For the first time, this dissertation presents a comprehensive theoretical and empirical investigation into the psychological characteristics of military decision-making in crisis situations, taking into account cognitive, emotional, social, and neurophysiological determinants. The study is situated at the intersection of military psychology, cognitive science, and neuropsychology, thereby ensuring an interdisciplinary examination of the phenomenon of adaptive thinking under extreme operational conditions. The relevance of the research is driven by the urgent need of the Armed Forces of Ukraine for scientifically grounded approaches to the psychological training of personnel in the context of contemporary warfare, which is marked by high dynamism, uncertainty, information overload, and sustained psychological pressure.
An analysis of combat experience demonstrated that the effectiveness of decision-making in crisis situations is determined not only by the level of professional training but, above all, by the psychological readiness of service members to operate under stress – their capacity to integrate cognitive, emotional, and social resources when choosing an optimal course of action under time constraints and conditions of life-threatening danger. At the same time, research in Ukrainian military psychology has been largely fragmented, focusing predominantly on isolated aspects of the issue – such as cognitive biases, emotional stress, or team dynamics – without offering an integrated view of decision-making as a multilevel system of interacting processes. This gap necessitated the
development of an integrative model that unites the cognitive, emotional, social, and psychophysiological components of a service member’s functioning and the creation, on its basis, of a scientifically substantiated psychological training program.
The theoretical foundations of the study have been substantiated, demonstrating that the process of decision-making by military personnel in crisis situations constitutes a multilevel psychological system that integrates cognitive (analytical thinking, situational awareness, cognitive flexibility), emotional (stress tolerance, emotional regulation, resilience), social (team interaction, trust in leadership), and neurophysiological (heart rate variability, autonomic regulation) components of individual functioning. It has been established that classical cognitive models of decision-making fail to account for the emotional and physiological mechanisms that become decisive for behavioural effectiveness under extreme conditions, thereby necessitating the development of an integrative four-component approach.
The leading methodological foundations of the study were grounded in several complementary approaches. First, the principles of the systems approach (L. von Bertalanffy; U. Bronfenbrenner) enabled the examination of the decision-making process as an integrated, multilevel system characterized by complex interrelations among cognitive, emotional, social, and physiological components. Second, the activity–ecological approach (J. Gibson; D. Norman) provided a framework for understanding decision-making as a form of adaptive interaction between the individual and the operational environment, including the dynamics of the combat situation. Third, the agentic–subject approach (A. Bandura; M. Csikszentmihalyi) emphasised the role of personal agency, self-regulation, and responsibility in shaping the behavioural choices of military personnel. Additionally, core principles of cognitive-behavioural psychology (A. Beck; D. Kahneman) substantiated the interdependence among cognitive processes, emotional states, and behavioural responses under conditions of elevated stress. The integration of these approaches made it possible to overcome the reductionism inherent in previous research and provided a holistic, multidimensional understanding of decision-making in extreme military contexts. Based on a comprehensive theoretical and methodological analysis, the author’s conceptual position regarding the key definitions
of the study was substantiated. Decision-making by military personnel in a crisis situation is defined as a dynamic mental process involving the simultaneous interaction of analytical thinking, emotional regulation, moral–volitional impulses, and team coordination under the influence of stressors, temporal constraints, and life-threatening conditions. This process results in the selection of a behavioural course aimed at achieving tactical or strategic objectives under conditions of high uncertainty. A crisis situation in the military context is understood as a constellation of circumstances characterized by a sudden shift in the operational environment, an immediate threat to life, the necessity for urgent action under conditions of time pressure and informational scarcity, elevated psychophysiological strain, and potentially severe consequences of the decisions taken.
