Psychological Fitness

The dramatic increase in psychological demands associated with current military operations makes psychological fitness of our military personnel more vital than ever. Psychological fitness is defined as the integration and optimization of mental, emotional, and behavioral abilities and capacities to optimize performance and strengthen the resilience of warfighters. The present article proposes a military demand-resource (MDR) model as a comprehensive and integrated model of psychological fitness for the total force. The model emphasizes the importance of identifying military-driven and evidence-informed variables, and selecting operational outcome measures for resilience and performance. The model integrates the roles of internal (personal) and external (environmental) resources specifically for developing, sustaining, and restoring psychological resources, similar to the maintenance of physical fitness and health. Equal attention to the psychological component is critical for achieving the mind–body balance as desired in a total force fitness framework for military forces today.