Cognitive mechanisms associated with psychological adjustment to military deployments

This thesis investigated autobiographical memory processes and associated cognitive mechanisms relevant for adjustment to military deployments amongst currently serving soldiers. Experimental paradigms were conducted with soldiers whilst deployed and when recently returned home to Australia. Study 1 examined the proposed relationship between PTSD symptoms, autobiographical memory retrieval style and memory content in the months after soldiers’ returned from Afghanistan. The findings revealed that greater PTSD symptoms were associated with more specific negative memories and more negative deployment memories, with exception those soldiers who had deployed more often. Studies 2a and 2b explored soldiers’ deployment memories within the context of reflection and distraction cognitive thinking styles. Study 2a found reflection led to more trauma lifetime memories and more neutral memory valence amongst soldiers’ serving on deployment in Afghanistan. Study 2b found that reflecting on ones’ deployment experiences in the home context led to the retrieval of more trauma-related deployment memories and more negative deployment memories, providing evidence for the benefit of distraction over reflection, for managing deployment experiences in the home context. Studies 3a, 3b and 3c explored soldiers’ future thinking processes. Study 3a found that neither PTSD symptoms nor memory specificity contributed to how soldiers’ view themselves on a future deployment, whilst having deployed more often led to more imagined positive future deployment events. Study 3b found that reflection leads to the generation of more positive future deployment-related events, while Study 3c found that boosting ones’ self-efficacy was not a predictor of more specific or a more self-efficacious view of ones’ self into the future. Studies 4a and 4b explored soldiers’ performance on military-related problem-solving tasks. Study 4a found that PTSD symptoms were not associated with poorer problem solving whilst more specific negative memories improved the effectiveness and active style of problem solving. Finally, Study 4b found that reflecting on ones’ Iraq deployment as successful, did not improve military related problem solving. Findings are discussed within the CaR-FA-X and Self Memory Models, with the program of research identifying contextual differences for how soldiers’ recall and think about their experiences whilst deployed compared to after having returned home, post-deployment