dess et al., 1983~. These animals were subjected to a standard procedure used to produce learned helplessness.
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investigated a variety of endocrine parameters, including growth hormone and cortisol, in a large group of air traffic controllers during and after the work day. The job demands placed upon air traffic controllers have been considered to be extremely stressful.
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In an extensive series of studies, Weiss demonstrated that if two groups of rats were subjected to the same amount of electric shock, the severity of the ulceration was reduced if the animal could respond -- avoid and escape -- and if the situation had some feedback information, i.e., a signal following the termination of shock. Although feedback information usually occurs in the
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After the first jump experience, there was a dramatic elevation of plasma cortisol, but as early as the second jump, there was a significant drop to basal levels; thereafter, basal levels persisted on subsequent jumps. It is also important to note that the fear ratings changed dramatically following the first and second jumps, so that there was very little fear expressed after the second jump, even though there had been a very high rating of fear prior to the first jump.
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We can therefore speculate that any set of operations that reduces uncertainty, whether they be passive such as habituation, or active such as the utilization of control, predictability, or feedback, can lead to an amelioration or elimination of adrenal activation. SOCIAL SUPPORT There are now ample behavioral and physiological data which point to the importance of social relationships in determining an individual's ability to cope with stress.
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The effects of social support on the pituitary-adrenal system have been inferred in the now highly cited studies of Bourne (1970, 1971) conducted during the Viet Nam war.
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In contrast, most of the enlisted men actually showed a suppression of adrenocorticoids on the expected day of attack, which returned to basal levels in the following days. According to Bourne, the problem confronting the radio
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Although Bourne implicated social variables in the modulation of the adrenocortical response under these extremely stressful conditions, it is clear that the data are open to other interpretations. One could argue that in the case of both the helicopter medics and the enlisted men, they were able to exercise a large degree of control, and that this control may be the more important determinant of their low level of adrenal activity under these circumstances.
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. In order to determine whether a group could serve as an effective modulator of stress responses, we exposed squirrel monkeys to a live boa constrictor, which was presented above their cage in a wire mesh box.
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In a further study, social buffering, the apparent capacity of group membership to reduce adrenocortical responses to stress, was investigated in squirrel monkeys using a conditioning paradigm which involved classical conditioning or cortisol secretion. Adult males were assigned to two groups: one group received pairing of conditioned stimulus (CS)
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One of the important aspects of social support systems which differs from ordinary coping mechanisms is that these systems do not require the organism to deal directly with the aversive event, per se. How then is it possible to fit the data on social support within the general context of the propositions that uncertainty leads to an activation of the pituitary-adrenal response, and that reduction of uncertainty reduces or eliminates this response?
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We have demonstrated in several experiments that there is a a striking elevation of plasma cortisol when animals are placed in a new social group and, in fact, this elevation of cortisol can continue for several months (Coe et al., 1983a; Gonzalez et al., 1981~. CATECHOLAMINES Thus far, we have emphasized the importance of psychological factors in regulating one of the major stress responses to the pituitary-adrenal system.
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The plasma cortisol was rapidly reduced to basal levels after the first jump off the tower. However, although the magnitude of the epinephrine response was also diminished after repeated jumps, there was still a significant elevation of epinephrine even at the last jump, whereas the response of the pituitary-adrenal system had long ceased to be significant.
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previously reported that the ACTH response in animals that were shocked and fought, compared with those only shocked, was significantly reduced in the fighting animals. Dantzer and Mormide report that plasma corticosterone was also significantly reduced in animals tested after a repeated series of electric shocks when fighting was permitted.
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However, when the subject is given repeated experiences in which feedback information is presented and coping mechanisms are evoked, the response of the pituitary-adrenal system either diminishes or ceases. In contrast, it is assumed that these systems still require some attention and vigilance on the part of the subject, and therefore the catecholamine system continues to be responsive.
