Performance and Sports Psychology in Security Practice

What can the security industry learn from Sports Psychology

War, combat, sports, and security is as old as history itself, and in some cases, they overlap. This overlap for example of work and play can be seen when countries play "war games". Both the USA and Europe through, NATO perform "war games" to test each member state's military personnel readiness for combat or all-out war. Even the term "war games" has the element of the word "games" in it. The goal is to exhibit the skill, strategy and mental fortitude to defeat the "enemy".

What can security managers learn from the psychology of sports? Or in this case, the psychological need to play, have a game, compete in sports or start and stick with and exercise? (And I do not mean physical exercise here but ongoing security expertise to develop a security culture). Can security managers motivate employees to exhibit proper security practices in their organizations to secure the property, people, information, or data? 

How can security managers utilize sports psychology as a means of encouraging an ongoing security culture in the workplace? What is sports psychology you may ask?  Below are the two definitions of sports and exercise psychology. For the sake of time and space, I am using them interchangeably in the context of mental and psychological benefits towards building a security culture in an organization.

American Psychological Associations definitions of sports psychology and exercise psychology

"Sport psychology is a proficiency that uses psychological knowledge and skills to address the optimal performance and well-being of athletes, developmental, and social aspects of sports participation and systemic issues associated with sports settings and organizations" (American Psychological Association, 2008).

What Is Exercise Psychology and Sport Psychology?

Exercise psychology and sports psychology involve the scientific study of the psychological factors that are associated with participation and performance in sport, exercise, and other types of physical activity. Sport psychologists are interested in two main areas: (a) helping athletes use psychological principles to achieve optimal mental health and to improve performance (performance enhancement) and (b) understanding how participation in sport, exercise, and physical activity affects an individual's psychological development, health, and well-being throughout the lifespan (American Psychological Association, 2011).

At times, security managers complain that employees have a hard time or outright ignore security policy to keep the organization running securely. Many security managers come up with new policy solutions, new techniques, implement new software policy, etc, etc, but are still coming up short in establishing a long term security mindset needed to keep employees engaged in security and not have them lose interest.

While many security managers are awesome when it comes to security policy, running training programs, and even teaching the need to be secure, they at times miss the psychological aspect of the human that is needed to keep the employees engaged.

For security managers to have success in keeping people interested and engaged, they must not only understand their mental, emotional psychological state but also understand human psychology to a degree to understand why security practices are being or not being implemented by people.

What keeps people engaged in the security mindset? Do they have confidence in themselves? Do they trust the security manager? Or, are they in a complacent mindset that nothing has happened in the past, so they doubt that anything significant will happen in the future? Many employees lose the security mindset due to complacency, boredom, or at times they simply do not trust the security manager and start to put up a mental wall and reject pretty much everything that is being asked of them by the security managers regarding security policy practices. And this lack of action by the employee leads not only to a frustrated security manager but also a frustrated employee as both engage in a tug of war of egos and emotions.

How might security managers overcome this tug of war of emotions and egos by understanding human nature? Well, sports and exercise psychology may provide some solutions to those security managers that are interested in human behavioral psychology as a way to get cooperation and work towards the same goals. With human behavior in mind, let us take a trip back to how human behavior is molded and developed through human behavioral development from childhood.

Human psychology at "play"

Humans are curious, and in one form or another love to compete with each other, be it in play, games, sports, or exercise where most people fall into one of these activity categories. And as we grow from childhood into adulthood we develop our skills of walking, running, hitting balls, balancing, speed, and power through playing, games, sports, and exercise.

As we grow into adulthood and reach adulthood, our activities may change, but skill development and fitness continue to grow. As adults many of us still play, we still get involved with games, some may even continue or start being part of sports to compete, and many just simply exercise to keep fit both mentally, physically, and to stay healthy.

The definitions of the 4 phases of activity are play, game, sport, and exercise

Play

This mode of activity is typically used for having fun, enjoyment, and doesn't always have to have a target goal. This activity mode also reduces anxiety, excess energy, and lets the individual practice a set of skills (Shaw et al., 2005).

Game

This mode is typically for having a playful competition, and the outcome of this mode is to develop or exhibit skill and strategy. In this mode, rules are not so important than for example in the games mode (Shaw et al., 2005).

Sport

This model is structured and institutionalized. This mode is typically organized with teams, sponsors, coaches, referees, and leaders. It can also involve technical equipment such as safety, clothing, and training halls (Shaw et al., 2005).

Exercise

This mode is typically thought of as a way to develop a level of health and fitness. exercise, unlike sports, is that there is no competition and is typically non-institutionalized.

Psychological context

All of these modes are explored from a sports psychology context and the behaviors that are involved in the inner workings of people in a way of mental phenomena. The human inner behavior falls into two categories, feeling and thinking. So we can say that the psychological aspect here is the scientific study of behavior, feelings, and thoughts (Shaw et al., 2005) generated by people in the above-listed modes.                             
           

"Unpacking"

Employing play, game, sport, and exercise in developing a security culture using sports and exercise psychology, can help the security manager to use out of the box thinking, as well as using methods that have been tested and researched to work with athletes and people trying to get into shape.

Employing these concepts can also assist in reducing stress and anxiety through confidence-building methods.

Employing play

you have to make the security activity fun, and this can most of the time be employed by play. Play mode sets into motion a thinking mode that this will be a fun activity. The play activity will be enjoyable, pleasurable, and can be spontaneous (Shaw et al., 2005). When employing the play mode of security psychology, we must keep in mind that this is not the time for competition, this is the time to relax and entertain, and use the newly learned skills as a way to release stress and anxiety.

Employing game

In this mode, it is now time to do a bit of friendly competition. In this mode, the goal will be to test or determine the physical skill sets, strategy skill sets of the players (Shaw et al., 2005). In this mode, you will have to make up some ground rules as well as what will determine the winners and losers as well as what the prizes may be.

