Integrity: Navigating Culture and Keeping Yourself Intact

Dr. Kate McGraw

Deputy Director

Psychological Health Clinical Standards of Care

Defense Centers of Excellence

18 June, 2012

2

“A little integrity is better than any career”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

3

•Overview

•Context: Women in the Military

•Department of Defense Focus: Psychological Health of Military Females

•Ethics: Doing the right thing

•Coping: Free choice

•Discussion/Questions

Overview

4

• History:

• 1948: Women’s Armed Services Integration Act

• 1951: Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services

• 1967: Two percent cap females in service, one line Colonel per service limits removed by Public Law 90-130

• 1972: Reserve Officer Training Corps admits females

• 1973: Flight training open to females in the Navy and Army, and in 1976, the Air Force

• 1974: DoD rescinded separation of pregnant females

• 1976: Military academies admitted females

Women in the Military

5

“…but you’ll never pull missile crew”

as remembered from a Captain’s Log, Oscar Minuteman Launch Control Capsule, 1987

6

• 1977: First Air Force Titan missile female crew members

• 1978: Army Women’s Air Corps abolished, Public Law 95-485

• 1978: First Navy females reported for sea duty

• 1980: First DoD sexual harassment policy issued

• 1985: First female ICBM Minuteman/Peacekeeper missile crews assigned

• 1988: First male/female ICBM missile crews authorized

• 1989: Females served in Operation Just Cause

Women in the Military

7

“Women Missiliers”

1987

Air Force Art Collection

8

• 1990: 90,000 females participate in Operation Desert Storm/Desert Shield; two POWs and five died in action

• 1992: Combat aircraft and ships open to females

• 2011: Females permitted to serve on submarines

• 2012: Since 2001, about 280,000 women have deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan; 144 have been killed, and 865 have been wounded

• 2012: First USAF female four start General nominated: Janet C. Wolfenbarger

• 2012: DoD lifts restrictions on over 14,000 front line positions to females

Women in the Military

9

Mental Health Task Force (2007)

•The needs of women service members and veterans should remain a focus of high-level planning groups in DoD (with all military services represented) and the Department of Veterans Affairs. The DoD Psychological Health Strategic Plan should include specific attention to the psychological health needs of women. The annual report on the Status of Female Members of the Armed Forces should include information about the adequacy of support for psychological health of women.

•The Department of Defense should develop treatment programs specifically geared toward the psychological health needs of female service members.

Collaborative Strategies

10

2010 VA/DoD Integrated Mental Health Strategies

Strategic Action Number 28: Gender; Military Sexual Trauma

•Use information from research and the evaluation of clinical and administrative data to explore gender differences in the delivery and effectiveness of mental health services. Use findings to improve the accessibility and quality of care, develop strategies for overcoming health care disparities and barriers to care, and to identify the need for further research.

•To support mental health services and research for female service members and veterans, and for those who have experienced military sexual trauma (both men and women) to ensure ongoing surveillance, program evaluation and research, and to identify disparities, specific needs and opportunities for improving both treatment and preventive services.

Collaborative Strategies

11

“When you live with integrity, your hearts begin to fill with a happiness as vast as the universe. It’s about being true to yourself and starting

from where you are.”

Daisaku Ikeda

12

• Integrity:• Definition: consistency of actions, values, methods,

measures, principles, expectations, and outcomes; honesty and truthfulness or accuracy of one's actions, the opposite of hypocrisy

• Origin: Latin integer (whole, complete)

• “To have integrity”: to act according to the values, beliefs and principles an individual claims to hold

Integrity and Ethics

13

• Ethics:• Definition:

• Moral principles or values governing or distinctive of a particular culture or group; moral precepts held or rules of conduct followed by an individual: a personal ethic

• Origin: Latin ēthicus, fundamental character or spirit of a culture

• Underlying sentiment that informs beliefs, customs, or practices of group, person or society; or the moral element in dramatic literature that determines a character's action rather than his or her thought or emotion

Integrity and Ethics

14

• Ethical Approaches

• Virtue: Right thing: acts lead to happiness. Good behavior and virtuous acts are the keys to self-fulfillment

• Utilitarianism: Right thing: actions that create best result for greatest number of people are ideal. Not actions or the intentions, but consequences

• Deontology: Right thing: actions from sense of duty. Each

action made based on a commitment to do what is right, defined by the group

• Egoism: Right thing: best for you, the individual making the decision

Integrity and Ethics

15

• Relativism: Right thing: doesn’t exist in static state. There are no absolute, fixed ethical principles, rather they vary relative to the circumstances

• Subjectivism: Right thing: no such thing as fixed ethical principles. Morality is about feelings, not fact, and right and wrong are simply ways of describing your own opinions (approval or disapproval) about things

 

Integrity and Ethics

16

• In the military workplace:

• Often group needs trump the needs of the individual

• You enter into the group freely

• You benefit from being part of the group, but also give up individual freedoms and gain responsibilities

• Being part of a workplace team requires you to adjust your behavior and prioritize the group’s needs at times

• Act ethically regardless of the needs of the group, and you maintain integrity, although you may suffer your decision within the group

Integrity and Ethics

17

"Don't compromise yourself. You are all you've got."

Janis Joplin

18

• BALANCE

• Unhealthy:

• Exaggerate feminine/flirtatious interactions with others• Adopt of a masculine exterior with others• Glue a chip on your shoulder• Keep silent when you have important words to say• Shift your ethics under duress, away from your internal

values thus compromising your integrity• Use drugs or alcohol to “cope”• Work around the clock• Display high drama when upset• Refuse to ask for help when you need it

Coping: Free Choice

19

• Healthy

• Obtain sufficient and high quality sleep• Seek good nutrition: under appreciated by many• Build support networks with other female leaders• Adopt a gender neutral lense in the workplace• Interpret benevolent intent unless a clear pattern

emerges, or unless behavior is singular, severe and significant

• Talk about your stress with people you trust• Stay active physically• Ask for help if you need it• Moderate your emotions and expression of the same• Have a meaningful life beyond your work• Be human, be yourself

Coping: Free Choice

20

• Pick your battles

• Not everything is about gender or minority status

• Interpret benevolent intent

• Keep your sense of humor

• Always have a wingwoman

• Expect obstacles, but approach with compassion

• Apologize once, mean it sincerely

• Never sacrifice your integrity in order to belong to a group, no matter what

Coping: Free Choice

21

•Overview

•Context: Women in the military

•Department of Defense Focus: Psychological health of military females

•Integrity and Ethics: Primer

•Coping: Free choice

•Discussion/Questions

Summary

22

Discussion and Questions

Integrity: Navigating Culture and Keeping

Yourself IntactDr. Kate McGraw

Deputy DirectorPsychological Health Clinical Standards of Care

Defense Centers of Excellence

18 June, 2012