Negative affectivity and intellectual ability: A study of their relation to self-reported physical symptoms, perceived daily stress and mood, and disciplinary problems in military recruits (original) (raw)
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Studies on current emotional intelligence have begun to get attention from researchers when some of the books written by Goleman (1995) that discuss the role of emotional intelligence in determining someone's success is something that proves effective and not only depends on the degree of intelligence quotient (IQ) the high one. Goleman's (1995) opinion should be especially emphasized in the context of military care because this emotional intelligence is a key requirement for a member of the military and this profession is not spared from the challenge and is responsible for carrying out major military aspirations. This career requires emotional strength as troops face various situations of war and peace (Muhammad Jamil, 2010). Hence, it appears that there is a gap that requires research in this field to be implemented in the perspective of military careers. Emotional intelligence is the ability of a military member to recognize the feelings of others and the feelings of others, to motivate themselves and to also manage their own emotions well in interacting with others in their surroundings. A military member needs to recognize his own emotions because someone who can recognize his emotions well will be able to act and do something rationally and accurately. This coincides with the task and role of troops who are always in a difficult situation when fighting with the enemy and undergoing hard training where the ability to recognize emotions such as fear, sadness, joy and others can help in making wise decisions. When a member of the army can recognize his emotions, it can help them to manage themselves well and effectively. With good emotional control, one will be able to control feelings of anger, sadness, joy, disappointment and so forth. Work pressure for members of the military involves overloading tasks, involving the emotional, psychological and physical burdens faced by soldiers during hard training, carrying out operations over a long period of time, always exposed in dangerous situations from enemy threats. Those who are depressed will usually show signs like lost interest in work, dissatisfaction with work, always protesting, often there are health problems such as muscle aches, high blood pressure and so on. Finally, stressed troopers will be involved with symptoms such as alcohol addiction, drugs, negligence in work, absenteeism and high turnover.
Psychological distress and coping in military cadre candidates
Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment, 2016
Background: Soldiers must cope with stressors during both military operations and training if they are to accomplish their missions successfully and stay mentally stable. This holds true particularly for military superiors, as they bear greater responsibilities and must meet greater demands during both deployment and training. Accordingly, in the present study, we investigated whether recruits chosen for further promotion at the end of basic training differed with regard to psychological distress and coping strategies from those not chosen for promotion, and whether recruits' coping styles and distress levels were associated. Methods: A total of 675 Swiss recruits took part in the study. At the beginning of basic training, recruits filled out self-rating questionnaires covering demographic data, psychological distress (depression, somatization, anxiety, interpersonal sensitivity, and hostility), and coping styles. Results were compared between those recruits who received a recommendation for further promotion at the end of basic training and those who did not. Results: Recruits selected for promotion had lower scores for depressive symptoms and hostility, engaged more in active coping, and considered their coping to be more effective. Dysfunctional and functional coping were associated with higher and lower distress levels, respectively. Conclusion: Recruits recommended for promotion exhibited less psychological distress during basic training and exhibited a socially more conducive profile of distress. They also endorsed more efficient and more prosocial coping strategies than those recruits not recommended for promotion. These cognitive-emotional features not only contribute to resilience but are also consistent with leadership research, indicating the importance of emotional stability and prosocial behavior in successful leaders.
Military Medicine
Introduction Personnel engaged in high-stakes occupations, such as military personnel, law enforcement, and emergency first responders, must sustain performance through a range of environmental stressors. To maximize the effectiveness of military personnel, an a priori understanding of traits can help predict their physical and cognitive performance under stress and adversity. This work developed and assessed a suite of measures that have the potential to predict performance during operational scenarios. These measures were designed to characterize four specific trait–based domains: cognitive, health, physical, and social-emotional. Materials and Methods One hundred and ninety-one active duty U.S. Army soldiers completed interleaved questionnaire–based, seated task–based, and physical task–based measures over a period of 3-5 days. Redundancy analysis, dimensionality reduction, and network analyses revealed several patterns of interest. Results First, unique variable analysis reveale...