Employing Sports

OK, so now that you have understood the game mode it is no time to step it up a notch, and for those that are willing, it is time for the sports mode. In the sports mode, an institutionalized model has to now be employees such as teams, area to exhibit the skills, much more stringent rules, and regulations, team captions, rituals, rewards, trainers, coaches, and so on (Shaw et al., 2005).

However, remember that the main feature of the sports model is its physical dimension (Shaw et al., 2005) and that some people are not going to want to participate in the sports aspect of it due to reasons of their own such as being non-competitive, fear of embarrassment, low self-esteem, fear of losing and so on. The organizer of these in a company or organizational events must consider these factors and counsel these people to gain progress.

Exercise mode

The exercise mode is typically an ongoing process that goes beyond games, sports, and play. The exercise mode is typically thought of as an ongoing process to gain better health and fitness (Shaw et al., 2005). In the exercise mode unlike the sports mode, there is no competition involved, there are no winners or losers (Shaw et al., 2005). In the exercise mode, a person can simply do it to keep up their newly learned skills or the skill sets that they have already acquired years back. And so in the spirit of fitness they typically continue this activity as an exercise to keep their physical, mental and wits engaged and sharp. It is the exercise mode that is typically a sought after goal by organizational leaders. the person in an exercise mode is doing it mainly for intrinsic value and sees the benefits of continually being engaged in the activity both for psychological rewards as well as physical rewards. The exercise mode mentality is what we seek to gain and this is the overall goal in security psychology.

Let's get ready for action!! 

How may an individual or corporation use these 4 modes to build a proper security psychology mindset, leading to proper and effective awareness assessment and action? The goal of using sport psychology concepts in this post is not to give you an exact technique or method that you must use, nor a crop and paste format nor a step one to ten application. The goal here is simply for you to think differently and expand your base by exploring methods you can employ by building off the sports psychology model which has already been researched, evaluated, and tested for effectiveness. 

So the goal here is to give you a different way of thinking about security in hopes that you and your organization can build on these sport psychology concepts to change behavior. Most importantly, to get you to use your imagination to construct long-lasting behavior changing activities through behavioral psychology as forethought, and not as an afterthought. Think, evaluate, use your imagination, and build using sport psychology concepts.

Due to the vast needs and differences of companies out there, it would be very difficult if not impossible to give a one size fits all solution to employees for all organizations, every organization has different needs, different work culture and so on. However, all organizations employ humans as their primary workforce, and so the task becomes a lot more simplified because of human psychology and behavioral techniques that can be employed to promote a secure environment by the above mode of sport psychology concepts. 

Technology changes as it typically does, but human behavior as complex as it maybe is still more workable and simpler with a degree of predictability. I am not saying that human psychology is a simple matter, but what I am saying is that humans in this context, from childhood to adulthood like to play, have friendly games, join sports, and commit to exercise in one form or another.

Human psychology is a lot more predictable and manageable for the overall goal of promoting a security mentality as well as a security culture in the long run. Exercise programs that stimulate the thinking process to activate the proper security mentality will reduce anxiety and must be a lifelong choice.

What can security managers learn from sports psychology in the context of mental health for employees that have anxiety and stress when it comes to keeping up their role in keeping a security mindset? A lot! It is not always easy to keep up with the constant bombardment of security threats, security responses, and changing security policy. It is hard enough at times to just simply do your job, and now, to have this extra burden of keeping up security can produce anxiety by being overwhelmed.

Over the last decade, there has been a vast amount of literature written on the subject of mental health promotion in exercise by sports psychologists, neurosciences, pharmacologists, psychophysiologists, and physiologists. A broad range of support can be found on exercise benefits. This exercise is of course not limited to physical exercises such as boxing, golf, running, biking but also activities such as chess and other sports that are generally associated with mind use only (sports psychology concepts themes).

From sport psychology, we can learn that the more a person is comfortable and exhibits a degree of competence with activities will result in less anxiety and stress when it comes to keeping up with the learned skills.

Developing a coach-athlete relationship

Shamuel kohen. Bomb Threat Awareness for organizations

Relationship and trust. Security managers and the team must develop a 2-way relationship. Like a coach or athlete.

Without getting in too deep into the security managers as a coach, we must understand that security managers are a type of coach. Coaching, guiding, explaining, and at times enforcing operational and policy practice. So, within this context security managers take on a sort of coach position.

And like with all coaches and athletes, there must be trust. If employees do not trust your advice, training methods, and reasons for living up to the security culture standards as well as employing some form of training, security compliance will be ignored or in some cases outside the mandatory compliance, they will largely ignore what is being taught or employed.

According to (Moore & Tschannen-Moran, 2015), people have a basic need to belong and try to maintain a strong bond of lasting personal attachments; people seek a healthy positive relationship with each other. And through this need, most people seek to do their best at what they do as a way to be part of the group in play, games, and sport.

When people seek out coaches, in this case, the security manager, an important factor that people sought out in a coach was empathy, someone who inspires confidence, competency as well as being in a positive mindset, not to mention that the coach must have the ability and knowledge to understand the client's point of view as well as values (Moore & Tschannen-Moran, 2015).

So without going deeply into the coaches job, my point was to just point some basic information regarding the coach and I encourage security managers to study out the topic of being a good coach and supplement their knowledge base regarding the topic of sports coaching and hopefully gain a deeper insight into the psychology and behavior of not only themselves but the people that they are trying to guide into a security culture mindset.

Conclusion

So what is the goal of all this sports psychology application into the security mindset? Well, we can say it is to build a healthy habit, a way of thinking, and a lifestyle built on behavioral change through natural human behaviors such as play, games, sports, and exercise. People as well as animals, love to play, and love to be challenged with interaction, stimulation as well as some form of reward. By introducing and understanding the 4 modes of the sport psychology listed earlier, we can tap into the natural human instinct to build skills and competencies that further produce a feeling of know-how and self-confidence to reduce boredom, anxiety, and stress. Confidence in one's ability can lead to a desired security policy implementation, outcome, and security-oriented culture. 

