True Grit: Getting After Resilience through Officer Professional Military Education
Abstract
Life is tough. Everyone experiences some degree of hardship, failure, or catastrophe. Those things do not define us as human beings; they certainly do not define commissioned officers in the United States Air Force (USAF). How we respond to hardship, failure, or catastrophe does. Resiliency theory describes the promotive and protective factors people can use to succeed despite setbacks, learn from failures, and bounce back from adversity that might otherwise break us down. The Center for Leadership and Character Development at the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) requested a deep analysis of the unique experience at the USAFA and how that experience influences the development of grit. In July 2019, a doctoral dissertation from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs answered that call and confirmed the statistically and practically significant associations between resilience and performance. This paper considers that analysis and those conclusions as they apply more broadly across the entirety of the USAFs continuum of officer developmental experiences at Air University (AU), Maxwell AFB, Alabama.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 12, 2020
- Accession Number
- AD1108168
Entities
People
- Paul Ferguson
Organizations
- Air War College