Mental Skills Training Psychology

The second research article that I am summarizing is from the Journal of Applied Psychology. It has to do with the effects of mental skills training. There were three hypotheses within the study. The first hypothesis was that if soldiers went through mental skills training, then they would use more mental skills over time. The second hypothesis was that if soldiers went through mental skills training, then they would report higher self-confidence scores. The third hypothesis was that if soldiers went through mental skills training, then they would perform better on physical fitness and military tasks than soldiers in the comparison condition. The authors said that there has actually been little research done on cognitive skills training. And

Within the study, the participants were 2,432 soldiers completing U.S. Army basic combat training at a large training post in the southeastern United States. The soldiers were randomly divided into platoons. Within the study they did not say how many people are in a platoon, but doing farther research I found out that 39 people make up a platoon. Next, the platoons were randomly assigned to either the mental skills training or an active control training (military history). Baseline survey measures were taken at the beginning of training and again at the end of weeks 3, 6, and 9. The platoons that were assigned to the mental skills training, went through sessions that would push their cognitive behaviors. These sessions included of targeting mental skills, personally meaningful affirmations, and optimal attributions about successes and failures. They were also taught systematic goal setting and were provided with skills to direct and sustain attention through focus cues and performance routines. The platoons who were assigned to the military history training were taught basic combat

Out of the eight areas within the test, the participants that went through the mental skills training scored higher on six of them. Physical and psychological self-confidence were both reported to be higher for the members of the mental skills training, proving hypothesis 2 right. Finally, when divided into gender and age groups, hypothesis 3 was also proven right. To be clear, they weren’t separated into gender and age groups while doing the research. Only after they got the results, they separated the scores into gender and age groups. That way you don’t have an older male’s time being compared to a younger female’s time. Again, within their respected groups, the participants that went through mental skills training had better