By Shamuel Kohen

REFERENCES

American Psychological Association. (2011). What is exercise psychology and sports psychology? https://www.apadivisions.org. https://www.apadivisions.org/division-47/about/resources/what-is

American Psychological Association. (2008). Sport psychology. https://www.apa.org. https://www.apa.org/ed/graduate/specialize/sports

Breslin, G. (2016). Sport and exercise psychology: Practitioner case studies. John Wiley & Sons. 

Moore, M., & Tschannen-Moran, B. (2015). Coaching psychology manual. LWW. 

Shaw, D., Gorely, T., & Corban, R. (2005). Sport and exercise psychology. Garland Science. 

All material and pictures are copyright Shamuel Kohen

Survival Hikes

7 reasons why you should plan and go on a survival hike

The title “survival hikes” to some readers may imply hikes that involve surviving, possibly bushcraft, possible food deprivation, or some form of military/survivalist type of activity. This, of course, is true in some cases, but not in this case. When I teach self-defense, I tell the students that self-defense starts internally in a person’s psychological or emotional state of being. I would ask the students, “what good is self-defense in the context of external threats such as defending against thugs, or how to defend against a punch when the real self-defense starts with your own mental health?”

And in this context, we can define self-defense as defending yourself against yourself. The root of any successful self-defense is your psychological state. The chances of a person killing themselves as a result of depression followed by suicide are higher than the chances of a person becoming a victim of a crime, whereby they would have to use self-defense karate style techniques.

In addition to depression, chronic stress is associated with one of the six leading causes of a person’s death. According to the American psychological association chronic stress-related deaths come in forms such as suicide, heart disease, cancer, cirrhosis of the liver, lung ailments, and accidents. And so, self-defense here is article is defined as “defending yourself against yourself.”

I hear it said many times “that a person's worst enemy is themselves.” If this is truly the case, it must also be logical that we must recognize the threats that we bring on ourselves.

Too many people hike to train the body to be tough or in some cases, hikes and trekking events train others in bushcraft skills to learn how to survive outdoors.

Survival hikes in this context will be hiking for mental survival against threats such as depression, loneliness, anxiety, and so on. The benefit in survival, hikes will be to develop a mentally healthy lifestyle that impacts other aspects of your life such as home, family, community, and friends and lastly work and education.

1. Get out and breathe. Many people spend the majority of their day indoors. In Finland for example, it was reported in research posted by the news that many Finns spend most of their days sitting (YLE news, 2018). As I smiled at myself reading the story, I could not help myself from asking, why are they sitting on their butts inside? And not outside breathing fresh air. I would bet that they spent most of their days inside breathing in air that is full of indoor pollution from other coworkers, dust, chemicals, and other localized pollutants. I can't’ help but think about how this polluted indoor air affects health in a negative way.

Many people don't realize that breathing in this indoor polluted air makes some people feel claustrophobic due to a lack of fresh air getting to their lungs, blood, and brain cells. Some may even feel that they have difficulty breathing, thereby affecting their work productivity. Not getting fresh air into the body does terrible harm to the brain. The body was made to breathe in fresh air for maximum health and performance. In the past what seems like a lifetime ago, I spent many hours working indoors teaching seminars on security-related topics, in addition, I would compile my indoors life with indoor activities such as self-defense classes, sports such as judo, jiu-jitsu, Boxing and kickboxing. If there were moments of outdoors, they were spent in shooting ranges sitting and breathing in gun powder and beating away mosquitoes and black flies or having to go outdoors to get to my car (indoor) to drive to the store (more indoor).

Survival hikes contribute to your survival and “self-defense”. We all need air to survive, so a major benefit of survival hikes is putting fresh the air into your body and brain for maximum health benefits.

2. Your focus will be sharpened. Many times we lose focus and our memory seems to be getting worse. How many times did you forget such things as keys, wallets, purses or even where the kids and dog are? When on survival hikes we emphasize to others as well as ourselves to “manage our space” or as we bark out orders like a military man, “manage your equipment”.

Due to the fact that many hikers and even professional military people in the field may at times carelessly lose vital equipment such as water holders, knives, firefighters, and so on. We emphasize the concept of inspecting the grounds. Before we set camp, we look around and take note of dangers such as anthills, bee or wasp hives, animal tracks such as bear trails, or other animals that may be a danger to us while we camp out. In some sad cases, hikers have been murdered due to a lack of paying attention to criminals or terrorists watching them so they can attack them at a weak moment.

Being forgetful and losing track of equipment and people can have a devastating outcome, such as when people actually forget their children or pets strapped into their hot car, as can been read in many news articles for example in the USA. You can Google this and see how often this happens. The numbers are staggering and frightening.

When you do a survival hike and focus on equipment management as well as pre-camping danger management, you find that in your everyday life you start employing the same thinking. For example, on the trekking campsite, we would say, “do a dangers inspection”. On packing up we say “do a departure inspection” or “do an inspection”. These inspections are enforced to make sure we did not leave any equipment behind only to be regretted later. In addition, if we travel on mountain bikes or kayaks, on the road or trail or water, we do amount inspection. This is where we visually inspect our partner's backpack and equipment on their back or transportation for losing equipment, unzipped or unsecured zippers, and so on. In turn, they inspect us for the same. Our survival trekking starts and ends with self and area inspections always and without exception.

This inspection mentality gets forced into your psyche by constant repetition, and so it becomes conditioning that leads to developing a skill that will soon be second nature. Members of our groups reported that it has effects on their daily life in positive yet funny ways. For example, this mental conditioning for detail inspection affect them in situations such as when they go into their homes, their mind and eyes start scanning for what is different, when they see their spouses or children, they start inspecting their clothes and bags, this also applies to others as well, and when they leave premises, they start doing a quick self and area inspection. This operational conditioning reaction is now part of their lives and they find that their mind is more sensitive to change and so this new mental behavior that was conditioned into them, aids in fighting forgetfulness and complacent mentality.

