History of Military Psychology at the U. S. Naval Submarine Medical Research Laboratory

摘要

Largely mandated by operational requirements of the diesel submarine service of WW II, considerable phychological research in the areas of hearing, vision and personnel selection was conducted prior to the official establishment of the Naval Medical Research Laboratory (NMRL) 1946. During the first decade of NMRL, the original staff produced some 80 scientific publications dealing largely with sonarmen's performance, visual problems of submariners and various aspects of the submariner selection problem. With the launching of the first atomic-powered submarine in 1954, the nuclear era brought many new psychological problems associated with the increase in the duration of submerged patrols from 3 to 80 days or more. Psychopathological effects of isolation, increased auditory and visual skills requirements, and a host of human factors problems associated with complex nuclear technology are examples of the content of the some 550 papers published in the fifties and sixties. Based upon a presumed leveling off of advancements in nuclear submarine technology, changing research foci in the psychological program at NSMRL are predicted. One trend thought likely is for less focussed work in the areas of auditory and visual perception and more emphasis upon matters related to the psychiatric screening of submariner candidates as well as investigative efforts to discover new approaches for the prevention of morale deterioration, performance decrements, and in some cases, debilitative psychopathology in submarine crew members during long submerged missions.