Abstract
Interest in the development of assessment and training methods to identify and develop elite performers has never been greater. As the quest for more effective selection and training methods presses forward, the use of virtual technologies and human-system integration platforms is likely to become increasingly common and complex. But, success in the enhancement of elite performance and human resilience will continue to rely most heavily on processes that balance the learner’s task focus and actions with stepwise increases in mental, physical, spiritual, and emotional stress. Each new level of challenge, accompanied by incrementally phased task success feedback, leads to new capability. Some of the critical skills described are self-talk, arousal management, goal setting, and imagery. Despite the growing use of digitally supported simulations and standardized methods in selection and training, we contend that the following Special Operations Forces (SOF) truth will always be preeminent: “Humans are more important than hardware.”
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Notes
- 1.
The details of these types of analyses are beyond the scope of this chapter. But they are explained in detail in Principles for the Validation and Use of Personnel Selection Procedures (Fourth Edition), Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Inc., 2003, www.siop.org.
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Greene, C.H., Staal, M.A. (2017). Resilience in US Special Operations Forces. In: Bowles, S., Bartone, P. (eds) Handbook of Military Psychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66192-6_12
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