Developing New Predictors of Stress Resilience for the Objective Force

This proposal advances a model that provides a stress resilience index (SRI) that will be useful for personnel selection, proficiency in stress resilience training, and assessment and construction of training courses for stress resilience. The modelwill be based on objective predictive measures that will predict the impact of stress on performance in combat-related tasks. Examples of such predictors might include physiological measurements such as cardiovascular recovery rate, pupil dilation orevoked potentials to stressful stimuli, or psychological predictors such as paper-and-pencil scales for personality variables or knowledge of stress reduction techniques. Quantification of the effects of these predictive measures on performance will beaccomplished by conducting experimentation in conjunction with stressful military training exercises that will involve pre-exercise and post-exercise measurement of military significant tasks such as weapons proficiency. The proposed model treats psychological stress and physical stress as contributors to the negative physiological consequences of stressful battlefield events and military life. These negative physiological consequences cause degraded performance untilthe body, through the normal physiological processes of homeostasis, returns to physiological balance and health. The time to recover depends on the severity and duration of the insult. Resilience to stress refers to the degree to which an individual can resist the negative consequences of stressful events through psychological and physical readiness, and therefore minimize the physiological insult and the time to recovery.Resilience to physical and psychological stress should also reduce long-term, delayed effects wherein recall of stressful events causes negative physiological consequences because the events will be recalled as less stressful. The form of the quantified model will be a metric, or equation, that relates stress resilience index (SRI) to predictive measurements. Predictive measurements will have theoretical validity because they will be identified in Phase I from existingtheoretical constructs and measurements in the literature that have been advanced as constructs for stress resilience. In Phase I, the model will be constructed which identifies potential predictive measurements and representative military tasks. A PhaseI Option is proposed to develop paper-and-pencil instruments in preparation for Phase II. Experimentation will be performed in Phase II to correlate predictive measurements with changes in performance on representative military tasks due to simulated military stress in training exercises. Weights will be assigned to each measurement basedon Phase II experimentation through multiple regression techniques. The metric equation will add up each of the selected weighted measurements to provide a stress resilience indicator. The resulting model will operationalize a battery of tests that willprovide the predictive measurements. The principal investigator, Dr. Thomas Bevan has particular expertise to conduct the proposed research and development. Dr. Bevan received training in physiological psychology at Princeton University and served in the US Army as a Physiologist andPsychologist. He has particular expertise in development of performance metrics, having contributed to the development of image quality equations that relate military image intepreter performance to human and system variables. Dr. Bevan has developedexpertise with a wide range of psychological and physiological measurement techniques. More recently, Dr. Bevan has studied civilian first responders to identify requirements for development of technology and training through a center he developed at theGeorgia Institute of Technology and is thus in position to apply models of military stress resilience to first responders (e.g. firemen, police, emergency managers). As part of this center, Dr. Bevan is developing physiological measurement instrumentationfor use by the US Marine Corps, specifically in areas contaminated by chemical, biological, nuclear, radiological releases. Dr. Bevan has successfully managed research and development programs for DARPA, USAF and the US Marine Corps. The research and development activities proposed provide a unique opportunity to develop a model that can be applied to stressful job functions in both military and civilian life. It can be used to assess and improve military readiness, reducenegative consequences from military operations and provide military leadership with clear scientific information on how to prepare military personnel for stresses of the battlefield and military life. In the civilian world, the model developed formilitary use, can be adapted to deal with stressful job functions. The model also has implications for the general population as it deals with the psychological stress of terrorism. The research and development activities proposed provide a unique opportunity to develop a model that can be applied to stressful job functions in both military and civilian life. It can be used to assess and improve military readiness, reducenegative consequences from military operations and provide military leadership with clear scientific information on how to prepare military personnel for stresses of the battlefield and military life. In the civilian world, the model developed formilitary use, can be adapted to deal with stressful job functions. The model also has implications for the general population as it deals with the psychological stress of terrorism. The commercial application of the model proposed is to develop a package of hardware and software to implement a test battery that can be run on a personal computer in order to predict stress resilience. Such a package might include physiological andpsychological measurements, depending on the outcome of the proposed research and development effort.