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In this section, we will attempt to review the effects upon subsequent learning and performance "proactive effects which have been pursued within the context of testing learned helplessness theory. In the classic proactive interference experiment, Overmier and Seligman (1967)
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The dogs received 64 5-second electric shocks of moderately high intensity delivered on the average of 1/minute. After 24 hours the animals were then placed in a standard two-way shuttle-box apparatus (designed to test conditioned avoidance learning)
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These are shown in Table 1. Furthermore, within the aversive-aversive category, similar effects of uncontrollability can be found when stimuli other than electric shock are utilized.
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Of more importance is the fact that the magnitude of the aftereffects appeared no smaller when the aversive stimuli were different in the pretreatment tests than when they were the same. Rosellini (1978)
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They suggested that detrimental effects on performance following exposure to unpredictable uncontrollable stressors, (which occur due to the substantial effort required to adapt to these aversive events) would leave one less able to cope with subsequent demands and frustrations, because predictable and controllable stresses were viewed as less aversive adaptations of these stresses, would presumably require less effort and, therefore, would be less likely to impair post-stimulation performance.
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their work that exposure to unpredictable uncontrollable stress produces post-et maiation deficits in performance on a number of tasks, and that the ability to predict and control stressors ameliorates these deficits. It is not the purpose of this report to comprehensively review all of the studies that have shown deficits in some aspect of performance as a consequence of prior exposure to uncontrollable and unpredictable stress.
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. Although the Glass and Singer research suggests that post-stimulation effects occur only following unpredictable noise, at least two studies reported similar deficits following exposure to high intensity steady-state continuous noise.
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Spatial density is manipulated by varying available space but keeping the number of people constant; social density is manipulated by varying the number of people occupying a fixed quantity of space. As an example of the aftereffects of spatial density, Sherrod (1974)
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Whereas females who had been exposed to high levels of density performed more poorly on the Stroop test than did their low-density counterparts, males performed better after high than after low density. Glass and Singer also have reported that there are post-exposure deficits in performance following a variety of other stressful conditions, which include electric shock, a frustrating experience with a bureaucracy, and an experience of arbitrary or sex discrimination.
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What does appear to be particularly cogent is the control, or perceived control, over the termination of the stress. There is a single study that indicates that initiation control, that is, the ability to control the onset of the stress, similarly produces an amelioration of the post-stress performance deficits.
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In a subsequent study, 8th grade children from high-density apartments were more adversely affected by a learned helplessness pretreatment (insoluble puzzles) than were their low-density counterparts.
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They occur as a result of a wide range of stressors, such as noise, electric shock, social density, etc. Interventions that increase control and predictability are effective in reducing these effects.
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Levine (1966) also reported a study in which, as electric shock increased in an avoidance learning paradigm, the ability of the animals to learn declined beyond
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studied reaction time in palmer conductance, an index of autonomic activity. Over a period of many days, 100 measures of palmer conductance and reaction time were taken.
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has repeatedly stated that at the level of a specific individual, the problem is to determine what kind of stress evokes what kind of stress response in what kind of person. What does emerge from the theoretical considerations presented here and from the experimental data on the biological and behavioral consequences of stress, is that control is a major mechanism by which organisms can effectively deal with
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stressful conditions; and that the absence of control or loss of control can indeed have profound and pe.~'anent effec variety of tasks. Page 46 ts on individual performance on a wide
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1958 Aging and psychological adjustment. Reviews in Educational Research 28:475-490.
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Cobb, S 1976 Social support as a moderator of life stress.
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Dess, N.K., Linwick, D., Patterson, J., Overmier, J.B., and Levine, S 1983 Immediate and proactive effects of controllability and predictability on plasma cortisol responses to shocks in dogs.
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Gann, D.C. 1969 Parameters of the stimulus initiating the adrenocortical response to hemorrhage.
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et al. 1973 Perceived control of aversive stimulation and the reduction of stress responses.
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Hennessy, J.W., King, M.G., McClure, T.A., and Levine, S 1977 Uncertainty, as defined by the contingency between environmental events, and the adrenocortical response of the rat to electric shock.
