An Investigation of the Character Strengths and Resilience of Future Military Leaders
Abstract: Introduction: The importance of both character and resilience for critical occupations (military, emergency medicine, first responders, and correctional officers) has been emphasized at the highest levels of military leadership. No studies to date have examined the relationship between character strengths and resilience within military populations. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the perceived importance of character strengths for Canadian military cadet success, the top strengths endorsed by cadets,… Show more
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Cited by 3 publications
References 18 publications
Purpose This paper aims to examine how character strengths have an important dual role in mental health in both promoting well-being and mental wellness and also in reducing symptoms and suffering. While there are many studies that have touched upon variables that character strengths can enhance for mental well-being or reduce for suffering, the author actually knows very little about how character strengths might relate to or impact mental health. Design/methodology/approach A large-scale study of 12,050 individuals was conducted to explore the self-perceived character strengths that are most helpful for mental health, for handling physical adversity, for handling social adversity and for fostering psychological well-being. Findings Some character strengths showed a general effect – showing a strong perceived impact across multiple domains – such as love, perspective, kindness, hope, humor and curiosity. Other character strengths showed a specific effect in that there was a strong perceived impact in one domain, such as perseverance and self-regulation for physical health, spirituality and social intelligence for social health and creativity for mental health. A strength-based approach to understanding and managing emotions was substantially more preferred than cognitive or behavioral approaches. Other findings examined the character strengths most desired to be improved upon for mental health. Research limitations/implications The research strategy was cross-sectional, thereby causality cannot be determined. Because of the large sample size, researchers are encouraged to consider examining the findings in intervention studies. Practical implications This study indicates that character strengths are highly relevant for mental health, all 24 character strengths are possible pathways to impact mental health (some more than others) and individuals can readily connect ways they can use their character strengths to positively improve their well-being and manage their suffering. Social implications Character strengths and their substantial positive potential provide an avenue for public impact on a large scale. Originality/value To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first known study to directly examine multiple intersections among mental health and character strengths in a large sample.
Purpose This paper aims to examine how character strengths have an important dual role in mental health in both promoting well-being and mental wellness and also in reducing symptoms and suffering. While there are many studies that have touched upon variables that character strengths can enhance for mental well-being or reduce for suffering, the author actually knows very little about how character strengths might relate to or impact mental health. Design/methodology/approach A large-scale study of 12,050 individuals was conducted to explore the self-perceived character strengths that are most helpful for mental health, for handling physical adversity, for handling social adversity and for fostering psychological well-being. Findings Some character strengths showed a general effect – showing a strong perceived impact across multiple domains – such as love, perspective, kindness, hope, humor and curiosity. Other character strengths showed a specific effect in that there was a strong perceived impact in one domain, such as perseverance and self-regulation for physical health, spirituality and social intelligence for social health and creativity for mental health. A strength-based approach to understanding and managing emotions was substantially more preferred than cognitive or behavioral approaches. Other findings examined the character strengths most desired to be improved upon for mental health. Research limitations/implications The research strategy was cross-sectional, thereby causality cannot be determined. Because of the large sample size, researchers are encouraged to consider examining the findings in intervention studies. Practical implications This study indicates that character strengths are highly relevant for mental health, all 24 character strengths are possible pathways to impact mental health (some more than others) and individuals can readily connect ways they can use their character strengths to positively improve their well-being and manage their suffering. Social implications Character strengths and their substantial positive potential provide an avenue for public impact on a large scale. Originality/value To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first known study to directly examine multiple intersections among mental health and character strengths in a large sample.
