BY DR. KRISTEN WHELDON
It’s the moment you’ve trained for time and time again. The anticipation of the unexpected fills your veins with adrenaline; your breathing accelerates as you imagine the intensity of the fire you are about to face. In these moments, the stakes are high. Your life depends on the accuracy of your decisions. You rehearse your training as you visualize the building, billowing flames, and the emergency operation plans. Arriving on scene with your team, it’s time to perform.
The psychology of human performance has been studied at length with high-performance occupations such as professional athletes and surgeons. Understanding the psychology of firefighting necessitates a close look at the same fundamental principles peaking human performance in high-stress situations.
Firefighters are similar to surgeons and elite athletes in that they must master exceptional skills, depend on effective team leadership, perform within the context of multiple uncontrollable factors, and “dress out” during the course of their duties. Firefighters are hailed as heroes for their ability to run into dangerous situations to save lives and property. These are learned capacities that activate motivational drives, mental skills, and functional anxiety. Firefighters who achieve a balance of the capacities are able to perform optimally in the most dangerous situations.
Most behavioral health programs available to firefighters and fire service leaders are reactive rather than preventive. For example, there are ample services aiding firefighters in the process of returning to work but few, if any, for enhancing firefighters’ mental abilities while performing their duties effectively or, better still, prior to deployment.
Many of the psychological concepts taught to elite professionals can be used to prevent psychological distress and illness. Rather than limiting our focus to potential negative consequences associated with firefighting, it is imperative that we expand our resources and training programs to include those psychological concepts crucial for successful firefighting.
Although performance can be successfully enhanced in educational settings, it is most effective if done on an individual basis. Performance psychologists divide the mental skills used in peak performance into three groups: basic, preparatory, and performance.
Basic
The basic skills are associated with long-term goals and include people skills, goals and commitment, attitude, and motivation.
People skills. Firefighters are part of a larger system that includes crew members, captains, chiefs, and others. Off shift, they are community members, family members, and friends. Successful firefighters can effectively communicate thoughts, emotions, and needs to the people in their lives. They have also developed effective conflict management skills, making them especially effective when dealing with negative or oppositional people. These people skills are directly correlated to successful firefighting performance.
Goal setting. During the academy and subsequent advancement training, firefighters learn the technical skills necessary for success on the job. They are timed as they execute their tasks to ensure mastery under pressure. At this career phase, outcome goals are measured, and those who do not meet the requirements are dismissed. Within practice sessions, mastery is best understood through process, practice, and outcome goals. To compete successfully against other people, you must first compete against yourself and must recognize the current performance levels and develop specific, measurable, and detailed plans for attaining the goals. Process goals are further divided into long-term and short-term goals, and they must be realistic, measurable, and time-oriented. Practice goals are the specific ways (amount of time, sessions, and so on) the firefighter intends to achieve his process goals.
Attitude. One cultural phenomenon that differentiates firefighting from elite athletics, but closely resembles performance standards of surgery, is the life-or-death significance of performance outcome. Many firefighters report frustration and shame when they are unsuccessful at saving a life, even when variables out of their control contributed to the outcome. Successful firefighters pursue excellence rather than perfection. Each call is seen as an opportunity for development.
Motivation. Firefighters are motivated to perform for various reasons. Motivation is best understood in terms of intrinsic vs. extrinsic value. Motivation drives differ from person to person. Intrinsic rewards are intangible awards of recognition, achievement, or conscious satisfaction. Extrinsic rewards are tangible and are acquired on achievement of a specific task. To maintain motivation, firefighters must be aware of the rewards and benefits that they expect as a result of firefighting. Successful firefighters are able to persist through difficulty even when benefits are not immediately forthcoming. They commit to benefits associated with participation and are less attached to outcome. Again, they pursue excellence instead of perfection.
Preparatory
The preparatory skills used immediately before performance are made up of mental imagery and self-talk.
Mental imagery. Many successful firefighters refer to a mental file of emergency situations they have experienced and use during a response. Successful firefighters prepare themselves for calls by imagining optimal performance. This technique can also be used to rehearse calls that did not have a positive outcome. As the firefighter replays the situation, he can create an alternative, more ideal outcome. In this way, the firefighter can psychologically recover from perceived errors or unfavorable performance issues. Preparatory mental images should be detailed, specific, and realistic. Issues related to difficult trauma exposure should be processed with a licensed mental health professional who can assist with recovery.
Self-talk or thought-control strategies. The relationship among thoughts, emotions, and behaviors has been studied extensively in the field of psychology. Many psychological treatments effective for depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder were created to assist individuals with understanding the relationship among these factors. To maximize performance, elite professionals learn the relationship among their unique thoughts, emotions, and behaviors to maintain self-confidence during difficult times and to regulate internal responses during situations when optimal performance is required. Negative thought patterns are acknowledged and challenged.
Performance
The skills used during performance are comprised of concentration, arousal control, and emotion management.
Concentration. Successful firefighters understand what details they must pay attention to on the fireground. In any given situation, distractions may present themselves either environmentally or internally. To maintain focus and resist distractions, optimal performers engage in the current moment without regard for the past or future. Various psychological techniques including mindfulness can be helpful in accomplishing this goal.
Arousal management techniques. Anxiety has a negative connotation in our society. However, peak performance requires an element of anxiety. Regulating this arousal response to the point of performance enhancement is one key skill. The experience of overwhelming anxiety is often debilitating and should be avoided. There are several techniques used to manage stress including, but not limited to, tactical breathing exercises and progressive muscle relaxation strategies.
Emotion management and coping strategies. Successful firefighters use effective coping strategies to address potentially troubling situations. Emergency operations that did not result in optimal outcomes can be psychologically challenging for any first responder. Developing coping strategies in advance can assist in psychological recovery and optimize performance on the job.
Research suggests emotional intelligence and proactive coping strategies are responsible for increased life satisfaction at the beginning, middle, and end of a firefighting career. Emotional intelligence is defined as one’s ability to understand the physical experience of emotions, interpret it through language, and express it with control. Higher emotional intelligence also leads to increased ability to understand, connect, and influence others.
Performance plans. Firefighters and fire service leaders can incorporate routine mental exercise into daily operations at every training level, from the academy to the station and the administration office. Just as many firefighters incorporate physical exercise into their day, practicing mental skills can optimize performance, increase confidence on and off the job, and prevent negative psychological outcomes frequently associated with the firefighting profession.
Performance readiness plans. Within many fire departments, firefighters and fire service leaders discuss after-action reviews (AAR) to understand the operation’s strengths and weaknesses. Similar to these AARs are performance readiness plans, which allow firefighters to anticipate scenarios, demonstrate performance, and use the acquired mental skillsets.
Peak mental performance on and off the fireground requires the cultivation of unique mental skills that can be learned and strengthened. Firefighters can use psychological techniques to enhance performance and prevent negative outcomes instead of initiating use only after problems arise. With the goal of fire service empowerment, we can emphasize education rather than remediation.
References
DR. KRISTEN WHELDON is a licensed psychologist in California. She is the president and founder of the Fire Service Psychology Association and previously served as director of behavioral health for the Los Angeles City (CA) Fire Department. Her research in fire psychology focuses on performance enhancement and the treatment of trauma-related disorders.