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1966 UCS intensity and avoidance learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology 71:163-164.
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Journal of Human Stress 1:6-12. 1975b A historical view of the stress field.
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Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology 63:28. Pavlov, I.P.
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Endocrine activity in air traffic controllers at work.
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Seligman, H.E.P. 1975 Learned Helplessness: On Depression, Development and Death.
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1977 Effects of personal causation and perceived control on responses to an aversive environment: The more control, the better. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 13:14-27.
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1981 Behavioral and adrenocorticoid responsiveness of squirrel monkeys to a live snake: Is flight necessarily stressful? Behavioral and Neural Biology 32:391-405.
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Fight, H.T., and Katzev, R.D. 1977 Noncontingent positive reinforcers retard later escape/avoidance learning in rats.
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Page 6i TABLE 1 Classes of Proactive Interaction Experiments, Including Exemplars (Overmier et al., 1980) Controllable Event in Learning Test Uncontrollabie Event in Pretreatment .
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- ~~ Stress Reduction Programs Raymond W Novaco University of California, Irvine
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U~li~ation of Stress Reduction in blilitary Con~cex~cs A C~nicalLntervenaons 51 B
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The duty requirements for drill instructors and unit officers will curtail the extension of stress reduction strategies that are otherwise useful for civilians. This is not to say that methods of tension reduction have no applicability, to clarify the point of this example.
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However, while much is also known about stress reduction, its programmatic application in an organizational context presents multiple challenges. The unique aspects of military life and the special characteristics of military environments, such as recruit training and officer training, call for careful thought in applying knowledge about stress and stress reduction.
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The duty requirements for drill instructors and unit officers will curtail the extension of stress reduction strategies that are otherwise useful for civilians. This is not to say that methods of tension reduction have no applicability, to clarify the point of this example.
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The aim will be to provide a basic conceptual background for what is to be presented on stress diagnostic procedures, stress reduction, and prospects for implementation in military settings. OVERVIEW OF THE STRESS FIELD Contemporary research on human stress tracks a number of main areas of investigation, these being (a)
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stress reduction strategies. Each of these areas is relevant to military settings and the well-being of military personnel.
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1. Stress is induced by environmental demands that exceed coping resources, thus disturbing homeostatic balance.
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Attention to environmental demands and response sensitivity to them are a function of expectation and appraisal structures pertaining to both environmental demands and coping resources. 4.2 Behavioral transactions with the environment influence the probability and degree of exposure to environmental demands and the course of stress reactions.
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Supportive social relationships mi Ligate ache impact of environmental demands. Social support insulates the person from otherwise debilitating forces in the environment and facilitates coping with life crises.
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, and (3) taking a static perspective instead of a transactional one, which would recognize that coping skills can be learned during stressful life experiences.
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A central component of stress reactions is physiological arousal. While it is not always the case that arousal is assessed in stress research, it is routinely assumed that patterns of physiological activation underlie illness process.
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at the Walter Reed Army Institute, whose work in basic training and combat environments will be discussed later. However, here it can be noted that his laboratory-based research demonstrates that Selye's non-specificity concept does not hold when psychological states (e.g., novelty, apprehension, appraisal)
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The significance of physiological arousal as a stress response is threefold. First, pronounced physiological activation constitutes a disturbance of homeostatic balance.
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Emotional states that constitute functional disturbances are indeed a major category of stress reactions. In addition to fear/anxiety and anger, guilt, shame)
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the threatening psychological ambiance of combat. The ability of combat personnel to cope with these powerful stressors has an important bearing on their performance effectiveness.
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on combat-related stress disorders among Vietnam veterans. The adverse consequences of stress and the psychiatric casualties that may eventuate are a concern for United States military organizations not only because of the humanistic values at the foundation of our society but because the effectiveness of combat units is seriously impaired.
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Their concerns were made salient by the Yom Kippur War (1973) , which in contrast to the Six Day 'War (1967)
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. MILITARY SOCIALIZATION AND THE ETHOS OF TRAINING Despite variations across branches of the armed services, military recruit training has a relatively homogeneous process.
