Welcome to Psychology of War

Current Research

Resilience Against Combat Stress:
With over two million deployments of soldiers to Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001, the impact of combat stress is becoming increasingly important. While a large amount of the combat stress literature concerns treatment, a new focus of research and conceptual development is prevention and resilience. Some promising steps have been taken to differentiate among domains of combat stress injury and resilience, including physical, psychological, behavioral and occupational, medical and environmental, nutritional, spiritual, social, and family domains (Jonas, O’Connor, Deuster, & Macedonia, 2010). Our current study is examining how social support promotes resilience and determines psychological outcomes. 
Source: Veterans History Project
Investigator: Bill Schumacher

The ABCs of Heroism: 
We are examining perceptions of heroism, specifically what components are necessary to make any specific act be seen as heroic. We are currently collecting data to test a model of components that are believed to strengthen or weaken the perceptions of heroism. 
Investigators: Erica Buczek-Tanaka, Holly Arrow

Past Projects

Military Influence Tactics: Lessons Learned in Iraq and Afghanistan: 
For most influence attempts in everyday life, success makes life easier and failure is a disappointment, not a tragedy. When U.S. soldiers deployed overseas attempt to influence civilians, however, success can save lives and failure can be deadly. Along with the high stakes consequences of influence attempts, soldiers face the challenges of bridging differences in language, culture, beliefs, and agendas. The current study examined cross-cultural influence attempts made by deployed soldiers, contributing to existing influence research by examining influence attempts in a complex and challenging wartime environment. Survey data from 228 military personnel with deployment experience to Iraq and Afghanistan revealed that empathy, respect, prior relationships, and familiarity with influence targets predicted success. Five influence technique clusters emerged, and use of technique clusters involving resources and positive feelings were more successful than negative tactics.
Investigator: Andrea Wolfe

Rank Matters: Tactics U.S. Military Personnel Use to Influence Civilians:  
One hundred twenty-six U.S. military personnel (68 enlisted, 58 officers) completed an online survey about the influence tactics they used with Iraqi and Afghani civilians (Wolfe, 2011).  Clusters of influence tactic clusters that were associated with successful influence attempts (positive feelings and resources) were used more commonly than those associated with less successful attempts (negative and power differential). The tendency to choose successful over unsuccessful tactics was stronger for officers than enlisted. 
Download the Poster here!
Investigator: Zach Land