A Warrior's Guide to Psychology and Performance

This timely, well-organized, and practical guide for the war fighter offers the collaborative contributions of dedicated military and civilian experts.

Each chapter examines specific demands of military life and service, such as nutrition and its role in physical and cognitive performance, including details about military rations like Meals Ready to Eat (MREs). It also explores sleep: why you need it, how much you need, what happens when you are deprived of it, and how to recognize deprivation’s effects. The authors also discuss various aspects of stress: what it is, what its effects are on your body and mind, and how to recognize it, prevent it, and handle it. The book devotes an extensive discussion to hardiness and resilience, focusing on preparing yourself and your family and friends for stressful military deployments in order to avoid or minimize their associated pressures. Finally, the authors address common problems experienced after a deployment and offer tips on how to make your transition back home as smooth as possible for yourself and your family.

In each case, the expert contributors have emphasized specific skills, strategies, behavior, and support measures that you can apply to benefit your own overall psychological health, performance, and longevity.

Lt. Col. George R. Mastroianni, USAR (Ret.), served as an experimental psychologist in the U.S. Army and is currently a professor of psychology at the U.S. Air Force Academy. He lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Barbara Palmer is an experimental psychologist with extensive experience in military research and development and human systems integration. She lives in Dayton, Ohio.

Col. David M. Penetar, USA (Ret.), served as a U.S. Army research psychologist. Currently a psychopharmacologist at McLean Hospital, affiliated with Harvard Medical School, he has remained active in army research and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Victoria Tepe is a behavioral neuroscientist with more than twenty years of professional research experience in academic, medical, and military settings. She lives in Boston, Massachusetts.