Operational Psychology Post-9/11: A Decade of Evolution

Abstract

Operational psychology continues to expand at a rapid rate. Over the course of the last decade, it has emerged from relative obscurity and developed into an exciting, and somewhat controversial, professional subdiscipline within psychology. As the community of operational psychologists has increased and matured, it has reached a tipping point, creating the need for practice guidelines, training programs, and a greater emphasis on operationally relevant empirical research. The starting point for these developments is an integrative definition of operational psychology. In this article, we revisit previous definitions, relevant research literature, and recent developments in this specialty. We propose a definition that emphasizes consultation to an operational decision maker concerning issues of national security and defense.

An examination of “adversarial” operational psychology.

“…As one example, the APA published specialty guidelines for forensic psychology (APA, 2013), which articulate specifically tailored advisory guidance to forensic practitioners using the Ethics Code as a framework. We continue to assert that such guidelines would be of great assistance to OP (Staal & Stephenson, 2013).…”

“…This line of reasoning asserts that certain activities are simply outside of the scope of practice and therefore cannot be performed by psychologists or if they are performed, they cannot be performed ethically by their very nature. We reject this statement as it pertains to the activities described as OP in the current research literature (APA, 2005;Civiello, 2009;Kennedy, Borum, & Fein, 2011;Kennedy & Williams, 2011;Staal & Stephenson, 2006;Stephenson & Staal, 2007;Staal & Stephenson, 2013;Williams & Johnson, 2006;Williams, Picano, Roland, & Banks, 2006). The APA has examined the practice of OP and the specific practices of various operational psychologists over the past decade and has consistently supported both.…”

Applied psychology under attack: A response to the Brookline principles.

“…For readers that are unfamiliar with the specialty area of operational psychology, it may be helpful to provide a brief description of this relatively new and emerging subdiscipline. Operational psychology is a specialty within the field of psychology that applies behavioral science principles to enable key decision makers to more effectively understand, develop, and/or influence an individual, group, or organization to accomplish tactical, operational, or strategic objectives within the domain of national security or national defense (Staal & Stephenson, 2013). Its’ practitioners often work in the field of public safety, defense, security, and/or intelligence where their clients are typically third-party decision makers or organizations as opposed to individuals receiving personal services.…”

“…Moreover, much of the nature of their work that is conducted in such settings is known and understood by the profession. There has been much written describing this work and its content in open source journals and books (Civiello, 2009; Kennedy, Borum, & Fein, 2010; Kennedy & Williams, 2010; Staal & Stephenson, 2006, 2013; Stephenson & Staal, 2007; Williams & Johnson, 2006; Williams, Picano, Roland, & Banks, 2006). Soldz et al (2016) argue that due to this secrecy, access to specific information is unavailable to state licensing boards, making it difficult to investigate complaints or provide sufficient oversight.…”

Military operational psychology.

“…For readers less familiar with the operational psychology specialty, the following definition is provided: Operational psychology is “a specialty within the field of psychology that applies behavioral science principles to enable key decision makers to more effectively understand, develop, target, and/or influence an individual, group or organization to accomplish tactical, operational, or strategic objectives within the domain of national security or national defense” (Staal & Stephenson, 2013, p. 97). Operational psychologists provide a broad spectrum of operational support services to the military and other governmental agencies.…”