Military Psychology Overview (continued)

2009 Events Calendar

Military Pyschology Overview (Continued)

These programs include integrating racial and ethnic groups, reducing sexual discrimination and harassment, employing women in combat and in work settings originally designed for men, utilizing low capability recruits and rehabilitating juvenile deliquents, drug testing, pyschological treatment for personal lifestyle problems, and smoking abatement in the workplace. Military pyshologists have had the opportunity to research, evaluate, and make national policy recommendations concerning these programs.

The Dpartment Of Defense (DoD) employs more psychologists than any other organization or company in the world. The downsizing of the military in the 1990's has been accompanied by a corresponding reduction in research and psychological support to the operating forces. The future of miltary psychology is assured, however, as long as there is a need for troops to defend our country and perform peacekeeping missions arounf the world.

Historical Overview

In the years leading up to World War I, pyschology had begun to emerge as a field of scientific study and application. American psychologists had become intrigued with the mental measurement work of Alfred Binet in France and with the scientific management movement to enhance worker productivity. However, it was the problem of assimilating millions of U.S. civilians into the armed forces that brought the tools of psychologists to the military enviornment and created the dicipline of military psychologists in the U.S.

At the start of the war, a group of psychoogists headed by the president of the American Psychological Association, Dr. Robert M. Yerkes, met to discuss how psychology could assist in the war effort. The successful program of mental testing of recruits with the Army Alpha and Beta examinations, which resulted in the appropriate placement of new soldiers into military jobs and officer training, is indelibly identified as the genesis of military psychology. It also served as the subsequent model for group intelligence testing for both military and civilian applications.

In addition, during the short time frame between U.S. entry in 1917 until shortly after the war in 1918, psychologists addressed many other issues:

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