TY - JOUR AU - Bester, Piet PY - 2022/11/29 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - A positive psychology perspective on pre-deployment fitness-for-duty evaluations for external deployments: A proposition for the South African National Defence Force JF - Scientia Militaria - South African Journal of Military Studies JA - Sci.Mil. VL - 50 IS - 3 SE - Articles DO - 10.5787/50-3-1379 UR - https://scientiamilitaria.journals.ac.za/pub/article/view/1379 SP - 25-45 AB - The aim of this article is to introduce the reader to a psychological well-being orientation for soldiers in pre-deployment fitness-for-duty evaluations by screening for psychological risk rather than pathology. The aim is reached by firstly discussing the existing process of pre-deployment fitness-for-duty evaluations, then conceptualising the assessment for psychological risk rather than psychopathology only, followed by linking pre-deployment assessment of fitness-for-duty evaluations to the positive psychology paradigm and proposing an integrative military model for soldiers’ psychological well-being in the external deployment context. The discussion is concluded by recommendations for military decision-makers to consider this approach of psychological risk assessment as a feasible process. ER -