Military Psychology

Gerhard Ohrband – ULIM University, Moldova

8th lecture

Training

Course structure

1. Introduction: Historical Overview, main applications2. Environmental Stressors3. Leadership4. Team Effectiveness5. Individual and Group Behaviour6. Clinical Psychology7. Selection and Classification8. Training 9. Human Factor Engineering10. Psychotherapy and Counseling11. Terrorism12. Trauma Therapy13. Psychological Warfare14. Ethical Issues for a Psychologist in the Armed Forces15. Review: Preparation for the exams

Outline:1. Definitions and Contexts of Training2. Rational Stages of Training Development3. Identifying Training Needs and Content4. Evaluating Training5. Practice: Error Management Training

1. Definitions and Contexts of Training

- Definition: “The systematic development of the knowledge/skills/attitudes required by a person in order to perform effectively a given task or job” (Glossary of Training Terms, 1971)

Training versus development

Training Development

Focus Current job Current and future jobs

Scope Individual employees

Work group or organization

Time frame Immediate Long term

Goal Fix current skill deficit

Prepare for future work demands

Challenges in Training

Is training the solution to the problem? Are the goals of training clear and realistic? Is training a good investment? Will the training work?

Is training the solution?

A fundamental objective of training is the elimination or improvement of performance problems.

However, not all performance problems call for training.

Performance deficits can have several causes, many of which are beyond the worker’s control and would therefore not be affected by training.

For example, unclear and conflicting requests, morale problems and poor-quality materials

Are the goals clear and realistic? To be successful, a training program must have clearly stated

and realistic goals. The goals will guide the program’s content and determine the

criteria by which its effectiveness will be judged. For example, management cannot realistically expect that one

training session will make everyone a computer expert. Unless the goals are clearly articulated before training programs

are set up, the organization is likely to find itself training employees for the wrong reasons and toward the wrong end.

For example, if the goals is to improve specific skills, the training needs to address specific goals for training.

Is training a good investment? Determining whether training is a good investment requires

measuring the training’s potential benefit. Training that focuses on “hard” areas (such as the running and

adjustment of machines) that have a fairly direct impact on outcomes (such as productivity) can often be easily translated into a monetary value.

Estimating the benefits of training in “softer” areas – such as teamwork or diversity training – is much more challenging.

Will training work?

Some types of training are more effective than others for some purposes and in some situation.

An organizational culture that supports change, learning and improvement can be a more important determinant of a training program’s effectiveness than any aspect of the program itself.

Training will not work unless it is related to organizational goals.

2. Rational Stages of Training Development Instructional Systems Development (ISD) Interservices Procedures for Instructional

Systems Development (IPISD)

Relationships between training development and selection decisions

Identifychanging

needs (1)

Definetraining content

(4)

Developcriterion

measures(6)

Definetraining

objectives(3)

Selecttrainees

(2)

Designmethods and

training materials(5)

Trainees

Trainingprogramme

Graduates

Feedback

Feedback

3. Identifying Training Needs and Content Hierarchical Task Analysis (HTA):Systems perspective, breaking down a job or task into subtasks Specifying training objectives. Mager (1962) - three

elements for the specification of an objective:1 identify the terminal behaviour by name; you can specify the kind of

behaviour that will be accepted as evidence that the learner has achieved the objective

2 Try to define the desired behaviour further by describing the important conditions under which the behaviour will be expected to occur

3 Specify the criteria of acceptable performance by describing how well the learner must perform to be considered acceptable

Part of a Hierarchical Task Analysis of an industrial task

Warm up furnace1

Prepare plantand services

1.1

Start air blower1.2

Start oil pump1.3

Heat up to800ºC

1.4

Increase temperaturecontroller as per

chart 1.4.1

Ensure plantis ready

1.1.1

Ensure gas-oilavailable

1.1.2

Ensure oxygenanalysing system

is OK1.1.2

Monitor oxygen1.4.2

Monitor temperature1.4.3

Switch toautomatic

1.4.4

Designing the Training

Three components in the design of training

1. Training contentTypes of content

2. Training methods and strategiesRetrainingPractice with advicePart-whole trainingOvertraining etc.

3. TraineePrior knowledgeAptitudes, ageLearning strategiesAttitudes and motivation

Motivational influences on training effectiveness

Locus of control

Career/job attitudes•Exploration

•Job involvement

ExpectanciesSelf-efficacy

Reaction toskill assessment

feedback Motivationto

transfer

Results Behaviour

changeLearning

Motivationto learn

Reactionto

training

Environmental favourability•Social•Task

4. Evaluating training

Evaluative questions: How were the training needs identified? What were the training objectives and how were they derived? What techniques were used to identify training content? What principles were used to design the training program? What forms of evaluation were carried out before and after

training? What revisions have taken place to the training program, and for

what reasons?

Reasons why evaluation is often neglected Evaluation of training is often neglected by

organizations

Why? Insufficient technical competence Lack of political will Abundance of different methods and criteria

in the literature may be potentially confusing

Case study: training in the steel industry 1. identifying training needs and content. Management reported that, in one area of the mill, fault-finding

was problematic even for experienced technicians/engineers. Failure to fault-find effectively and efficiently could result in poor quality steel, damage to equipment and/or personnel and, ultimately, shutdown of the mill. Examination of the plant records and discussions with personnel responsible for fault-finding confirmed that there was indeed a training need in this area. In order to analyse the nature of this need in greater detail and to develop training content, three forms of analysis took place.

a) Error and problem collection First, errors and problems that arose in connection with fault-finding

were collected. Various data sources and methods were used, including retrospective analyses of reported faults, observation of technical personnel during shifts and ‘talking through’ proposed actions, intentions and decisions while locating hypothetical faults. This revealed various inefficiencies during fault-finding. Surprisingly, personnel frequently failed to utilize all the initial symptoms that were available in the fault scenario. This tendency was compounded by a failure to set and tackle systematic subgoals in the search for the source of the problem. This was not surprising given the overwhelming complexity and size of the technical domain. Further, personnel tended to adopt a rather risky hypothesis-driven search for the fault rather than a more painstaking and systematic one, and considerable time could be lost by searching in an area of the plant which did not contain the fault.

5. Error management training

General trainingtypes

Behavior modelingtraining

Exploratorytraining

Error managementtraining

Differences

Behavior modeling training:- Detailed step-by-step instructions on correct task solutions- Focus on error prevention - Negative attitude towards errorsExploratory training:- Minimal intructions- No explicit mentioning of errors as issue, often negative attitude

towards errorsError management training:- Minimal instructions- Positive framing on errors

Error management training

1. Minimal guidanceParticipants are given only minimal guidance and otherwise are

encouraged to actively explore and experiment on their own.EMT creates a learning environment in which errors are likely to

occur.

2. Encouragement of errorsPositive framing of errors:“The more errors you make, the more you learn!”“You have made an error? Great! Because now you can learn

something news?”

Discussion Points

1. What are the main stages in the development of training?2. Why are the training objectives important in training

development?3. How might you evaluate a training course for car mechanics?4. Discuss how to design practice sessions to improve your typing

and keyboard skills.5. What are ISD models and what are their advantages and

disadvantages?6. Try do analyse a simple familiar task, such as making an

omelette, using hierarchical task analysis

Literature

Goldstein, I.L. (1993). Training in organizations: Needs assessment, development and evaluation, 3rd edn. Monterey, CA: Brooks Cole.

Keith, Nina, & Frese, M. (2008). Effectiveness of error management training: A meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 1, 59-69.

Patrick, J. (1992). Training: Research and practice. London: Academic Press.