3. You will feel how much mental and physical pressure you can take.

Taking the time to give yourself challenges in the context of these survival hikes gives you time to reflect on life and other issues. Many times in our long survival hikes thoughts of work and home life crop up.  On the silent march up the hill and through the bush, we reflect and plan on what we will do when we get back. But as hours turn into a full day, and a full day turns into two, three, four, or even five days, thoughts of home life, work-life begin to disappear. And the thoughts of body discomfort creeps into the forefront of our thoughts. Thoughts such as hurting feet, lower back pain, damn these mosquitoes, when will we rest, and so on take on first priority, and thoughts of normal life fade into the background.

Homelife and work-life now seem a long distance away due to the more immediate concerns of black flies, misquotes and the dreaded ticks consume your mind as you march. Hunger kicks in, thirst kicks in and soon the only thoughts you have are the joint pains you may at times feel.

These thoughts at times of rest are soon followed by the appreciation of the beauty of the surroundings, the quiet nature, and the lack of the crowd followed by the panic of getting things done on time at work or in the home. Ahhh, the bliss of not knowing that rat race life for the short moment.

Although the mental and physical pressure in survival hikes are not as extremes mountaineering or cross country trekking, say 100k to 1000k. But short 2, 3, or 5 days 15 to 40k hikes or treks can offer quite a bit of physical challenge with a full backpack loaded with equipment, camping gear, and few liters of water. You will quickly appreciate the challenge without a doubt.

After being pressure tested in this way, home and work life just does not seem to bother us as much. This pressure testing resets the priorities of life from a “naked perspective”, meaning back to the basics in addition this “naked” also can be seen as free from technology, work-life, debtors, or anything like that. If you thought those were the important things in life, survival hikes will re-prioritize your thinking. Survival in taking care of your mind and body becomes the priority, just like the priorities of life in the old and ancient of days our ancestors had to deal with. You will truly appreciate life and simple things.

When you get back home, you will truly appreciate your simple bed, the current things you own and slowly the need for more junk in your home will fade. You will be put on a life priority “reset”, understanding that in nature being free is the hardest thing people can deal with. Being truly free is a hard and daunting task both mentally and physically.

The restrictions and being a slave to modern life does not seem so hard after all. I personally prefer free life balanced with technology by doing many weeks of survival trekking in every season every year. And so I developed my own philosophy of “own less do more lifestyle”.

4. You will learn to be resourceful from a perspective nor common to you.

Survival hikes will also challenge you to think outside of your comfort zone and make life a bit easier and fun. If you are willing to take the safe challenge that is an approach this with an open mind. Thinking outside the comfort zone in itself is a challenge and one common challenge is the proper use of time. I never thought time can hurt, but in this case, time does hurt. What kind of time hurts? The one that says you have to do it again time. How many of us have taken a few hours to complete a task, just to find out that there was an obstacle that made you do a project again from scratch? How did you feel now? How did you feel knowing it took you hours to get to where you are in your project, just too be forced to do it all over again and lose another two or three or even half a day’s worth of time? Now you know what I mean by “time hurts”. Damn! I got to do it all over again, the lost time! Grrrr. This now calls for innovative thinking, to complete a project without starting from scratch.

This is the exact challenge we were faced with when we hiked 3 hours just to get to a cliff that had a bridge collapsed and the now gone bridge was out for repairs. What do we do now? We ask each other. It took us 3 bloody hours to hike here and the base camp is just across the slow-moving of water below.

If we cross, how do we cross with all our stuff? Or should we hike back another 3 hours to the starting point? A total of a 6-hour hike in all. Time for the brains to come up with a safe solution. Swim for it! I thought and yelled to the group, as the group looked at each other with confusion, yes I said, we swim.

Time to construct a makeshift raft and swim across chilly waters and save 3 hours of hiking with a 15 min chili swim? The choice was easy, make a makeshift raft to carry the packs and swim across!

One poor old soul from another hiking group went into a panic attack and started fighting that he can’t make it back; he was desperately looking for someone who had access to a motorboat from people that were camping in the area, only to find no one with boat access. So this poor soul had to simply walk back the same way he came for the last 3 hours, another 3 on top of that.

And so we made an innovative imaginative choice, it was safe and the choice was right. But fear and panic struck the other group of hikers and so, they lost time and gained a lot of ankle and back pain in addition to their frustration levels. Thinking outside the box if it is safe, go for it.

5. Overcoming challenges, step by step.

Short hikes, longer hikes, and very long hikes. Like many others before us, we started our survival hikes with kayaking, or can we say “survival kayaking”? We started off with small 6 k kayaking trips that took a few hours, and slowly graduated up to 11-hour nonstop kayaking trips. We slept on some of the many Finnish islands at times from 2-day ventures to full 5-day ventures. One success led to another, and each kayaking camping trip they became more pleasurable than the last. The kayaking trips had special excitements with amazing sights of animals, birds, and landscapes, to inner deep thoughts of life and future goals.

In the beginning, the goal was kayaking as far and as many places we can. Always a new place to kayak and rarely did we return to the same place twice on the many lakes in Finland. This adventure mindset graduated us up to cross country hiking, slowly starting with 1 day 15k hikes to 2-day 15k hikes, to 5 days 500-3000 meter high mountain or hill hikes. Each time graduating further up the scale of challenges as our bodies developed more strength and resilience to pain. Not to mention the psychology of overcoming quitting mindset.

This, in turn, let to the next phase to cross country biking with bike packs and camping gear. Starting again slowly with 35k rides and camping, to 130k rides, and some few overnight camping. Surely and slowly progressing on to our triathlon mode of survival hikes and adventures. Foot hikes, cross country kayaking to cross country bike challenges we overcame each challenge with pain and excitement. As we started on foot, in a few years took us to greater challenges like kayaking and biking as a survival trekking adventure. Overcoming each challenge and hardship that we in our inner thought would claim “this is the last one” just to find out we were addicted and continued with more challenging adventures.

