Psychological Support to Defense Counterintelligence Operations )

Co-Authored with Scott Shumate, and published in "Military Psychology",2006.

The practice of providing psychological or behavioral science support to counterintelligence operations is relatively new, but actively evolving. Psychologists—some of whom refer to themselves as operational psychologists—provide assessments for, and consultations to, operators, case officers, service members, and others on psychological or behavioral issues relevant for planning, managing, or terminating elements of an operation and handling human assets. Specifically, they may conduct direct or indirect risk assessments, offer perspectives on source recruitment and handling, or support interrogations and other information-gathering activities. Counterintelligence's focal areas, currently, are counterespionage and counterterrorism. We describe how psychologists have provided value-added support to each of those Department of Defense missions.

Voluntarily childless couples: psychoanalytical analysis through interviews and TAT

Distinctive familial configurations are gaining ground and legitimacy in contemporary society, and voluntary childlessness is increasing more and more. The general aim of this study is to investigate conscious and unconscious motivations leading couples to choose childlessness. The participants were three heterosexual childfree couples, aged from 38 to 49, and in which women neared the end of fecundity capacity, ages 41 to 44. These couples were selected from the non-clinical population, had eight years or more of education, and were married for at least four years. Based on the clinical-qualitative methodology, the instruments used were semi-directed interview with both members of the couple together, and the individual application of the following TAT pictures: I, II, IV, V, VII (women only), X and XVI, analyzed from a psychoanalytical reference. The particular theory adopted was the psychoanalysis of attachment configurations. The couples' reported main motivations for childlessness involved: an adult-oriented lifestyle, career and professional goals, the priority given to the marital satisfaction, personality and parenting styles and skills, etc. It was observed a variety of kinds of marital rapport established by the couples, and the singularity in each case was emphasized. In the rapports, however, it was verified the possibility of creativity, development and flexibility. The decision-making process seemed to be consensual, at least at the conscious level, being also influenced by the generational experiences of the families of origin. In addition, it was observed that those childless by choice couples had a positive relationship with their professions. The study points at the many-sided quality of the experience of voluntary childlessness, which involves a wide range of ambiguity and conflict, and various ways of dealing with them. Therefore, it was concluded that it is important to consider the depth of the experience for each couple, taking into account all of its complexity. Even if the reported motivations were similar, the unconscious circumstances that lead to that choice might be unique.

HUMINT: Combating corporate crime with a counter-terrorism methodology

This study examines how corporations can employ HUMINT (that is, counter-terror intelligence techniques based on human sources) to identify corporate-wide fraud patterns. Embedded in the newly created HUMINT teams of two large corporations, the researchers collected data through in-depth interviews, on-site observations and document analysis. The findings highlight three lessons. First, the corporate HUMINT project's sponsor must be a senior executive who is held personally responsible for security breaches and who has tried many other methods with little success before adopting HUMINT. Second, the HUMINT team should focus on identifying corporate-wide fraud patterns rather than target individual perpetrators. To do so, the HUMINT team must develop its 'knowledge networks' early on and long before a specific security breach is identified. Finally, the HUMINT team must educate employees to provide only that information which they feel comfortable in sharing. The HUMINT team must also reach beyond the borders of the corporation and include former employees and vendors in its 'knowledge networks.' Additional research is needed to compare the success and failure of HUMINT projects with more traditional corporate anti-fraud programs.