A Psychological Model of combat Stress

A number of studies related to wars have delineated variables to effect the individual’s ability to cope with combat stress. The proposed model in interactional in that it posits a number of antecedent variables acting through mediating variables to affect the individual’s appraisal of the combat situation. The antecedent variables comprised of the individual factors, unit factors and battlefield factors. Individual includes personality factors,nonmilitary stress, prior combat exposure, and role in combat. Unit factors refer to cohesion and type of morale, trainnig, leadership, and commitment. Battlefield factors can be summarized as type of battle, surprise and uncertainty, and environmental factors. The most important mediating variable are cognitive components including interpretations, expectations, form of presentation, and appraisal of combat situation. Based on the individual and mediating variables, the modes of response to stressful combat situations may be astablished in different categories such as physical, emotional, cognitive and social. Finally, an integrated mode of coping can be established through these modes of responses ranging from various