Soldier Development Following Negative Cross-Cultural Experiences: An Integrated Review of the Literature

Abstract

One of the military's top priorities is to aid Soldiers in developing skills that will help them understand and more effectively interact with members of other cultures. A key determinant of cross-cultural skill development is the acquisition of hands-on experience within the culture itself. Previous research has focused heavily on the importance of multicultural experiences in cross-cultural skill development, but has largely ignored the effects when such experiences are difficult or challenging. Even fewer studies have examined the role of these experiences within a military context. This report is a preliminary attempt at addressing some of the factors that may contribute to (or hinder) Soldier development and learning following negative or challenging cross-cultural experiences. This report was assembled as part of a multidisciplinary effort wherein subject matter experts were asked to provide their perspectives on a number of topics related to the processing of and development following negative cross-cultural events. These topics included (a) the role of individual difference, group, and contextual factors as determinants of skill development following negative experiences, (b) differences in the types of cognitive processes that occur while a negative event is transpiring, and (c) factors and strategies that aid in recovery following a negative event.

A Situation Judgment Test for Military Multicultural Decision-Making: Initial Psychometric Studies

“…Trust is often an issue in multicultural settings; again, both over-and under-trust of collaborators from other cultures may impair decision-making (Huff & Kelley, 2003). Trust may be influenced by a variety of cross-cultural differences, which impact the perceptions underpinning trust such as those of competence, benevolence and integrity (Klafehn et al, 2014). For example, US Soldiers may require higher standards of performance to establish competence, and hence trust, than some other partner nations.…”

“…Decision-making in the military context is often associated with uncertainty, so that differing, culturallyshaped perspectives on handling uncertainty are likely to impair effective teaming (Abbe, Gulick & Herman, 2007;Klafehn et al, 2014). Uncertainty avoidance refers to the extent to which people are threatened by uncertainty, ambiguity and lack of clear rules.…”

Metas de aprendizaje y rasgos de personalidad como predictores del bienestar en cadetes de una institución policial

“…Sin embargo, hasta el momento la psicología argentina no ha estudiado los factores comentados a fin de contribuir al mejor entrenamiento, capacitación y selección de buenos policías. Cabe destacar que se han encontrado pocas investigaciones empíricas en el área de la formación de cadetes a policía (Bailey, 2013;Klafehn et al, 2014), ya que el foco de atención de esta se centró en la identificación de características desadaptativas de personalidad, en la presencia de trastornos psicológicos y en los aspectos adaptativos del buen desempeño en militares.…”