Resiliency Training in the Military

How Sergeant Majors Help Soldiers Cope with Stress
Introduction
Master Resilience Training (MRT) allows officers in the U.S. Army to learn how to promote resilience among soldiers using positive psychology. The goal of the program is ultimately to help soldiers cope with stress, anxiety, PTSD, and other adverse situations that soldiers might experience in their units—from sexual assault to domestic violence to substance abuse and so on. Originally developed at the end of the 20th century by the University of Pennsylvania for its Resilience Program, MRT was quickly adopted by the Army as a way to help boost resilience in the battlefield. Today it is taught to non-commissioned officers (NCOs) in a 10-day program that includes education the methods that NCOs can use to communicate resiliency to their soldiers (Reivich, Seligman & McBride, 2011). The MRT program is meant not only to improve soldiers’ ability to cope with stress but also to improve their cognitive processes (Cornum, Matthews & Seligman, 2011). This paper will explain how Sergeant Majors can use positive psychology and MRT specifically to overcome leadership challenges related to traumatic experiences suffered by their soldiers.
The Need for MRT
Sergeant Majors are in a position to lead their soldiers both by example and by teaching. However, with PTSD impacting literally hundreds of thousands of soldiers in today’s military (Kang et al., 2015), then ability of leaders to create a positive impression on soldiers is made challenging by the psychological trauma that many soldiers are likely to have experienced, whether on the battlefield or as a result of home life situations, alcohol or drug dependencies, sexual abuse or depression (Vogt et al., 2017). One way to overcome these challenges is to train Sergeant Majors in the use of positive psychology, particularly MRT. Griffith and West (2013) showed that 97% of the respondents in their survey attested to using the skills they learned in MRT. The positive changes that resulted from applying their MRT skills included “increased self-awareness and strength of character, including improved optimism, mental agility, and connection with others” (Griffith & West, 2013, p. 140).
MRT is not just useful for dealing with challenges posed by trauma-related issues; it also helps to create a buffer effect for soldiers, which in turn enables them to reduce the amount of stress they absorb and carry around with them (Griffith & West, 2013). The MRT training achieves these successes by breaking the program down into individual modules that focusing on building resiliency, increasing mental toughness, identifying character strengths so that individuals can boost their confidence and know where their power lies, and strengthening relationships so that support systems can be put in place (Positive Psychology Program, 2018). As Reivich et al. (2011) note, MRT can serve as the “backbone of a cultural transformation of the U.S. Army in which a psychologically fit army will have equal standing with a physically fit army” (p. 33).
How Sergeant Majors Can Use Positive Psychology
Put simply and best, positive psychology is the study of understanding that which “makes life worth living” (Peterson, 2008). Principles of positive psychology include the following:
· Happiness matters: when people are happy, they tend to succeed more—and most people have the ability to be happy.
· Resilience matters: when people are able to bounce back from adversity, they can achieve more and overcome obstacles instead of giving up—and most people have the ability to be resilient.
· Religion matters: when people have some guidance or teaching that gives them a strong moral framework, they tend to make right decisions more than wrong ones.
· The heart has to be educated—more than the head in a lot of cases.
· The “good life” is something that can be taught (Peterson, 2008).
These principles have been incorporated into the Army’s MRT training in a variety of ways. By focusing on these principles in their interactions with soldiers, NCOs can develop a positive culture in their units that re-affirms life’s great purposes, provides soldiers with a ideals that can give them encouragement even in the face of great adversity or personal struggles, and lift them out of the gloom of depression. Positive psychology shows that individuals who are overly-stressed, depressed or suffering from some trauma, whether sexual abuse or domestic violence, need a light that can help them realize life does not have to be defined by the negatives, the troubles, or the defeats. This is where a religious or cultural viewpoint can be particularly effective, as it can help the individual to see that life has a spiritual purpose. NCOs are certainly not required to preach religion, but they can help to promote a positive culture in their units by focusing on the higher purposes in life and teaching their soldiers about how when they hold onto these ideals, life truly does become worth living—no matter what has happened to one in the past. The point that sergeants must make, however, is that the good life takes hard work and effort: it does not drop out of the trees for free. One has to admit to oneself that it can be attained, one has to trust to the process, and finally one has to commit to the course of action that will lead one to it. Showing this to his soldiers is the best way the sergeant can use positively psychology to strengthen his unit and overcome the myriad challenges of leadership.
Using MRT
The MRT training focuses on strengthening cognition, mental fiber, the ability to overcome adversity, and the ability to find where one’s inner strength or character is strongest. Drill and platoon sergeants (NCOs) make up the primary group of leaders who receive MRT training (Reivich et al., 2011). Using MRT, these NCOs come to understand what helps to build resilience in the human character. Leaders will examine a wide range of inputs, from poetry to quotes of other famous leaders; they will also focus on the core competencies of resilience and how they can enhance the Warrior Ethos that leaders in the Army are expected to embody. This ethos is what they must then impart to the soldiers in their unit: “I will always place the mission first. I will never accept defeat. I will never quit. I will never leave a fallen comrade” (Reivich et al., 2010, p. 27). The emphasis of the Warrior Ethos is on pushing forward no matter what: it is on attaining the goal in spite of all—because attainment of the goal is what enables the good life to be had.