Each new challenge that we overcame, set our spirits up for the next challenge. Slowly escalating from easy to the extreme. The need to continually outdo the last trek just kept fueling us to raise the bar to the next level. Normal life challenges and problems did not look so hard or scary after these challenges. Our brains were no rewired to overcome hardships both physically and mentally.

6. Out of the box goal setting mentality.

Nothing seems as tedious and never-ending than just walking to an unknown destination point. Your brain starts doing Kid things such as asking questions, how much longer? When are we going to get there? My back hurts, my legs hurt, and on and on and on.

With a well-defined destination point such as distance, landmarks, maps, and so on, comes the spirit to over the boardroom of time, distance, and some normal trekking related physical pains. When one destination or objective is has been met, the mind and body prepare to take on the next destination challenge with a more positive outlook. Even though we may feel discomfort we know from past or recent experience that the success of each attained goal brings its own rewards. As we strive through one discomfort and success, other discomforts may be more tolerable and even predictable. 

Not only are these discomforts predictable but expected. When the group members expected a certain level of tolerated pain such as slight lower back discomfort, shoulder discomfort, and foot aches, we were better at managing them and overcome the fear and anxiety of uncertainty, by understanding and drawing on past experiences to understand that even this pain challenge will be overcome and it is perfectly normal. And so it went with every goal met and ever new goal planned and reached.

Going back to a previous example of running into what seemed to be a dead-end in our adventure in northern Finland, we were faced with a choice after we came across a hanging bridge that was out and down for maintenance by the national parks service. We were faced with hours of trekking back to the starting point or to continue our trek. We could turn back or we could improvise.

We decided to make the improvised choice as we weighed the risk and benefits and in this case, the benefits outweighed the risks. Do we build a wooden float from the logs we could find, use shoestrings to bind it together, and swim naked across the chilly waters? When we got to the other side, we got warms, put on our warm clothes, and preceded forward with our adventure happily ever after.

We did some basic out of the box thinking and we built a small raft and survivalist would have been proud of, saving time, more pain, and misery.

Point a to point b goal achievement Out of the box innovative thinking becomes more of a natural option when faced with unforeseen challenges, given the fact we weighted each challenge with risk, loss benefit, and always kept it safe. This “operant conditioning” that we developed become natural in this way of life, and translated well back in the so-called civilized world with its own problems and challenges. And so out of the box thinking or using the imagination to its fullest became part of our thinking as well as a second nature behavioral pattern.

7. A feeling of success without the need for the praise of others.

Intrinsic self-esteem development to positive self-esteem where being judged by others becomes less and less important is also a big benefit when it comes to survival hikes A feeling of success no one can strip from you, you own it. Once the survival hikes were complete, the group felt we have done it yet again! A sense of pride and accomplishment warmed us like a warm blanket. We have done it! You’ve done it! You may or may not feel the pain on your body, but in the end, you have done it! This sense of accomplishment sets the mood for the next hike and the next adventure, as well as possible for you to make the next hike a bit more challenging if you chose.

When we head out with our group, be it winter or summer or any the season actually, we keep raising the bar of the challenge to new heights and give ourselves higher expectations for a successful survival hike. With every success, we raised the bar of difficulty and challenge, and raising the bar kept things interesting and fun.

The adrenaline rush of adventure and success is the level of an intrinsic high that is felt as your hormones pump out the feel-good chemicals that comes with overcoming one challenge after another and the feeling of success. With every success, our group celebrated with handshakes, high fives, or fist bumps. We did it, I DID IT. We have earned the bragging rights of success and we looked forward and discussed with high enthusiasm the next adventure or survival trekking.

Even though we did many of these so-called survival trekking with a partner or a small group for safety and security reasons, you can still claim the success of the survival as your own and the fact that you had the drive and commitment to succeed. And with much success, you did it without your hand being held at every kilometer, challenge, problem, or whatever came up along the way. You can actually claim it, YOU did it, and your team did it. You will have a sense of feeling that in an emergency, you have the mental and physical stamina to get to safety or get to help. This feeling of primitive success is translatable to any if not most life challenges. You now have an understanding of the psychological ability to overcome, you are a survival hiker.

By Shamuel Kohen

Sources;

https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/people_in_finland_spend_much_of_their_waking_hours_sitting_still_study_finds/10390765

Psychology of Survival and Security: A Behavioral Analysis (part 1 of 6)

Copyright ESIS 2017. Arctic Survival

Psychology of Survival and Security: A Behavioral Analysis

Part 1 of 6

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore the behavior and motivation of people in a survival situation put there by a crisis such as natural or Human-made disasters, and now having to temporarily or longer fend for themselves. The study seeks to explore and analyze people in such environments and to understand what is going on within the psychological, emotional, behavioral, and analytical functions that keep them going or has them give up. The research will explore human behavior and motivation in a crisis as it relates to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, specifically survival and security needs, and the brain and psychological effects that positively or negatively affect a person’s chances of survival not only physically but mentally as well.

Psychology of Survival and Security: A Behavioral Analysis

             Lundin states that about 90 percent of a person’s survival is psychology (2003). At times people might find themselves in life and death situations where they have to fend for their survival. Be it a person having to deal with being homeless through economically related issues, natural or human-made catastrophes, or just only lost in nature. What do all these things have in common? The answer is survival and the mindset that it takes to make it out alive both mentally and physically.

            As the economy went crashing, businesses closed and some people lost their life-savings. I also was a victim of this global economic plague and lost almost everything. Not long after the financial crash, my partners and I lost both our business as well as our life savings, and soon after, I became homeless.