Personality predicting military morale and the role of positive and negative affectivity
Current Issues in Personality Psychology
BackgroundMilitary morale is defined as the enthusiasm and persistence with which a member of the group engages in the pre-scribed activities of that group and is considered to be closely related to performance. The current study uses the conceptualization of military morale through the elements of work engagement and burnout. Nevertheless, our per-sonality traits, and how we interpret or react to our environment, including group atmosphere, may also be related to perception of morale alongside positive and negative affectivity. The article investigates the relations between per-ceptions of morale, personality traits (the Big Five) and positive or negative affectivity in a military context.Participants and procedureA sample of Estonian military conscripts (N = 354) from the soldiers’ basic military training course responded to the questionnaire. Three measures were used for data collection: a short personality questionnaire (40 items) for Big Five personality traits; the Positive an...
Emotion and Cognition: The Case of Military Personals
World Journal of Neuroscience, 2017
Tunisian veterans experienced uncommon circumstances that put their lives in permanent threat. In this context, it is crucial to understand the adaptive strategy they tend to use. Distress takes place when military veterans use ineffective coping styles within a taxing and high demanding context. The aim of the current study was to estimate the link between coping styles, the psychological well-being and work related stress. A second goal is to extend the analyses for clinical diagnosis and providing a specific interpretation of the military's behavior. We investigated these issues in a qualitative study. Findings are discussed in the context of a theoretical framework of transactional approach. This was a survey with a random sample of military officers stratified by rank (n = 26). Coping strategy scale (CSS), perceived stress (PSS) and psychological well-being (PWBM) were administrated to veterans from different ranks (high ranks and low ranks). Additionally, Chi square frequencies were constructed between the perceived stress scales, coping strategies and psychological well-being. Results were consistent and showed a best fit between perceived stress and ranks of officers (X2 = 0.026, p < 0.05).
Journal of Research in Personality, 2011
Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to investigate the distinctiveness of hardiness (using the Short Hardiness Scale; Bartone, 1995) from the broader personality traits of negative emotionality and positive emotionality (NEM and PEM; assessed with items from the MMPI-2 PSY-5 scales); in a sample of 981 Army National Guard soldiers. Exploratory factor analyses demonstrated that hardiness items loaded on a separate factor from PEM and NEM items, and confirmatory factor analysis suggested that hardiness is not simply a sub-facet of either PEM or NEM. However, subsequent regression analyses found that hardiness did not predict symptoms of PTSD or depression beyond the effects of PEM and NEM among combat exposed soldiers.
Personality and mental health: How related are they within the military context?
Military Psychology, 2007
The main purpose of this study was to examine the nature of the relationships between job-specific personality dimensions and psychological well-being for officers in the Turkish Armed Forces (TAF). Turkish Armed Forces Personality Inventory (TAFPI) is a 19-dimension measure of personality used in officer selection in the TAF. In our previous research, four latent factors had been identified as underlying the TAFPI dimensions: Military Factor, Leadership, Conscientiousness, and Extraversion-Agreeableness. In the present study, the nature of the relationships between the TAFPI dimensions and the latent factor underlying a commonly used psychological screening test, the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI; Derogatis, 1992), was examined on a sample of officers (N = 1111). Specifically, the 19 dimensions of the TAFPI first predicted a latent military personality factor, which, in turn, predicted the latent mental health factor. Results suggested that although the personality latent was predictive of the mental health factor, the amount of variance unexplained in mental health suggested that mental health assessment should not be dispensed in the presence of personality assessment in the selection of officers in the TAF. Attention given to individual differences variables, especially personality attributes, in a variety of human resources management applications has increased considerably over the last two decades. The five-factor model (FFM) of personality
Military Medicine, 2012
U.S. military accession mental health screening includes cognitive testing and questions regarding the applicants' past mental health history. This process relies on applicants' knowledge of and willingness to disclose symptoms and conditions. Applicants have a strong incentive to appear qualified, which has resulted in a long history of frequent mental health conditions presenting during recruit training. Objective: To assess the predictive value of a preenlistment noncognitive temperament test score for risk of mental disorders and attrition in the first year of service. Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted on non-high school diploma U.S. Army active duty recruits who took the Assessment of Individual Motivation (AIM). Multivariate logistic regression models were used to determine associations between AIM score quintiles, mental disorders, and attrition. Results: AIM scorers in the lowest quintile were at increased risk for a mental disorder (OR, 1.44; 95% CI, 1.35-1.53) and of discharge (OR, 1.65; 95% CI, 1.44-1.68) compared to AIM scorers in the highest quintile, with significant linear trends for decreased risk with increasing AIM score. Conclusions: AIM offers the potential to improve screening of military applicants and reduce mental disorders and attrition in new recruits beyond the current process.
Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 2006
Objective: Deployment to a combat zone is undoubtedly an extremely stressful experience. It was hypothesized that, when faced with an impending wartime deployment, soldiers with prior combat experience would report minimal emotional problems accompanied by high rates of somatic complaints compared with combat-naive soldiers. Methods: Self-reports of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and affective and somatic complaints were collected from 2068 U.S. soldiers just prior to combat deployment during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Results: Although the percentage of soldiers scoring positive for PTSD was nearly identical for the experienced and inexperienced groups, scores on the Affective and Somatic scales differed as a function of prior combat history. Previous combat experience was associated with lower affective and greater somatic complaints relative to combat-naive soldiers. Conclusions: Consistent with theories of stress reaction, repression, and somatic amplification, combatexperienced soldiers reported limited affective complaints but greater somatic complaints relative to soldiers without combat experience. D Public reporting burden for the collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to Washington Headquarters Services, Directorate for Information Operations and Reports, 1215 Jefferson Davis Highway, Suite 1204, Arlington VA 22202-4302. Respondents should be aware that notwithstanding any other provision of law, no person shall be subject to a penalty for failing to comply with a collection of information if it does not display a currently valid OMB control number.
International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 2019
The idea of emotional intelligence (EI) has garnered attention in both the corporate world and in industrial-organizational psychology, partly through popularizing efforts. In this connection, Goleman (1998) claimed that an employee's social-emotional abilities, broadly considered, could be more important (twice as important?) than cognitive ability in determining whether that person succeeds or fails within the workplace. Companies, such as Google and L'Oreal have factored EI into their hiring processes, others, such as Johnson & Johnson have instituted relevant training programs, and scientists, too, have expressed enthusiasm for the EI construct (Abraham, 1999; Cherniss, 2000). Part of this interest converges with the long-standing belief that the problems of the workplace require practical rather than academic solutions (Sternberg & Wagner, 1993) and part of this interest follows from the observation that most organizational phenomena interact with emotional processes (Ashkanasy & Humphrey, 2011). Employees with higher levels of EI, for example, may be more capable of developing good working relationships, which should benefit both themselves and the organization as a whole (Lopes, Grewal, Kadis, Gall, & Salovey, 2006). This interface has been controversial, however. Critics have suggested that Goleman's (1998) definition of EI was too broad and that marketers and consultants have traded in anecdote and hype rather than scientific evidence (Zeidner, Matthews, & Roberts, 2004). Some of these critics, such as Landy, Locke, and Conte, have been as harsh concerning the EI construct as Goleman (1998) was in support of it and sorting through these debates was fairly nettlesome in the past (Daus & Ashkanasy, 2005). Fortunately, some degree of clarity has more recently emerged. A first point is that one should distinguish self-reports of EI from ability-based measurements because the two sorts of assessments do not correlate very highly with each other (Roberts, MacCann, Matthews, & Zeidner, 2010). A second point is that the most common ability-based measures of EI-such