Business Commons^™

Boots On The Ground: A First-Hand Account Of Conducting Psychological Research In Combat, Peter D. Harms, Paul B. Lester

P. D. Harms Publications

At the height of the surge in Iraq, Captain Paul Lester, an Army research psychologist, embedded himself with the 2nd Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment in order to study leadership and psychological resilience in combat. Few researchers are ever presented with the opportunities and responsibilities inherent for a psychologist in this situation or with the decisions he faced when agreeing to take on this mission. In his own words, Captain Lester explains the nature of this mission, what makes research in this context so unique, and what lessons he learned.