Psychology of Combat

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The study of the psychological factors that affect the behavior of soldiers in combat.

Combat Stress: Understanding how the human body and mind react to combat and dealing with the effects of combat stress.
PTSD: Understanding how post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) impacts military operations and the long-term effects it has on soldiers.
Military Training: Understanding the types of training military personnel undergo to prepare them for combat operations.
Combat Decision Making: Understanding how soldiers make decisions during combat operations and the factors that influence these decisions.
Leadership: Understanding the importance of leadership in combat operations and the impact it has on soldier performance and morale.
Military Tactics: Understanding the strategies and tactics used in combat operations and how they are developed and implemented.
Mental Toughness: Understanding the importance of mental toughness in combat and how it can be developed.
Resilience: Understanding how soldiers build resilience to cope with the stresses of combat operations.
Combat Trauma: Understanding the physical and psychological trauma inflicted during combat operations and how it affects soldiers.
Organizational Behavior: Understanding how organizations and groups function and operate in combat environments.
Combat Ethics: Understanding the ethical considerations in military operations and how soldiers make ethical decisions in combat.
Combat Human Factors: Understanding the contributions and limitations of human factors in combat operations.
Military Medicine: Understanding the medical issues and concerns involved in combat operations, including physical injuries and mental health.
Active Shooter Response: Understanding how to respond to an active shooter situation in a military context.
Combat Simulation: Understanding the use of simulation and modeling in military training and planning.
Combat Stress: This is the psychological response to combat situations, and it may take a toll on a person's emotional stability. Symptoms of combat stress include nightmares, insomnia, and heightened anxiety levels.
Combat-Related Trauma: Combat-related trauma often results from experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event in a combat situation. This type of trauma can lead to PTSD (Post-traumatic stress disorder) if it's not adequately addressed.
Post-Deployment Reintegration: This type of psychology deals with the challenges that military personnel face when they return to their normal lives after deployment. Reintegration can be a difficult process, and psychological counseling can assist in making it smooth.
Military Suicide: Military suicide is the result of the intense pressure that soldiers sometimes experience during combat operations. Understanding the psychology behind suicide is essential to prevent it.
Resilience Training: Resilience training is an approach that focuses on enhancing the psychological resilience of military personnel. It enables soldiers to manage stress, trauma, and other mental health issues during combat operations.
Command Climate: Command climate is an approach to leadership in combat situations where leaders must create and promote a positive and healthy climate. Command climate promotes cohesion, good morale, and other positive outcomes.
Traumatic Brain Injury: Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is a common occurrence during combat operations. It can have long-lasting effects on a soldier's cognitive abilities, mental stability, and general health.
Cognitive Skills: Cognitive skills training aims to enhance soldiers' decision-making skills, situational awareness, and problem-solving abilities.
- "Combat stress reaction (CSR) is acute behavioral disorganization as a direct result of the trauma of war." - "Also known as 'combat fatigue,' 'battle fatigue,' or 'battle neurosis'..."
- "It has some overlap with the diagnosis of acute stress reaction used in civilian psychiatry."
- "It is historically linked to shell shock and can sometimes precurse post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)."
- "The most common symptoms are fatigue, slower reaction times, indecision, disconnection from one's surroundings, and the inability to prioritize."
- "Combat stress reaction is generally short-term..."
- "The US Army uses the term/initialism COSR (Combat Stress Reaction) in official medical reports."
- "Many reactions look like symptoms of mental illness... but they are only transient reactions to the traumatic stress of combat and the cumulative stresses of military operations."
- "[Shell shock] was considered a psychiatric illness resulting from injury to the nerves during combat."
- "About 10% of the fighting soldiers were killed... and the total proportion of troops who became casualties (killed or wounded) was about 57%."
- "Soldiers were personally faulted for their mental breakdown rather than their war experience."
- "Whether a person with shell-shock was considered 'wounded' or 'sick' depended on the circumstances."
- "The large proportion of World War I veterans in the European population meant that the symptoms were common to the culture."
- "Combat stress reaction... includes a range of behaviors resulting from the stress of battle that decrease the combatant's fighting efficiency."
- "Combat stress reaction is generally short-term and should not be confused with acute stress disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, or other long-term disorders attributable to combat stress, although any of these may commence as a combat stress reaction."
- "Many reactions look like symptoms of mental illness (such as panic, extreme anxiety, depression, and hallucinations)..."
- "Decrease combatant's fighting efficiency." - "Fatigue, slower reaction times, indecision, disconnection from one's surroundings, and the inability to prioritize."
- "Combat stress reaction is generally short-term and should not be confused with acute stress disorder..."
- "Shell shock was considered a psychiatric illness resulting from injury to the nerves during combat..."
- "'Combat fatigue,' 'battle fatigue,' or 'battle neurosis.'"
- "The US Army uses the term/initialism COSR (Combat Stress Reaction) in official medical reports."