To help promote the ethos, however, the sergeant major has to be able to define the good life so that it is understood and desired by his soldiers. Because of possible traumas in their past, some soldiers may not even have an understanding of what the good life is or that it can be possible. The NCO has to deliver the message that the good life is possible, does exist and can be obtained through hard work—and the leader has to demonstrate possession of the good life in his own life: he has to show his soldiers that he not only knows what the good life is but that he also has it and lives it every day of his life. For this reason, the NCO has to be at peace, has to show happiness and comfort with himself and his position in life, and has to show a type of satisfaction that can only be achieved when life’s goals are achieved. The NCO, in other words, has to be the source of ultimate motivation—the living emblem of the good life so that the soldiers in the unit recognize it and want to attain it for themselves.
The sergeant major can also use MRT to develop mental toughness in his unit. By applying the lessons of “Aaron Beck, Albert Ellis, and Martin Seligman and [pulling] heavily from the field of cognitive-behavioral therapy,” NCOs can help their soldiers identify the behavioral goals they should be striving to attain in order to overcome obstacles in their own lives (Reivich et al., 2011, p. 27). For example, if a soldier is suffering from substance abuse, the sergeant major does not have to probe into the soldier’s psychology to find out why he is addicted to drugs—that would be mining the field of psychiatrics. Cognitive behavioral psychology instead focuses on identifying behaviors that one can adopt or pursue in one’s daily life to help counter the negative stressors or temptations that an individual faces. So a soldier battling substance abuse would, with the assistance of the NCO, identify behaviors to pursue to avoid the temptation of using—whether this is avoiding certain places at a certain time of day, or responding to negative feelings by doing something positive instead of taking the time to indulge them. This in turn helps to build mental toughness in the soldier.
Leaders can help soldiers identify “thinking traps” as well. These occur when individuals jump to conclusions, over-generalize, or engage in other thinking styles that move them away from positive goals back towards their own problems. The NCO can show the soldier that by succumbing to thinking traps, the soldier undermines his own strength and resilience as there are emotional, cognitive and behavioral consequences to falling into these traps (Reivich et al., 2011). Leaders themselves have to be careful to avoid these traps because as they learn in MRT it is easy to overestimate the value or strength of an individual soldier based on one action. Sometimes leaders can become beholden of a soldier because the soldier does something right—but this does not mean the soldier is going to successful in everything, so the leader has to be careful not to over-estimate a soldier’s abilities: doing so can lead to failure, discouragement and depression.
Instead, the leader has to maintain a sense of realism so that no individual soldier is ever left in the lurch. Demoralization tends to set in when a leader sets high expectations for the unit or for the individual that realistically cannot be attained. The best approach to developing toughness is to start off with small goals and build confidence. Gradually the goals can become larger and more difficult to attain, but with the confidence of the unit established and morale running high, these bigger challenges will appear as opportunities to prove themselves rather than as insurmountable obstacles that will only cause them to fail and fall back into whatever bad habits they possessed before.
The leader can also help to spot icebergs—deeply held beliefs—that can both “contribute to or undermine their effectiveness in the Army, as leaders, and in creating strong relationships” (Reivich et al., 2011, p. 28). It is important to do this so that no stone is left unturned as the leader helps to strengthen his own ability to lead but also the ability of others to identify their own core values and assess whether they are suitable for the situation or not. One particular iceberg that has been shown to be problematic is the belief that asking for help is bad and shows weakness on the part of the soldier. Leaders have to recognize that asking for help is not a sign of weakness but rather a sign of strength. Of course, there is a difference between asking for help when help is needed and asking for help when help is not needed—i.e., when the individual is just wanting someone else to do the heavy lifting for him. But this is where the leader’s own powers of perception have to come into play. For a soldier who is dealing with stress or some trauma, asking for help can be the best way to actually begin to heal and overcome the challenges facing him. Leaders have to really focus on deconstructing the dangerous iceberg that is the fallacy of asking-for-help-shows-weakness. When help is genuinely needed, soldiers have to be willing to ask for it—because that is the only way they will improve. Asking for help, however, requires trust in the process—and that trust will only be there if the soldier knows that the Army and its leaders are going to be there to provide help and support. So the leader, above all, has to show that he cares for his soldiers and wants them all to attain the good life.
Conclusion
To help soldiers cope with stress, sergeant majors can utilize positive psychology and specifically MRT to develop the mental toughness and resilience of their soldiers. Positive psychology focuses on the principles that help one to attain the good life and stay motivated to succeed. This approach feeds into the promotion of the Warrior Ethos that soldiers need to have to keep from falling into bad mental, emotional and behavioral habits. The leader can help soldiers to deal with trauma, stress, depression, anxiety or any other negative factor by providing an example of the good life, showing that it is possible to attain through discipline and commitment to the ideals represented by the Army.



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