448 



PSYCHOLOGY OF STRESS 



risk present disappointment in striving to- 

 ward their long-range goals. 



The Collapse of Mastery and Breakdown from 

 Stress 



If the individual's ability to tolerate emo- 

 tional stress, and his mastery of undesirable 

 impulses are inadequate and collapse, the 

 breakdown may occur either relatively early, 

 or after an extended period of time, or after 

 the stress-producing situation is past (24, 

 97). Early breakdown is apparently due to 

 such predisposing factors as a basic conflict 

 between the person's identification patterns 

 or character structure and the demands of 

 the situation (67), or to inadequate control 

 of powerful and disturbing emotions. When 

 an individual breaks down after a long period 

 of successful adjustment, it appears that 

 the precipitating causes are primarily inher- 

 ent in the stressful characteristics of the 

 situation (9). When breakdown occurs af- 

 ter the stress situation has terminated, it 

 appears due to a relaxing of the individual's 

 defenses against such impulses, and a return 

 of the anxiety previously held in check, 

 which then overwhelms him. 



Reduction in the number of breakdowns 

 of the first type can largely be achieved by 

 proper selection and placement procedures 

 (89, 93, 94). The second and third types 

 of breakdown can be avoided in many cases 

 by watching for the patterns of sjonptoms 

 which typically precede such "situation neu- 

 roses" (41, 65, 81). If the symptoms of an 

 individual suffering from this latter type of 

 stress are recognized in time, and he is tem- 

 porarily relieved to allow for early treat- 

 ment (43, 53) and recuperation, or is reas- 

 signed to other duties, the frequency of 

 breakdo^vn as a result of prolonged or recur- 

 rent emotional stress should be reduced 

 sharply. 



Cognitive Structure and Emotional Stress 



Generally speaking, the individual's cog- 

 nitive structure of a situation refers to his 

 mental picture of it. The more accurate 



and complete this picture is, the better the 

 cognitive structure. This factor is relevant 

 to emotional stress, since a person is able to 

 act realistically and effectively in such a 

 situation only if he loiows the nature and 

 seriousness of the threat, knows what to 

 do, and is able to do it. 



The presence or absence of cognitive struc- 

 ture partially determines the difference be- 

 tween fear and anxiety. If a person knows 

 what to expect in a threatening situation, 

 he tends to experience fear — that is, fear of 

 something which is more or less specific, 

 localized, and which can be dealt with. On 

 the other hand, anxiety, the dread of the 

 threatening unknown, is diffuse and unlo- 

 calized, hence is generally incapacitating, 

 since an individual full of uncertainty is 

 unable to act realistically and effectively 

 (18, 27, 38, 39, 41). 



A necessary condition of good cognitive 

 structure is that the individual possess ade- 

 quate information covering all aspects of the 

 situation and his relation to it. In a war, 

 this would include knowledge of the threat 

 potential of the enemy, the adequacy of the 

 defenses against him (both detection and 

 protection), the predictability and effective- 

 ness of one's o^vn aggressive strength, and 

 the extent of the advantage and risk in- 

 volved in each of several possible paths of 

 action (4, 38, 54). 



Emotional stress is intensified when cog- 

 nitive structure is lacking, for example, when 

 an individual is uncertain of the effectiveness 

 of the enemy's means of detecting and at- 

 tacking him (e.g., if he does not know 

 whether the position of his boat has been 

 located, or if the expected depth charge will 

 come, and if it will be a direct hit). Stress 

 is similarly increased if he does not know 

 the adequacy of his own means of detection 

 of and protection against the enemy (e.g., 

 whether he will be surprised by an enemy 

 dive bomber, or if the boat will strike a 

 floating mine, or if it is strong enough to 

 survive the depth charging, or can be taken 

 down fast enough to escape or avoid being 



