Psychological Fitness and Resilience: A Review of Relevant Constructs, Measures, and Links to Well-Being

Psychological fitness, as part of the Total Force Fitness TFF construct, is defined as the integration and optimization of cognitive processes and abilities, behaviors, and emotions to positively affect performance, well-being, and response to stress. These resilience factors can be thought of as antecedents of a complex process whereby individuals deal with stress. As such, they provide the foundation for psychological fitness. This report focuses on three categories of key resilience factors in the psychological domain cognitive, affective, and self-regulatory. The cognitive category includes constructs that reflect individuals thoughts and beliefs about themselves e.g., seself-efficacyself-esteem, in addition to interpretations of their situation e.g., perceived control. The affective category includes constructs that measure the experience of positive and negative emotions e.g., positive and negative affect. And the seself-regulatoryategory includes constructs that measure self-regulation and control e.g., coping strategies. In general, the actual measurement of these psychological constructs is primarily accomplished via self-report survey or questionnaire.