A reason why soldiers are so dedicated

So I ended a recent post on the IKEA Effect that was developed by Dan Ariely at Duke University, Michael Norton at Harvard Business School and Daniel Mochon of Tulane University.  You may be concerned about the correlation between Swedish furniture and military social work.  This idea compliments that personal valuation of items by adding the factor of successful completion.  It is prized for your own efforts to assemble the furniture but also the fact that once you use it the furniture doesn’t crumble like Homer Simpson’s spice rack.  Oh mastery and competence! Hooray! Not only is that futon actually functional but it is an entertaining conversation piece essentially about mastery and competence.  

The IKEA Effect references a physical product but this can apply to service also.  A couple weeks ago I changed my own headlight. It was super simple. I felt like the car was more than just a mode of transportation. Now my car was something that I had bond with. An article in the Harvard Business Journal mentions that it can be applied to the corporate environment where ideas are a commodity.  Consider the situation where old ideas are held on to.  In this case it is not exactly shoddy work as much as unproductive.  This article mentions how managers may reject better ideas over their own ideas.

That sound like something social workers work with.  That could be policy, procedures and practices that are not productive.  I am sure that we all have our pet projects that we put a lot of effort into.  Sometimes the situations that we are working with are as complicated and frustrating as those furniture assembly instructions. Successfully passing a bill or policy getting a seeing a homeless person into a shelter can be exhilarating. 

   

I related the IKEA Effect to the Warrior Ethos. 

I will always place the mission first.

I will never accept defeat.

I will never quit.

I will never leave a fallen comrade.

I think that it is important to consider the IKEA Effect of military service when working with veterans.  The amount of effort put into a service member’s military career can be enormous for exceeding the standard is the norm. I remember the hours of starching uniforms and spit shinning boots. It was a running joke that if the military wanted you to have (whatever was suffering in your life) the military would have issued it to you.  Typically that thing suffering in your life was a social life and or family life.  Additionally, the military sets it up so that a service member can initially successful.  For example unless paperwork is submitted for adverse situations an enlisted soldier automatically advances up the rank of Specialist (E-4) on a time schedule. Mastery and competence confirmation on a time schedule!

The Warrior Ethos is about being a soldier.  It is not so much about being an airman or a seaman.  I caution social workers to not assume this for all service members.  Airmen and seamen are not typically going to pick up a weapon and on the grounds of a combat zone.  In combat operations they are just as important.  However they have a different frame of mind for which I cannot speak to.  It can be an insult to assume that they are the same.  

Follow up article: Author's personal copy of Bolstering and restoring feelings of competence via the IKEA effect.  Don’t want to read… here is a recently posted TED talk Dan Ariely: What makes us feel good about our work?  Notice the last few moments when there is a list of what makes employees happy in addition to money.  Think about how the military satisfies all of those ideas except maybe creativity.

Military Jokes

A Drill Sergeant yells to a large formation of soldiers, "All right! All you idiots fall out."As the rest of the squad wandered away, one soldier remained at attention.  The Drill Sergeant walked to that one remaining soldier. As they were eye-to-eye the Drill Sergeant smiled and said, "Sure was a lot of 'em, huh?" 


OK,one more....


"Well," snarled the tough old Navy Chief to the bewildered Seaman. "I suppose after you get discharged from the Navy, you'll just be waiting for me to die so you can come and piss on my grave." "Not me, Chief!" the Seaman replied. "Once I get out of the Navy, I'm never going to stand in line again!"

Wait! Wait! I got one more. 

Officer: "Soldier, do you have change for a dollar?"
Soldier: "Sure, buddy."
Officer: "That's no way to address an officer!  Now let's try it again. Soldier. Do you have change for a dollar?"
Soldier: "No, SIR!"

Find more jokes on http://www.military-quotes.com/jokes/index.htm

Ego Defense Mechanisms

"The world breaks everyone and afterward some are strong at the broken places."

