Abstract

BESTER, Piet. A positive psychology perspective on pre-deployment fitness-for-duty evaluations for external deployments: A proposition for the South African National Defence Force. SM [online]. 2022, vol.50, n.3, pp.25-45. ISSN 2224-0020.  http://dx.doi.org/10.5787/50-3-1379.

The aim of this article is to introduce the reader to a psychological well-being orientation for soldiers in pre-deployment fitness-for-duty evaluations by screening for psychological risk rather than pathology. This aim is reached firstly, by discussing the existing process of pre-deployment fitness-for-duty evaluations, then conceptualising the assessment for psychological risk rather than psychopathology only, followed by linking pre-deployment assessment of fitness-for-duty evaluations to the positive psychology paradigm and proposing an integrative military model for soldiers' psychological well-being in the external deployment context. The discussion is concluded by recommendations for military decision-makers to consider this approach of psychological risk assessment as a feasible process.

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