摘要:

The Persian Gulf War provided a unique opportunity for social scientists to pursue a wide range of important psychological issues. The present set of papers focuses on two such issues: coping with the stress of warandwar‐related attitudes and thought.The articles on stress and coping frame such processes either in individual, familial, or societal terms. They underscore the importance of studying secondary victimization and expanding our conceptualization of those affected by collective stressors, such as war. The papers on war‐related attitudes and thought address key psychological underpinnings, by examining the shifting of attitudes over time and integrative complexity of war‐related thought. Empirical research on war is quite challenging, yet it is also highly informative with respect to basic psychological proc

ISSN:0022-4537    

DOI:10.1111/j.1540-4560.1993.tb01178.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1993

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Research has shown a clear association between war‐zone exposure and psychological readjustment in soldiers. Newer findings suggest that certain event and person characteristics are especially influential in this process. The present article has the following goals: (a) to review existing parameters in the traditional measurement of war‐zone exposure, (b) to consider conceptual and methodological limitations in these approaches, (c) to present empirical data from a cohort of Persian Gulf War veterans that support the utility of a broader conceptualization of war trauma, and (d) to examine how gender may be differentially associated with some dimensions of war‐zone stress and psychological outcome following deployment. Data suggest that identifying diverse dimensions of war‐zone stress may enhance efforts to understand veterans' initial and long‐range wartime

ISSN:0022-4537    

DOI:10.1111/j.1540-4560.1993.tb01179.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1993

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

A growing literature suggests that human beings are often negatively impacted by participation in military combat, but there have been few attempts to document the psychological effects of war stress in the masses of troops deployed to action. We chose to study the relationship of Operation Desert Shield/Storm (ODS) participation and symptoms of psychological distress in a comparison of 215 Army National Guard and Army Reserve troops who were activated to service in the Persian Gulf and returned to the States without seeking mental health treatment services and 60 troops from these same units who were activated but not deployed overseas. Negative psychological outcomes were measured within four to ten months from homecoming in three domains: negative mood states, symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and physical health complaints. Results indicated that as war‐zone stress exposure increased, the frequency and severity of psychological symptoms were enhanced, providing correlational evidence of the adverse impact of war stress, at least among a subset of ODS returnees. As many as 16–24% of war zone exposed troops exhibited levels of distress symptomatology sufficiently exaggerated to suggest the presence of mental disorders, specifically clinical depression and PTSD. Psychological symptoms were less frequently reported among troops classified in the lower war‐zone stress exposure subset and those activated but not deployed to the Persian

ISSN:0022-4537    

DOI:10.1111/j.1540-4560.1993.tb01180.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1993

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

This article seeks to correct the paucity of attention to the psychological impact on families of having a member engaged in war. The initial section focuses on the impact of the Persian Gulf War on military families, drawing upon family stress and coping and Miller's biological systems theory to help categorize and account for the stressors affecting these families at various strategic points in the Persian Gulf War: deployment, during the war, homecoming and reintegration, and long‐term reactions. The middle section focuses on the stress reactions and the factors that tend to mediate these reactions, such as effective methods of coping. Among the most significant yet widely overlooked reactions is secondary traumatization. The final section—based on both the extant research and the theoretical orientation articulated in section one—focuses on intervention. Among those interventions listed are programs that were successful during the Persian Gulf War. Implications for research and policy are

ISSN:0022-4537    

DOI:10.1111/j.1540-4560.1993.tb01181.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1993

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

This article provides an overview of and initial empirical findings from a preventive clinical/educational model for psychosocial assessment and intervention with the families of Operation Desert Storm (ODS) veterans. Interview and questionnaire data were obtained (a) 2–6 months after demobilization from ODS from veteran/veteran or veteran/civilian spouse couples who received conjoint time‐limited therapy and veterans from the same Reserve and National Guard Units who received one‐to‐one time‐limited therapy and (b) 12–15 months after demobilization from veterans deployed during ODS with the same military units. Principal findings are as follows: (1) the trauma and strain of war‐zone military service, family separation, and subsequent family and community readjustment take a toll on a significant minority of ODS veterans and their families that is directly related to the stress symptomatology experienced by the veteran; and (2) with timely psychosocial intervention—based on life‐span developmental and self‐psychology, family systems theory, and a communitarian social integration model—veterans and families in distress are able to substantially resolve symptoms of psychosocial malfunctioning and even begin to accrue personal and systemic benefits from their ODS

ISSN:0022-4537    

DOI:10.1111/j.1540-4560.1993.tb01182.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1993

