Measurement of Stress Adaptability

In the future, employees in both the military and civilian sectors will have to be highly adaptable. In the proposed Phase I effort, PDRI will develop a conceptual model of adaptability. The model will specify the characteristics that contribute to adaptability and how those characteristics inter-relate. It will also specify the type of situations to which military and civilian personnel must adapt. We will develop the model by (1) reviewing the literature, (2) interviewing military personnel will define what adaptability means in a military context and how military personnel will need to be adaptable in the future, and (3) collecting descriptions of situations that require adaptability. Next, we will identify one or more predictor measures of adaptability to be developed in further research. An interactive video-based tool may work best for measuring adaptability in a manner that is useful for, and thus highly appealing to both government and private sector organizations. To make certain the predictor measure(s) has commercial appeal, we will gather input from representatives of non-military federal government and civilian organizations. Finally, we will develop a plan for validating the measure(s) of adaptability.