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Very similar points had been made by Eisenhart (1975) , a Marine Corps Vietnam veteran, in his "You Can't Hack It, Little Girl" portrayal of basic training as brutal and emotionally conflictual.
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He does, however, give a distorted view of drill instructor competence, getting too locked into his portrait of them as harsh manipulators grinding out masculine warrior themes. Marine Corps commanders at the battalion, regimental, depot, or Headquarters level do not endorse the archetypal "DI" personification, nor do the NCO supervisors of drill instructors, nor is such an image cast in Drill Instructor School.
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Moreover, our evaluation data in drill instructor performance show that the angry, impatient, highly activated drill instructor performs poorly and receives low ratings from NCO and officer supervisors. A sanguine view of military socialization can also be found in the longitudinal research of Elder (1986)
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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.
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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.
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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 ant 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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, 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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. The phasic nature of stress during basic training is easily observed and is commonly reported by training personnel.
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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.
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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.
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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)
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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.
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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)
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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.
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. Social Conditions In the stress field, the topic of social support has become a major subarea.
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, 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.
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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.
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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.
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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)
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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.
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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.
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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.
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STRESS REDUCTION Both individuals and organizations act as architects of stress as well as become victims of it. The objective, traditions, and policies of organizations shape the work social environment, affecting the demands and contingencies that impinge on its members.
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Since physiological activation constitutes a core component of stress reactions, procedures designed to reduce arousal are commonly part of stress management programs. Both mental as well as physical relaxation are emphasized.
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There are a few reports of the use of arousal reduction procedures with military persons. Herrell (1971)
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While arousal reduction procedure are the intuitively sensible approach for treating stress disorders, it should be added that counter-intuitive methods have also been used. Fairbank and Keane (1982)
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S Mess R e Tucson ~ 3 restructure how they view the world and themselves. The treatment efficacy of such procedures has been extensively documented in edited volumes by Kendall and Hollon (1979)
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and intrinsic to the present view of stress reduction is the importance of behavioral competencies in coping. Pearlin and Schooler (1978)
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Goal setting is a cognitive-behavioral skill that has been incorporated into many stress reduction approaches and other enterprises concerned with performance effectiveness. It involves an assessment of personal values, the development of short-term versus long-term goals, and a clear specification of them.
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Acquiring new behavior patterns and modifying old ones are essential to goal setting as a stress management strategy. Their review of limited work in this area finds mixed results in empirical evaluations.
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Job pressures themselves may require very efficient allocation of attention. In these regards, time management becomes an important stress coping skill.
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Stress Reduction 48 The first step in effective time management is overload avoidance. Learning to avoid excessive obligations can be difficult for high achievers, but realistic goal setting can pave the way.
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They called the anxious hyperventilation, "Radar Robert," for his high need for feedback. Stress Inoculation A cognitive-behavioral approach to clinical problems, particularly stress-related disorders of anxiety, anger, and pain, is the stress inoculation model, first developed by Meichenbaum (1975)
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For surgical patients, this was a three part counseling procedure that included a realistic assessment of the situation, reassurance about coping resources to counteract helplessness, and encouragement to develop a personal coping plan. Among the applications has been to recruits in Marine Corps basic training (Novaco et al., 1983)
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UTILIZATION OF STRESS REDUCTION IN MILITARY CONTEXTS There is very little published. research on stress reduction in the military.
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. A case report of abreactic treatment for a traumatic neurosis from the Yom Kippur War is given by Ueisman (1982)
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A pharmacotherapeutic treatment center that emphasized abreactic cathartic techniques often with chemical induction was established in the wake of the Yom Kippur War in a non-military atmosphere (Benyaku, Dasberg, & Plotkin, 1982)
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Experimental Programs There are a handful of stress management programs that have been implemented in military settings. Some dissertations on cognitive modification and arousal reduction have been conducted with dissertation-size samples, but there are a few larger projects at Army and Marine Corps bases.
