458 



PSYCHOLOGY OF STRESS 



effect of (a) placing men with compatible or 

 incompatible character structures, interests, 

 etc., in a group (100), (b) the roles played 

 by the officers and men, whether aloof and 

 disciplinary, as in the German submarines, 

 or the more warm and flexible relations gen- 

 erally found in American crews, and (c) the 

 methods used in dealing with a crisis situa- 

 tion, as for example whether the desirable 

 effects of silent mnning during a depth 

 charge attack are more than offset by the 

 undesirable effects of forced inactivity, heat, 

 and humidity. 



7. The possibility of training officers in the 

 techniques of handling the group-dynamics 

 among the men. This general problem in- 

 cludes the officers' skill in recognizing and 

 utilizing the men's ego-, group-, and officer- 

 identifications for the advantage of all mem- 

 bers of the group, of instilling feelings in the 

 men that they are individuals worthy of res- 

 pect, and that their contribution to the 

 total effort is meaningful and important. 

 The emotional forces involved here may de- 

 termine whether the men surmount, or 

 succumb to, severe emotional stress in a 

 crisis. If properly organized and directed, 

 these energies provide additional strength 

 to master the stress; if disorganized and 

 undirected, they may render the individual 

 virtually defenseless and helpless in the face 

 of severe stress. 



Summary 



An individual experiences emotional stress 

 when his over-all adjustment is threatened, 

 when his adaptive mechanisms are severely 

 taxed and tend to collapse. Some of the 

 factors which influence an individual's abil- 

 ity to tolerate and master stress include: 

 the nature of his early identifications and 

 his present character structure, and their 

 relation to the demands and gratifications 

 of the present stress-producing situation ; the 

 nature of his reactions to the situation; his 

 ability to master strong and disturbing emo- 

 tional tensions; the extent to which he knows 

 about all aspects of the situation, so that he 



is not helplessly unaware of the nature and 

 source of threat; his available skills and 

 other means of dealing effectively with it; 

 and the strength and pattern of his motiva- 

 tions to do so. 



Under the impact of sufficient stress, re- 

 sponse patterns which are customarily inte- 

 grated, flexible, and adjustive tend to be- 

 come nonadaptive in terms of the needs of 

 the individual and the demands and grati- 

 fications of the external reality situation. 

 That is to say, excessive stress results in the 

 disruption of one or more of the self-regulat- 

 ing, adaptive functions of the organism, and 

 may involve the mechanisms of physiologi- 

 cal equilibrium, various forms of overt be- 

 havior, the higher mental processes, or 

 the individual's interpersonal relationships. 

 The breakdown of such adaptive functions 

 further impairs the over-all adjustment of 

 the individual. 



References 



1. Allport, G. W. Personality: a psychological 



interpretation. New York: Henry Holt, 

 1937. 



2. Anderson, C, & Jeffery, M. Psychiatric 



casualties from the Normany beach-head. 

 Lancet, 1944,247, 218-221. 



3. Anderson, O. D., & Liddell, H. S. Obser- 



vations on experimental neurosis in sheep. 

 Arch. Neurol. Psychiat., 1935, 34, 330-354. 



4. Anon. Group of 25 Scientists. Science in 



war. New York: Penguin Books, 1940. 



5. Ballard, S. I., & Miller, H. G. Neuro- 



psychiatry at a Royal Air J'orce center: 

 analysis of 2000 cases. Brit. Med. J., 1944, 

 2, 40-43. 



6. Bartlett, F. C. Psychology and the soldier. 



Cambridge, Eng.: Cambridge Univ. Press, 

 1927. 



7. Bassan,M. E. Some factors found valuable 



in maintaining morale on a small ship. 

 Bull. Menninger Clin., 1947, 11, 33-42. 



8. Bettelheim, B. Individual and mass be- 



havior in extreme situations. /. abnorm. 

 soc. Psychol., 1943, 38, 417-452. 



9. Bleckwenn, W. J. Neuroses in the combat 



zone. Ann. intern. Med., 1945, 23, 177- 

 183. 

 10. Bortz,E.L. Adjustment in wartime. Ann. 

 intern. Med., 1943, 19, 457-469. 