            With the onset of depression and anxiety, I barely managed to hold on for dear life in a foreign land surrounded by a few friends who supported me as best as they could, considering their misfortune. One homeless day to the next, I found myself surrounded by people in similar situations trying to make it day-by-day. Of course, my predicament was not as unfortunate as most in this homeless crisis, given the fact I had education, training, and other skills to later get a few bucks into my pockets and food into my belly.  

            Coming from a background as an avid outdoorsman and had extensive survivalist training, and thinking I was well prepared to handle the situation. All my training did not prepare me for the psychological impact on self-esteem and anxiety that went along with being out on the streets as a so-called “dreg of society.” Nothing could have prepared me for the shame, depression, and the mental fatigue that went along with living like a rat trying to get by on a few meals a day without going mentally insane and killing myself.

            Before I can even commit to getting out of this hell, daily needs had to be met, for the short-term as well as the possible long-term. This meant that attaining daily survival needs of eatable foods and drinkable water as well as maintaining a secure availability of these resources was paramount. Not only were the food and shelter needs challenging to attain, but nothing was as hard as the psychological impact it had not only on myself but also on the others in our group. This situation was by definition a full-blown crisis now, and I have to get out of it with my sanity and physical health intact.

            The purpose of this exploratory research is to explore what people go through psychologically and emotionally and to analyze how it affects people’s motivation and attitude to survive the crisis. This exploratory study will examine the behaviors and motivations of people in survival situations as well as the challenges they face when needs are hard to meet. The external needs such as food, water, and shelter are evident needs, but what is not apparent are that prolonged survival situations bring on anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts as well as long-term stress-related illnesses in some cases.

            The importance of the exploratory research is to analyze the psychology of survival using Maslow’s hierarchy of needs as a foundation, specifically survival and security, to explore what people are going to go through psychologically and mentally when faced with uncertainties. The exploratory analysis will research how the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system influences a person in a crisis and the effects it has on behavior, motivation, emotional state that will either help them or hurt them in light of Maslow’s needs in the context of motivation and behavior assessment.

            This topic is important because it is vital to know what affects a person’s behavior in a crisis as it relates to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs as people move from survival to security. The research also explores what neurological and hormonal processes that affect the mental state and how the neurological functions impact positively or negatively on behavior and motivation.

Also, an analysis of internal stressors plays a part in a person’s physiological states that cause a person to choose death as a relief and how to recognize and avoid it.

            The results of the analysis may be used by trauma counselors, survival instructors and even the individuals themselves to have a sense of self-awareness as to what will happen to them and what paths to take in better aiding a positive outcome in the context of Maslow’s needs as a base. To take control of anxiety and panic, we must understand how we function mentally. Many people know more about the mechanics and technical workings of a car or a computer when they break down, but find that they cannot understand their mental breakdown and how to correct it. In my analysis of the psychology of survival and security from literature as well as my personal experiences, I will analyze what psychological issues motivated people to act in their best interest or frustrated their efforts.

            Understanding the brain and its effect on psychology is vital to understanding what influences behavior, motivation, and emotions needed for survival and security.

Literature review

            Many individuals do not understand the brain functions and processes that lead to negative or positive behaviors in crisis. Moreover, by not knowing these activities within the brain, it is difficult to overcome obstacles and act appropriately to move up from the survival to security needs.

            The analysis is essential to gain an understanding of what people who are in a crisis are going through psychologically and neurologically. By recognizing and understanding these psychological and brain functions, a person can have an insight on how to overcome challenges within themselves in addition to external problems. The hardest challenge for many to overcome is the one in their mind, brain, and psychology.

            It is essential to understand why we do the things we do and why we do not do the right things in a crisis. It is an important topic because many that do not understand the process of the brain and its effects on the physiology followed by correct survival actions tend to fall into depression, anxiety and suicide by thinking there is something wrong with them and it hijacks the emotions to rational thinking making way to frustration and death.

Global disasters and the psychological effect

            Many people who find themselves having to survive a crisis and fend for themselves are trying to balance mental health and physical health during survival and security situation, as well as balancing the act of giving up or fighting to live. Lundin (2003) a well-known survival expert both by the military and civilian world reminds his students that when it comes to surviving a devastating crisis, that which can go wrong will go wrong. A crisis occurs when a person least expects it, such as a car breaking down, unpredictable devastating weather conditions such as hurricane Harvey and hurricane Irma that left much of the southern USA and its south of Florida island devastated with hundreds of thousands having to fend for themselves with basic government support.

            According to Lundin (2003) and his wisdom regarding a person finding themselves in a crisis, it seems to come true for many people. He states that in recent times, there are vast and complex ranges of dangers both natural and human-made, that can turn a mundane event into one of a life-threatening situation. What may seem to be a storm or a holiday trip into the woods can quickly escalate into a deadly scenario.

            An example of Lundin’s event that turned into a life-threatening situation is the events in Fukushima Japan, on March 11 to March 15, 2011. What started out like an earthquake out at sea, rapidly turned into a 15-meter high tsunami endangering only the coastline, that tsunami rolled like a domino effect into a nuclear reactor that caused an explosion resulting in a nuclear meltdown. That meltdown leaked out to sea affecting both animal life and human life for generations, followed by population displacement.  According to World Nuclear Association (2017), 100,000 people evacuated their homes, cities, and well over 1000 deaths recorded to date, followed by 267,000 displaced refugees. The World Nuclear Association statistics back up Lundin’s observation that people at anytime and anywhere can find themselves a statistic in being displaced by natural disasters.

The psychological and emotional traumas

            A study by Bromet Ph.D. an independent research professional reported that the devastation of the nuclear power plant left many in a socio-economic struggle that was associated with the psychological distress and continued suffering of the locals (2014). Tsujiuchi a professor at the Japanese department of Health Sciences and Social Welfare also backed up Bromets report and elaborated that PTSD suffering from a human-made disaster is greater than the numbers of PTSD suffering individuals from the experience of a natural disaster (2015). Psychological consequences for many people suffering in a crisis are not limited to the immediate crisis itself but also consequences for many years to come.

