Enhancing Performance Under Stress: Stress Inoculation Training for Battlefield Airmen
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| Methodology Our approach to investigating stress inoculation was straightforward. We interviewed Air Force instructors from the Air Education and Training Command (AETC) and formed focus groups with small groups of graduated students, combat controllers, and pararescuemen from the Air Force. The primary goal of the focus groups was to identify what preparation, if any, battlefield airmen had to optimize their performance under stress. We also interviewed subject matter experts at AETC, the 37th Training Group (37TRG), and the 24th Special Tactics Squadron. Finally, we reviewed key official training documents, the Career Field Education and Training Plan, and the Plan of Instructions) for pararescue and combat control training. However, only the Plan of Instruction for the PJs contained any content related to stress inoculation. Currently, this instruction by the staff research psychologist covers four hours during the PJ Preparatory/Development Course and six hours over a ten-week period during the PJ Indoctrination Course to introduce topics related to stress and performance enhancement (e.g., motivation, self-efficacy, and locus of control. Although this training is consistent with SIT guidelines, it is not fully supported by instructors, nor is it fully reinforced during later training phases. We used a semistructured interview protocol to guide discussions in focus group interviews (see Appendixes A and B. Focus groups of graduated students were recruited by a squadron commander and were small each group consisted of three airmen with similar jobs n = 18). One group was a mixture of pararescue and combat control. Before we discuss our findings from the focus groups and interviews, we provide an overview of current efforts used by the Air Force to ensure that battlefield airmen are capable of performing well under stress. Download 339 Kb. Share with your friends:
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