Military leadership psychology: theories, principles, competencies
The study deeply analyzes the military leadership phenomenon in the context of current challenges, in particular the russian-Ukrainian war. The essence of the concepts “leadership” and “military leadership” is disclosed, the volume and content of multi-variant definitions of each of these concepts are compared in tabular form. Socio-psychological views on the meaningful-semantic picture of leadership are highlighted, their interference relationships has been revealed and a comparative table of various-scale theoretical constructions (that is, individual epistemological organizations) of understanding comprehension of this phenomenon has been constructed according to the following methodological scheme: g e n e r a l – life situations and behavioral theoretical systems, s p e c i a l – transactional, unpredictable circumstances, the life cycle of leadership, functional-psychosocial and integral-psychological theories, s i n g l e – transformational, force and influence, the great human, personality traits of the leader, emotional, distributed and indirect leadership concept, s p e c i f i c – followers theoretical leadership model. During the reflexive consideration of these theoretical constructions, their essential features in the intellectual projection on the specifics of military service-activity are generalized, in the process of preparing for which and the psycho-content course of which require a well-established actualization and, finally, a complete formation of a special range of personal features-qualities and subject-individual characteristics of the military, which determine his behavior, thoughts and emotions in different life situations that establishes understanding and effective development of leadership as a unique phenomenon, where the intellectual, emotional, social, motivational components of the inner world are intertwined with the civic maturity of the performers, that is, with the level of their education, professional competence, to perform military tasks, the ability to be responsible not only for their behavior, but also for the actions of subordinates, with the desire to work to achieve the goals of the organization’s power structure. It is proved that the role of psycho-individual features in leadership is comprehensive and contains, firstly, such basic characteristics as temperament, character, intelligence, emotional intelligence, motivation and values; secondly, different leadership influence on decision-making, taking into account personal resources and opportunities; thirdly, a certain way of interaction between the leader and the team, depending on his communication skills, ability to motivate and delegate authority; fourthly, the ability of the manager to adapt to rapid changes, especially his flexibility, creativity and openness to the new; fifthly, personal resistance to stress, first of all in a crisis, when the leader must remain calm and confident, which requires a high level of emotional stability and self-regulation. It is reasoned the combination of three approaches or channels for the development of leadership features-properties of military personnel, namely innate (genetic), general-cultural and professional socialization. The central conceptualizations of the research problem field are defined: leadership as a process, social impact, group interaction and as a joint purposeful activity. Conceptual-semantic operation with the terms “leadership” and “military leadership” gives them the instrumental weight of similar in content, but different in volume and systemacy component-by-component relations, worldview concenters. Thus, the first comprehensively describes the diverse context, goals and risks with the optional hierarchical approach, sometimes lack of responsibility and flexible management framework. The second concenter generalizes competent, situational and purely professional approaches, emphasizing the importance of both high consequences of military activity, which can lead to a complete failure of the mission and the loss of subordinate personnel, and a clear hierarchical construction of the life of one or another power unit, which requires discipline from subordinates, absolute responsibility, dignity, self-regulation in the time-space of relevant structural limitations. The p r i n c i p l e s of military leadership of domestic and foreign scientists are considered in detail, their explanatory advantages and interpretation limitations are singled out. At the same time, it is emphasized that the latest achievements in the field of psychology allow the commander to more deeply understand the processes of managing subordinate personnel, to develop effective strategies and models of leadership in a dynamic world, where the professional competence of the soldier plays an important role, which makes it possible for him to perform high-quality service-combat tasks as intended. It is substantiated that military leadership has its own unique features that distinguish it from other types of leadership in the specifics of military service, which requires a high level of discipline, responsibility and ability to make quick decisions in conditions of stress, danger, uncertainty. The exceptional importance of an integrated approach to the study of the military leadership psychology is stressed, covering the analysis of theories, principles and competencies necessary for the personnel to successfully perform the most complex military tasks.
Resilience may be referred to as the capacity for positive adaptation and to quickly recover from difficulties and significant adversity. After examining operational definitions of related concepts, the article discusses resilience building exercises for functional fitness at the individual soldier level, to include among others, self-monitoring, self-evaluation, self-reinforcement, emotional regulation exercises, mindfulness training, relaxation and grounding exercises and importance of maintaining discipline and routine in the military. Using an acronym CARRIES, the article examines efforts to enhance resilience building through empirically validated cognitive, behavioural and intrapersonal skills originating from best practices learned in the military.
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