Expectations, Affect Change, and Military Performance in the Army Recruit

Abstract

Previous study at Fort Dix of the distressful affective response of Army recruits to basic combat training (BCT) was extended to Fort Ord. Several features of the inverted-U BCT distress curve were replicated on 2 companies ( N — 400) measured repeatedly with the Multiple Affect Adjective Check List (MAACL). Ss' expectations of BCT distress, measured upon arrival, were much lower than the actual distress levels later reported in the midst of BCT. Then, an experiment consisting of 8 groups ( N = 839) was conducted to test (a) the immediate effect upon distress expectancy of a training film edited to prepare new recruits for the stress of BCT and (b) the later effect of such stress preparation on distress levels actually reported midway through BCT. The results indicated an increase in expected distress after viewing the film, but failed to confirm the Janis hypothesis that stress preparation reduces emotional distress. Extremely low and mostly non-significant Pearson rs resulted from correlational analysis of BCT performance scores and MAACL measures. Methodological problems, theoretical issues, practical applications, and suggestions for future research were discussed. A list of conclusions was drawn to update the current status of BCT distress research with the MAACL.