Psychology, extreme environments, and counter-terrorism operations

ABSTRACT

Counter-terrorism (CT) operations may involve intelligence-gathering, reconnaissance, surveillance, or direct action (e.g. arrest) to disrupt terrorist activities, and can take place in domestic settings and on international deployments. They involve defence, security, and law enforcement personnel, who often enter risky and dangerous settings, exposing themselves to diverse physical, psychological, and social stressors. The extent to which a person adjusts and adapts to these stressors has implications for safety, performance, health, and well-being. Despite their importance, the psychological aspects of CT operations have received scant research attention. This paper explores what we might learn from the research on performance and health in other extreme environments to support the work of CT professionals operating in hazardous settings. Guided by a model of stress and coping in extreme environments, we review potential physical, psychological, and social stressors and discuss mitigating factors and coping strategies. A systematic, evidence-based understanding of stress and coping in dangerous settings will be of value to those involved in planning CT operations, enhancing understanding of the impact that stressors and constraints could have on the safety, performance, and health of operational personnel, and providing pointers to effective mitigation.

KEYWORDS:

• Extreme environments
• counter-terrorism operations
• performance
• health
• stressors

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Dr Nathan Smith is a Research Associate in Psychology, Security and Trust in the Department of Politics at the University of Manchester. His research interests centre on the psychology of performance and health in challenging and demanding settings, including individual differences in personality, values and motivation; stress, coping, emotion and mental health; and the process of transition, adjustment and reintegration follow exposure to extreme settings.

Dr Emma Barrett OBE is Professor of Psychology, Security and Trust in the Department of Politics at the University of Manchester, and the University’s strategic lead for Digital Trust and Security. Her research interests include betrayal, deception, and credibility assessment; investigative decision making; the psychology of terrorism and violent extremist behaviour; and the psychology of survival and performance in extreme and unusual environments.

ORCID

Nathan Smith http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7400-8978

Emma Barrett http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0762-5196

Notes

1 For clarity, in the following sections where we refer to emotional health we discuss the constructs and specific terminology applied by the authors of the primary research.

2 Each of these stressors could warrant their own systematic review, which was beyond the scope of this narrative. Where reviews currently exist, we have signposted these for the reader.