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Writing Assignment 5

Positive Psychology and Soldier Resilience

Victoria M Freitas

Santa Fe College
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Writing Assignment 5

Positive Psychology and Soldier Resilience

I believe the moral and ethical lines regarding the implementation of positive psychology

onto military soldiers have been fatally blurred. This is because the application of positive

psychology in the military functions under the assumption that war is unavoidable (and it is the

patriotic duty of psychologists to help soldiers become more resilient in combat), the fact that the

Army does not actually care about the soldiers mental health but rather their military goals,

and because training soldiers to undergo less distress when confronting death, destruction, and

other inhumane acts is a horrifying concept.

To elaborate, I think it is incredibly wrong to lay the responsibility of creating more

efficient killers onto psychologists. War is not inescapable, and psychologists would actually be

perpetuating war and violence by making it easier for soldiers to execute in combat. I agree with

critics of this prospect who assert that we should encourage the use of positive psychology

principles to reduce conflict between nations, to prevent war, and to promote peaceRather than

propagating death, destruction, and violence.

Furthermore, the stress and reactions that combatants are experiencing completely

natural, normal, and humane feelings. War is morbid, and in war soldiers are exposed to

horrifying experiences and images. They are having healthy reactions to unhealthy

circumstances. By implementing positive psychology in order to achieve soldier resilience, we

would essentially be teaching soldiers to feel better about murder. While that thought alone is

frightening, we must also remember that once these soldiers are discharged, they will still carry

these dangerous mentalities with them upon returning to regular civilian society.
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Writing Assignment 5

Moreover, it is extremely nave for psychologists who utilize positive psychology in

assisting the military to believe they are benefiting the human being in front of them, rather than

the Army itself. In fact, I would go as far to say that they are lying to themselves. Psychologists

lend their expertise to the military thinking they are doing the right, patriotic job that they have

been called upon but in reality, they are being pawned by the military to facilitate death, and to

advance their own goals of domination.

In essence, I agree that war is unnatural, unhealthy, and pathological. Therefore, positive

psychology is being used to adjust soldiers to a "sick" situation and will inevitably be detrimental

to the health and safety of our society.

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Writing Assignment 5

References

Sue, David (2015). Essential of Understanding Abnormal Behavior Page 472.