Typology of cognitive distortions in military personnel during international exercises

Abstract

Background. In the context of Russia's full-scale armed aggression against Ukraine, the Armed Forces of Ukraine are actively engaged in joint training programs with partner nations' units. Interaction in a multinational environment, alongside its undeniable operational advantages, creates a specific psychological context in which cultural differences, language barriers, and the need to meet allied standards generate conditions for the emergence and entrenchment of cognitive distortions that negatively affect the performance effectiveness of military personnel and their psychological well-being. The scholarly literature contains substantial research on cognitive distortions in the general psychological context, as well as studies in the fields of military psychology and cross-cultural communication; however, a comprehensive analysis of cognitive distortions specifically in the context of international exercises remains lacking. Accordingly, the purpose of this article is to provide a theoretical analysis and typology of cognitive distortions in military personnel during international exercises as an independent psychological phenomenon.
Methods. To achieve this purpose, theoretical research methods were employed: analysis, synthesis, systematisation, comparison, and generalisation, which were used to examine the nature, types, and mechanisms of formation of cognitive distortions in military personnel during international exercises.
Results. Drawing on the dual-process model of thinking, the nature of cognitive distortions was examined and the role of cognitive schemas, emotional intelligence, and critical thinking in their formation and mitigation was determined. It was established that the international training environment creates a specific complex of cross-cultural, professional, and socio-psychological factors that provoke distorted thinking. A typology of five cognitive distortions characteristic of this context is proposed: misattribution, catastrophising, dichotomous thinking, overgeneralisation, and cognitive avoidance. The mechanisms of their formation and entrenchment are examined, and the possibility of these distortions acquiring a group
character is substantiated.
Conclusions. The analysis of the scholarly literature enabled the conceptualisation of cognitive distortions in military personnel during international exercises as a distinct psychological phenomenon. A typology of characteristic cognitive distortions was proposed, their mechanisms of formation were examined; and the theoretical foundations for psychological support based on the cognitive-behavioural approach were outlined.