Psychological Trauma within soldiers of the U.S army March 25, 2012

When a traumatic event damages the psyche the trauma leads to posttraumatic stress disorder the damage caused can lead to a psychical change of an individual’s brain and brain chemistry thus causing a change in the person’s response to future issues such as stress and post traumatic stress disorder (P.T.S.D.)

My blog is going to feature on P.T.S.D experienced in the U.S military. One of the first studies into PDSP trauma was in 1980 and was conducted on aviators captures after the war in Vietnam it showed that 61% had experiences psychological trauma during captivity.

Within the American Army P.T.S.D was accepted as a legitimate condition and reason to

withdraw from service five years after the Vietnam war. The New York Times recently

written an article that discussed a $125 million Military Programme that the US army had in

place to increase resilience against mental illness amongst soldiers out on the front line.

 

The programme is called the Comprehensive Soldier Fitness (C.S.F) and is based on a series of positive psychology theories that were

developed by Martin Seligman. It consists of four main areas which are emotional

fitness, social fitness, family fitness and spiritual fitness. It aims to treat medical health

problems and prevent them by improving soldiers psychological strength

 

The programme involves a 110 item questionnaire entitled the Global Assessment Tool

which once completed gives scores based on the four areas of the programme. The

collective aim of the programme is then to be attached to the GAT profile of each soldier

to strengthen vulnerabilities and build on existing strengths. This means that if a solider

had a low score on one part of the programme for instant the spiritual section this

would pinpoint what sort of psychological issues the soldier is likely to have in real life

as well as during service.( Bell, 2012)

 

The CSF is also able to assess the likelihood of a soldier getting mental illness as it is

designed to tell researchers which soldiers are at a high risk of psychiatric difficulties

this allows the Military to help to see which skills and abilities mitigate a risk.

The US army already screen for P.T.S.D symptoms after deployment yet in 2010 the Army

gave a diagnosis of post – traumatic stress disorder to 10,756 troops.

The prevalence of PTSD among U.S forces returning from Iraq is 20% combat personnel

compared to the U.K forces which is reportedly 5% using the exact same measuring

procedures the differences are said to be due the U.S. recruitment procedure. (Reuters,

2012)

 

P.T.S.D is a huge issue for the Defence Department a recent army study estimated as much

as 20% of 2million US troops who served in the Iraq and Afganhanistan war could suffer

from PTSD and the cost of treatment was between US$4 billion and $6.2 billion. (Tull, 2012)

 

References

1)      Tull, M. (2012). Ptsd in iraq war veterans. Retrieved from http://ptsd.about.com/od/prevalence/a/IraqWarPTSD.htm

2)      Reuters, D. A. R. (2012). Us army begins review to ensure cost does not affect ptsd diagnosis. Retrieved from http://www.chinapost.com.tw/international/americas/2012/03/23/335562/p2/US-Army.htm

3)      Bell, V. B. (2012). Wishful resilience. Retrieved from http://mindhacks.com/2012/03/24/wishful-resilience/

Comments for Wendy March 14, 2012

1) http://statssam.wordpress.com/2012/03/11/is-the-term-approaching-significance-cheating/#comment-50

 

2)http://dsm1lp.wordpress.com/2012/02/19/what-role-does-the-null-hypothesis-really-play-in-the-scientific-process/#comments

 

3)http://kdjhg.wordpress.com/2012/02/16/is-it-ok-to-use-social-networking-sites-as-data/#comment-77

 

 

4)https://psud60.wordpress.com/2012/03/11/body-language/#comment-36

 

Body Language March 11, 2012

Body Language is “another name for kinesics or loosely speaking of non-verbal communication in general”.  The achievement of non-verbal communication is due to body language, such as facial reactions, posture, vocal noises (grunts and mumbling).  Body language stems from the psyche meaning the inner brain and uses the corporal behaviour to decipher what exactly is going on in terms of thoughts, feelings and intentions.

The use of nonverbal communication begins at birth as the first instincts of a new born is to start crying which causes those around the baby to give the baby attention therefore the baby is satisfied due to the need for warmth now the baby is aware that communication and interaction between the mind and body are needed for survival. (Ratey, 2002)

The interconnectedness between the head and nonverbal transmission is evident due the fact that humans are capable of 700,000 different signs it is estimated that humans make over 250,000 facial expressions and 5,000 distinct hand gestures and have over 1,000 catalogues postures. (Phipps, 2008)

            A recent study at Wharton University about how human beings take in information thought our senses has shown that 82% is through the eyes, 11% from the ears and 51% from retention verbal and 7% is from other senses yet a person’s body language accounts for 55%.(Phipps, 2008)

Body language is predominantly used for three reasons firstly as a direct replacement for words for instance sign language secondly for reinforcement of words this is done through gestures, thirdly as a way to mirror inner emotions and attitudes.

Body language is subconscious and is intended to create balance between outer appearance and inner feelings. (Navarro, 2009)

Body language is a key aspect for human communication; it allows us to put forward our feelings without putting them in to speech. It allows us to instinctively perceive how others feel depending on our behaviour and then recognise and thus react.

References

1)      Phipps, R. P. (9, Auguest 2008). Body language facts and statistics. Retrieved from http://personalpowerinformation.blogspot.com/2008/08/body-language-facts-and-statistics.html

2)      Navarro, J. N. (2009, November 29). The psychology of body language. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/spycatcher/200911/the-psychology-body-language?page=2

3)      Ratey, J. J. R. (2002). A users guide to the brain: Perception, attention, and the four theatera of the brain. Vintage. Retrieved from http://brainconnection.positscience.com/content/157_1