            Disasters leading to a crisis can strike anyone at any time and in any geographical location, whether it is a natural disaster such as winter whiteouts, floods or hurricanes. Tragedy has a long-lasting impact on people mentally.

            Pampel (2008) a professor of sociology, claimed that devastation could be a long-term or a short-term crisis-affecting humans and animals’ alike leading to large-scale deaths, suffering both mentally and physically that disrupts the everyday life in society, community or a large geographical area. A UNISDR report on a 20-year review shows that 90% of global disasters that have a high impact on society relates directly to weather conditions such as hurricanes, flooding, heatwaves, and snowstorms add up to 6,457 weather-related events.

            Natural disasters are responsible for 606,000 deaths averaging out to 30,000 deaths per year. These natural disasters leave 4.1 billion people displaced and homeless as well as requiring emergency assistance.  The Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (2015) also predicts that natural disasters caused by weather conditions will grow and the fact that there will also be more people on the planet will add to a growth of displaced and homeless people as well as a higher death rate to follow.

            In addition to natural disasters, there is also war-related devastation leading to a crisis in the affected areas that will increase the displacement of people who will fall into the category of asylum seekers, refugees who seek to ensure survival and seek out safety with lasting security.

            What we see from these reports are that devastating events have a tremendous psychological impact on populations and it is clear that they will be affected with mental traumas as a result of going through such crisis and being displaced.

Displaced and crisis

            According to research conducted by Speak (2003), people became homeless and displaced for a variety of reasons in addition to natural disasters or wars. Dr. Speak of the Global Urban Research Unit states that becoming homeless or displaced and having to fend for yourself can also come through social causes such as poverty, loss of a job, loss of a marriage, family death as well as other life events.

             Yonatani of the Norwegian refugee council reported that since 2008, 26.4 million people became homeless yearly due to natural made disasters. Not only has this displacement have a devastating on people in the way of economic loss and death, but also the social and psychological marginalization challenges that come with surviving a devastation. The disruption to people’s lives by the destruction that caused psychological traumas affects how long people will stay displaced after a human-made or natural disaster (2015).

            The mental health impact of people who try to survive and find security become at risk to short term and long term mental health problems. According to the Norwegian Politician and the 1993-2003 Director General of the World health organization, Brundtland (2000), they are making an intense effort to meet the mental health needs of those displaced by war and become refugees. WHO claims that there is a global awareness of the psychological impact that refugees must face as well as long-term mental health devastation and long-term treatment.

            From what we know survival and trying to attain security in the face of a devastating event leading to a crisis, has psychological effects indeed. But written literature dealing with such topics neglect to explain the inner mental workings of how it affects people such as the effects on the brain, hormones, and neurotransmitters to aid others in recognizing these effects and deal with them pre-crisis or during a crisis.

Survival and security

            Maslow (1943) states that a living thing in order to survive need to seek survival followed by security to continue living. Living things start finding basic survival needs such as homeostasis needs of the body such as water, salt, sugar, proteins, fats, calcium, and oxygen as well as temperature regulation of the blood as the most basic of needs to sustain life. Homeostasis needs are what humans need to survive physiologically and by having these needs met or not met will determine the motivation and behavior of the person. Lacking in homeostasis needs will determine the adverse outcome of the person’s behavior and motivation.

            Maslow (1943) stated that when the basics of physiological needs go unmet, the person is only motivated to meet these physiological needs and no other motivation exists and becomes merely last of their needs. Maslow (1943) goes on to say that, if the person is hungry and thirsty, all motivation and behavior goes to fulfilling the need to eat and drink. When a person is hungry or thirsty to the point of danger, nothing exists to him in context of motivations but the motivation and behavior that will lead to having food in his belly.

            A professor of psychology, Buss (2016) points out that in a survival situation hunger and eating takes up more time and energy than any other needs seeking behavior. Also, Buss (2016) points out that interest to psychologists in context of two motivational issues are hunger and thirst. The feelings of hunger and thirst become active when there appears to be a shortage of food, and thirst becomes triggered when there seems to be a shortage of water. It is evident that people need food, water and shelter to survive, but what is not so obvious is the buildup of anxiety when one does not find these needs met, and the negative effects it has on motivation and behavior.

            Security needs. Maslow (1943) in his research claims that once the physiological needs are satisfied then comes the next set of needs, which may be called security, or safety needs. A human is a security and safety-seeking creature and within the intellect starts the safety-seeking behavior such as the motivational drive to be safe.  Security like its more base needs called survival needs once fulfilled, the seeking of security now becomes the dominant driver to reach the security goal. Like the behavior pattern of physiological needs being the prime importance over everything else, security and safety now become the motivating factor in behavior, and everything else becomes less important and less critical. Maslow (1943) continues stating that a person in a constant security mode of living is doing it out of a chronic and extreme need for safety.

              Maslow (1954) explains that when the survival needs have been met, such as the physiological needs are fulfilled then precedes a new group of needs such as security, stability, dependency, protection, freedom from the anxiety of chaotic events, and finally structural stability of sorts. Seeking out other people during a crisis for support only adds to the security feeling, and if people feel insecure, it is hard for people to move up the needs base ladder and get themselves out of the dangerous situation.

            Associate Psychology Professor Starratt (2016) found that seeking out groups lets people attain protection from the environment, threatening people, or animals as well as a chance to have access to resources that they would be hard or unable to acquire alone. Moreover, Starratt supports Maslow’s idea that basic safety need adds to the peace of mind reducing anxiety, stress, and fear (1954).

Psychological impact of devastation leading to crisis

            Lundin (2003) claims that Survival is 90 percent psychology and if you become emotionally broken during devastation that leads to crisis, and you must survive and fend for yourself, your chances of surviving the disaster gets reduced significantly. Lundin adds to what the US Army already teaches its Army recruits about survival.

