Swiss Armed Forces Research Articles

Military Psychology in Switzerland

Selection, assessment, motivation, stress, and leadership are the central research and application fields of military psychology. The Swiss Armed Forces have worked in these fields since the 1920s. However, military psychology has only been instituted in Switzerland officially since the mid-1990s. Psychologists and educators in the Psychological-Pedagogical Service of the Armed Forces give counseling and guidance to soldiers and cadre alike, while in the recruitment centers psychologically trained personnel maintain a high quality in psychological testing. Military psychological research is conducted mainly at the Swiss Military Academy at ETH Zurich (MILAK/ETHZ). The articles in this Special Issue are connected directly to the pertinent research in the fields of selection, training, and education of cadre in the Swiss Armed Forces.

Appreciation at Work in the Swiss Armed Forces

This study explores the impact of appreciation at work among military professionals. Based on the concept of “Stress-as-Offense-to-Self” ( Semmer, Jacobshagen, Meier, & Elfering, 2007 ), appreciation is a possible resource due to boosts to self-esteem. We measured appreciation at work with a scale differentiating several forms and sources of appreciation. Data were gathered by an online survey of 228 male career officers and career noncommissioned officers of the Swiss Armed Forces. Appreciation at work correlated positively with job satisfaction and negatively with feelings of resentment. Moreover, appreciation at work explained incremental variance over and above job control, social support, and interactional justice. These results underline its distinction from other resource variables. Legal employment conditions of the military professionals include working hours in accordance with ongoing requirements without upper limits established. Moderator analysis showed that appreciation buffered the effect of long working hours on job satisfaction. Furthermore, appreciation mediated the effect of illegitimate tasks on job satisfaction as well as on feelings of resentment. Overall, these findings imply that it is worth building an organisational culture based on appreciation at work. Implications for research and military training are discussed.

Swiss Armed Forces Militia System

This study examines the effects of transformational leadership on subordinates’ extra effort in the unique case of the Swiss Armed Forces’ militia system. The transformational leadership style of 201 superiors who were perceived as outstanding was examined in a first study using the German version of the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ-5X). Relationships of transformational leadership with subordinates’ extra effort were found to be differentially moderated by “command structure” depending on whether the subordinates were militia personnel or military professionals. For military professionals, all components of transformational leadership on the part of lower-ranking superiors had a positive effect on subordinates’ extra effort. For militia personnel, only the interaction between “command structure” and idealized influence increased subordinates’ extra effort. A second study of 51 platoon leaders supported the augmentation effect postulated by transformational leadership theory.

Officer Selection for the Swiss Armed Forces

The present study (N = 844) examined the predictive validity and fairness of the assessment center (AC) and the general mental ability (GMA) test used to select officers for the Swiss Armed Forces. We found that both selection methods predicted candidates’ academic and military performance at the end of their officer training. Furthermore, the AC had incremental validity beyond GMA, meaning that it cannot be replaced by the GMA test. Concerning the fairness of the selection methods, no significant performance differences were found between candidates from the different Swiss language regions. With one exception, no evidence for differential prediction was found, and for the single exception, the selection procedure used was not the source of the differential prediction. Thus, the AC and the GMA test were generally equally predictive for candidates from the German-speaking region as well as from the two other language regions of Switzerland. Taken together, the present study attests to the good predictive validity and fairness of the methods used to select officers.

The Pattern of Psychopathology Associated with Malingering Tendencies at Basic Psychiatric Screening of the Swiss Armed Forces

This study uses military recruitment data, collected in 2003 from Swiss Armed Forces conscripts, to observe the pattern of psychopathology and addictive behavior for conscripts identified as those with malingering tendencies. To that end, we first applied Derogatis' criterion for the Symptom Checklist 90 Revised to identify recruits with malingering tendencies. We then used bivariate methods (t test and chi2 tests) to compare self-reported psychopathology and addictive behavior of such recruits to that of recruits not identified as potential malingerers. We find that recruits with malingering tendencies have significantly higher mean scores in all psychopathological symptom dimensions and addictive behaviors than recruits without malingering tendencies. The results suggest that the Symptom Checklist 90 Revised is well suited as a screening for malingerers in nonpatients and conscripts.

Psychological Research on Military Problems - A Swiss Perspective A Special Issue of the Swiss Journal of Psychology

In recent years, psychological research contributions relating to the Swiss Armed Forces have increased in number. Swiss scholars have carried out a notable amount of psychological research on military problems such as leadership, crisis management, organizational management, decision-making, motivation, stress, assessment, recruiting/recruitment, communication, psychometric testing in the military context, etc. Many of the relevant publications are of high theoretical and empirical quality but sometimes tend to be scattered across various outlets that are not easily or automatically accessible to the international scientific community. The special issue of the Swiss Journal of Psychology is intended to document progress that has been made as well as foci of the relevant research. Papers with a specific Swiss perspective are preferred. Contributions that focus on but are not limited to the following topics are particularly welcomed: • Psychometric tests • Recruitment • Leadership • Organizational management • Decision making • Recruit schools • Deployments abroad • Health problems and stress • Motivation

Aims of the 3rd International Course on the Law of Armed Conflict of the International Committee for Military Medicine

The International Committee for Military Medicine (ICMM) decided at the 32nd Congress in Vienna in 1998 to give the Surgeon General of the Swiss Armed Forces the mandate to organize its international courses on the Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC). The Swiss Federal Government fully honored and endorsed its obligation to organize these important international courses. It is in the continuing tradition of Switzerland, as a small neutral state, to support humanitarian help and all efforts to prevent war. As decided by the head of the government on April 3, 1998, the mandate of the LOAC Courses will be funded by the Swiss Confederation.