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Psychological research in Israel on the Gulf War focused on its unique features—nocturnal missile attacks on civilian targets, absence of retaliatory strikes by the Israel Defense Forces, threat of chemical attack, compulsory confinement of family members in close quarters during the missile attacks, and changes in soldier‐civilian and adult‐child roles. The studies summarized here deal with groups who suffered no personal or property loss, and who consequently suffered few intense, chronic adverse reactions. Researchers investigated the conventional variables in the stress and coping paradigm—objective stressors (e.g., proximity to damaged sites), coping strategies, interpersonal and intrapersonal resources, prewar vulnerability, the level of acute stress reactions (affective, cognitive, behavioral, and somatic) at the onset of the war, and the reduction in intensity and frequency of these stress reactions during and after the war. Findings are consistent with the conclusion that the society as a whole coped well with unfamiliar threats, many of which did not materialize. Original contributions from these studies, obtained under the unique “real‐time” conditions of the Gulf War for Israeli society, are discussed. Lay and peer evaluations of the contribution of psychologists to the war a

ISSN:0022-4537    

DOI:10.1111/j.1540-4560.1993.tb01183.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1993

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

When individuals face an emotional upheaval, they naturally talk and think about it. If they are unable to talk with others but continue to think about the event, they are at greater risk for a variety of psychological and health problems. Drawing on survey data gathered from San Francisco residents after the Loma Prieta Earthquake and from Dallas residents during and after the Persian Gulf War, we found evidence to support a social stage model of coping. Immediately after an upheaval, individuals openly talk and think about the event for approximately two weeks. Following this emergency stage, individuals progress into an inhibition stage wherein they stop talking about the upheaval but continue thinking about it for approximately six weeks. Certain indicators of distress, such as hostility and dreaming, peak during the inhibition phase. After this time, people enter an adaptation phase wherein they neither talk nor think about the upheaval. Implications for theory and interventions for both broad‐scale collective upheavals as well as personal traumas are discusse

ISSN:0022-4537    

DOI:10.1111/j.1540-4560.1993.tb01184.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1993

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

We describe Co3 (Coherence Model ofCognitiveConsistency), a computational model that we used to simulate attitudinal shifts toward various factors related to the Persian Gulf War. Co3 is based on “parallel constraint satisfaction,” a mechanism that revises a set of attitudes so as to maximize overall coherence, with each attitude simultaneously influencing every other related attitude. The Gulf War provided a naturalistic case study for examining the dynamics of attitude change. A survey of attitudes toward U.S. military involvement was administered to 129 students at the University of California, Los Angeles, first during the initial two days of the war, and again two weeks later. At each time, support for U.S. military action was highly correlated (either positively or negatively) with factors indicative of attitudes toward pacifism, the legitimacy of U.S. intervention, isolationism, and President Saddam Hussein of Iraq. A within‐subject analysis revealed that shifts in support for the war were correlated with consistent shifts in all four of the major predictors, including those (e.g., pacifism) that would not seem to have been directly affected by events over the intervening time period. This pattern of attitude change demonstrates cognitive consistency. Co3 was used to model how a shift in one attitude due to external inputs (e.g., media reports) can trigger correlated shifts in related attitudes. Computational methods of the sort exemplified by Co3 may be useful in modeling various social psychological phen

ISSN:0022-4537    

DOI:10.1111/j.1540-4560.1993.tb01185.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1993

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

When the United States began its overt military conflict with Iraq in January 1991, the American news media focused attention powerfully and seemingly unceasingly on the Gulf crisis for a period of almost three months. Through analysis of data collected in a panel survey conducted before and after the war, we found that paralleling this surge in media coverage were significant alterations in the ingredients of Americans' assessments of George Bush's job performance. After the war, these assessments were based much more on citizens' beliefs about his effectiveness in managing the conflict, and much less on their confidence in his handling of other foreign relations matters or the domestic economy. We found as well that these shifts were regulated by citizens' levels of political knowledge, exposure to political news, and interest in the war. Greater shifts were associated with higher levels of knowledge and lower levels of exposure and interest. These findings challenge traditional views of these dimensions of political involvement and support an alternative view derived from contemporary psychological theories of information processing.

ISSN:0022-4537    

DOI:10.1111/j.1540-4560.1993.tb01186.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1993

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Integrative complexity scoring was performed on almost 1250 paragraphs, whose source was the English transcription of materials produced by 14 Middle Eastern leaders between summer of 1990 and March, 1991. The data set was divided by leader, two levels of involvement in the Gulf crisis (high vs. peripheral), two political positions (adherence to pro‐ vs. anti‐Iraqi policies), and seven temporal phases of the crisis (before the invasion of Kuwait, during and shortly after the invasion, diplomatic/economic attempts at solution, the last two weeks before the U.N. deadline for Iraqi withdrawal, aerial counterattack, ground counterattack, and after the cease‐fire). Eight leaders provided sufficient material during at least four of the above phases for reliable scoring. Pro‐ and anti‐Iraq leaders showed complexity changes in opposite directions across most phases of the crisis, except that both sides declined during the attempt to find a peaceful solution (October‐December 1990). Individual changes, with particular attention to Saddam Hussein, are also analyzed. The results are interpreted in terms of cognitive management: the perceived costs and benefits of investing in particular strategies varying in

ISSN:0022-4537    

DOI:10.1111/j.1540-4560.1993.tb01187.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1993

数据来源: WILEY