 -Ernest Hemingway

 

Defense mechanisms get a bad rap.  There is a range of defense mechanisms that all serve the purpose of relieving anxiety and or stress.  Some of these are adaptive and some are maladaptive.  

Mature defense type include Altruism, Sublimation, Suppression, Anticipation and Humor.  Sublimation is engaging and channeling anxiety in to a productive outlet such as sports, hobbies and activism.  The idea of suppression being a mature defense mechanism may be strange.  I think an appropriate description would be temporarily ignoring a stressor or anxiety inducing situation in order to deal with it later.  It would be mature to recognize a problem but still know that there is nothing or very little that can be done at the time and therefore prioritizing accordingly.  The key is recognition and dealing with it at a more appropriate time.

Immature defense type include projection, fantasy, hypochondriasis, passive aggression, acting out and dissociation.  You recognize some of these mechanisms as those annoying behaviors of children and adolescents.  Of the list projection and dissociation may need further clarification.  Projection is the inclination to assume that the anxiety ridden thoughts about ourselves are assumed to be coming from someone else.  For example, a person that has anxiety about their job performance will assume that the boss is also concerned about their job performance.  Dissociation is typically associated with traumatic experiences. There is a pattern of the potential to develop into mature defenses. 

Neurotic defense type include repression, displacement, isolation, intellectualize, reaction formation. Repression is a mechanism that touches on all defense mechanisms but become neurotic when there is a failure to recognize the stressor and/or anxiety inducing situation.   Reaction formation is a defense mechanism that is typically associated with abusive relationships.  When explaining reaction formation I think of physics ….an equal and opposite reaction.  A reaction formation to someone you despise would be to befriend and lavish that person with compliments. These patterns are lacking in the potential to develop into mature defenses.  These behaviors would require more work to become mature and a delicate balance to be adaptive. 

The last type of defense mechanisms is Psychotic. Reality perception is maladaptive in this type of defenses.  This includes extreme forms of delusional projection, denial, distortion.  

This list is not all inclusive.  For more information take a look at this document. Always consider that each defense mechanism serves a purpose whether it is adaptive or maladaptive. Consider how it affects other important functions of life such as employment, personal care, and/or personal relationships.

Defense mechanisms are highly related to the work of Dan Ariely.  On the blog Barking up the WrongTree, Eric interviews Professor Dan Ariely.  In this interview they go over some basic concepts Professor Ariely work in behavioral economics such as the good side of irrational behaviors, attempting to correct irrational behaviors and dishonesty. They talk about the Lego and IKEA effect which I will write about as related to the Warrior Ethos.  This is really interesting social science information. Check out this interview about irrational behaviors and danariely.com

Introduction of the BRAIN Project

At President Obama’s 2013 State of the Union Address the next potential US government initiated international project was introduced. If you didn’t catch it is the brain mapping.  So the last project was the well-known Human Genome Project (HGP).  That project mapped out a chromosome which was a costly project but provided fruitful and immensely beneficial developments such as gene therapy.  Today, in a press release the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) program was announced. 

The obvious correlation of this project is through Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) however let us considering Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).  A 2006 article (pdf link) cites many effects of traumatic stress on the brain.

Stress results in acute and chronic changes in neurochemical systems and specific brain regions, which result in long term changes in brain “circuits,” involved in the stress response. Brain regions that are felt to play an important role in PTSD include hippocampus, amygdala, and medial prefrontal cortex. Cortisol and norepinephrine are two neurochemical systems that are critical in the stress response. (Bremner, 2006)

This article goes into much detail about the functions of the brain.  One section deals with cognitive processes.  This section notes deficits in declarative memory. This is long term memory like events or knowledge.  So any way that article is packed full of great information. 

This project could be very fruitful however I feel that this project will be more challenging than the HGP.  My number one reason for it being more complicated is brain/neuro plasticity. This is the brains ability and inclination to alter itself.  It can change both functionally and physically.  Confused yet?  Here is a link to PTSD and the Brain webpage that has many more great links. 

How do you think the BRAIN project could affect service members, veterans and their families?