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Several stress management programs have been implemented at basic training facilities. Beach, Prince, and Klugman (1977)
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to practice difficult.tasks, imaginally and in viva. The chaplains also ran a "I want out of the Army group each Wednesday evening, which was a pre-existing program that allowed recruits the chance to ventilate feelings and discuss ways of dealing with basic training.
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While the authors concluded that the negative results were due to omitting material on the Culture shock" elements of basic training, it seems unlikely that depiction of Goffman-like phenomena of identity-stripping, etc., would achieve the desired goals. Instead, the missing ingredient would seem to be information about coping skills.
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Oddly, the absence of significant effects on any manipulation check variable is ignored by the investigators in explaining differential group outcomes, nor were the authors struck by the implausibility of a 14% reduction in attrition reported for postgraduation enlistment as being due to an 80 minute videotape. Another Marine Corps recruit training intervention was conducted by Novaco and Sarason at San Diego (Novaco et al., 1983)
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Presently underway is a very extensive project designed to teach stress coping skills to Marine Corps drill instructors. This intervention program is being conducted at both the San Diego and Parris Island depots.
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The mechanisms by which environmental demands operate to produce stress reactions are linked to features of the physical and loci-cultural milieux that affect stressor salience and signification, mitigating factors, resources, and coping processes. For example, not everyone who has a long commute to work on congested roadways is going to experience stress that is manifested by elevated blood pressure, negative mood, lowered frustration tolerance, impairments in cognitive functioning, and health problems.
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For the most part, these coping skills have been the basis of the intervention that Irwin Sarason and I have undertaken with Marine Corps drill instructors, with the exception of arousal reduction, which seemed less feasible in that context. On the basis of the present review, the prospects for stress reduction can be seen with regard to training environments and the provision of remedial services through mental health units.
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But when the person is either not currently stressed or does not perceive the severity of the impending stress associated with the future duty assignment, then the perceived value of the stress reduction program will be attenuated. Therefore, it will be important to not only give the audience a realistic picture of impending stress but also to tie the ideas about stress coping skills to performance enhancement.
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For example, in my research with Irwin Sarason on Marine Corps drill instructors, we have found that the Speed/Impatience component of Type-A behavior (assessed by the Jenkins Activity Survey) is indeed associated with stress during drill field duty and is predictive of supervision evaluations of job performance (inverse relationship)
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Our research with four DI School cohorts did receive attention by base commanders, and corporals are no longer sent to Drill Instructor School. Our consistent findings of training unit environment effects in recruit training appear also to extend into the first term of enlistment, although analyses on those recruit longitudinal data are not complete.
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The breathing control procedure was too complicated, and there was no monitoring of practice. In general, arousal reduction procedures require time in skill acquisition and application training.
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the ability to regulate stress can be a significant asset to troops and commanders. While research on stress reduction is in its nascency, there already is a core of basic principles and techniques that can be utilized both in training and in treatment units.
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follow-up study of 255 _ . Stress management In two divergent military training settings.
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. Some observations on the psychosocial phenomena seen in basic training.
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. Cognitive and biofeedback training for stress reduction with university athletes.
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) , Stress reduction and pre~ren~cion.
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. A prediction of delayed stress response syndromes in Vietnam veterans.
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Jaremko (Eds.) , Stress reduction and prevention.
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. Validation of a multimethod assessment of posttraumatic stress disorders in Vietnam veterans.
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(1983~. Military recruit training : An arena for stress coping skills.
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. Longitudinal analyses of stress and performance among Marine Corps drill instructors .
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( 1983 ~ . Assessing social support: The social support questionnaire.
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. Stress disorders among Vietnam veterans: The emotional content of combat continues.
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( 1982~ . War neuroses and social support .
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) , Human performance and producti~ri~cy : Stress and performance effectiveness .
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Influence Strategies Dean G Pruitt, Jennifer Crocker, and Deborah Hanes State University of New York at Buffalo
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Key Terms
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