            According to the US Army (Department, 2016), the key to surviving a disaster, which leads to a crisis, is the attitude and mental stability of a person. Although having skills to survive crises are essential, having the will and mental fortitude to endure is the primary force towards survival. If the psychological capacity during a crisis fails, then knowledge and skills one acquires from training become useless.

            How does a person manage his or her mental stability without understanding what exactly is going on in the brain to disrupt the balance in the first place? We cannot control the devastation or the crisis, but we can to a degree control the mental stability by understanding what is going on within us.

            Understanding how stress and anxiety activate the brains stress response is a step closer to understanding how it will eventually affect a person and how this effect will have a controlling influence on their emotions, behavior, and motivation.

            Impact on emotion, motivation, and behavior. A professor of psychology and neuroscience, Wagner (2006) points out that scientists and scholars are conducting discussions worldwide about the study of the brain to understand the mind, and the overwhelming majority of scientists and scholars believe that understanding the brain it is crucial. Neurobiologists are also asking the question if we need to understand the mind to have a better understanding of the brain. In addition, Wagner (2006) adds that if we are to understand human behavior, we must in fact study the human brain, and brain data provides a wealth of information about the mind that not even a lengthy study of human behavior can provide. Therefore, it is his opinion that brain activity and insight into the working of the brain offers a much more detailed picture as to human behavior. Human behavior and motivation are keys to survival, but they are not complete without the emotional aspect that is evident in a crisis.

            Psychology Professor Strongman (2003) adds to support Wagner, that emotion is a vital part of life and affects our lives in things we do and things we say. Emotions become manifest in our physiology, how we express ourselves as well as our behavior. Just as we feel pain physically, emotions give us information that is vital to our mental and physical health when it comes to our survival and security amongst other things. Strongman (2003) adds that emotions having an enormous impact on survival are rooted in evolutionary history, and this idea became developed and first talked about by Darwin and promoted by McDougall who in turn connected emotions to motivation. Psychology Professors Whalen and Phelps (2009) explain that the study of human emotions and its effects stemming from the brain has a bright future in the study of psychology.

            Professor of Psychology Plotnik (2013) illustrates an example that when seeing a rattlesnake crawling by your head as your laying in the grass causes instant reaction of fear. Understanding and explaining exactly where this fear comes from have taken a variety of approaches. 1. The peripheral theories of emotions focus on how a person changes in the body physiologically develop emotional moods within a person. 2. The cognitive appraisal theory of emotions focuses and promotes the concept of how people interpret situations around us and thereby developing emotion and moods. 3. Neuroscience approach evaluates the foundational neural bases of emotion. By taking into account the brain’s neural circuits, as well as how the brain takes in a person’s experiences, the brain expresses emotions back to the person as emotional reactions.

            When it comes to human behavior motivation in the context of survival and security, emotions play a crucial role, but Neuroscientist Ledeux (1996) points out that when it comes to emotions, people know what emotions are, but they do not seem to understand how to define it. As observed by professor and psychologist at Harvard Medical School, Cannon (1922), fear, anger, pain, and hunger are experiences we all share with animals, and they are the most potent expressions that influence behavior and motivation of both humans and animals alike.

            According to the research done by the Harvard Medical School (2016), fear, anxiety, and stress causing situations such as loss of job, bad economy, war, or natural disasters cause chronic stress. Moreover, the domino effect of chronic stress affects a whole host of stress hormones that in turn bring on a wide range of physiological changes. The main culprits that we must understand are the amygdala, hypothalamus, and the cerebral cortex.

            Knowing and understanding the functions of these areas of the brain can guide people to understanding how external events affect these parts of the brain. These results, in turn, cause physiological changes such as high blood pressure, muscle tension, and sweating of the body leading to behavior and motivational issues such as fight or flight response. We must understand that to have a general understanding of these fundamental processes in the brain can have a positive effect on managing it and counter the stress response.

            Wagner (2006) claims that by understanding these basic facts on what is happening in our brain, we can better understand and manage how we perceive the dangers and understand what motivates our behavior as well as emotions that the situation produces within us.       

            According to Kalat (2009), a professor of Psychology states that the sympathetic nervous system followed by the adrenal cortex becomes stimulated by stressful events, and prolonged severe stressful events bring on similar bodily reactions that illnesses bring on. Therefore, by understanding these small but essential facts about our inner working may genuinely have an impact on the survival and security of a person.

            According to survival and disaster management experts such as Lundin (2003), understanding the psychological impact of a crisis, and how to mitigate its harmful effects on people, is a vital component in aiding a person in positive behaviors that lead to positive motivations that aid in survival and security. Security and survival expert Lundin observed and reported that survival is 90 percent psychology, and therefore survival and security must be understood from not only a physical aspect of preparation but mainly from a psychological perspective (2003).

            It is well documented by psychologists, survival experts, disaster management organizations as well as the military, that crisis produced by disasters both natural and human-made have a direct psychological impact on people for the short term and long term. Understanding what is happening to us will aid in the positive outcome of a security and survival situation.

Crisis and disasters defined

            The definition of a disaster as defined by learner’s dictionary is “a difficult or dangerous situation that needs serious attention” (Merriam-Webster, 2017).

            Likewise, the definition of disaster is a “sudden calamitous event bringing great damage, loss or destruction” (Merriam-Webster, 2017).

            When it comes to people and how they are affected, Merriam-Webster defines a person under a crisis as an “emotionally significant event or a radical change of status in a person’s life. An unstable or critical time or state of affairs in which a change is impending; especially: one with the distinct possibility of a highly undesirable outcome (Merriam-Webster, 2017).

            It is within these parameters that the people who find themselves homeless fighting for their survival as well as attempting to ensure their survival, by seeking out security that the exploration and analysis of our group’s survival take place.  

Part 2
The biology of a brain in crisis.  The brain in crisis. Continued next post...