Long-standing structural features of the military have created a culture and society that is dramatically different and disconnected from civilian society. Thus, veterans transitioning to civilian society face a number of challenges related to fulfilling basic psychological needs (e.g., need for structure and order, belonging) and civilians’ reliance on stereotypes to understand military veterans. In an attempt to enrich the understanding of these challenges, we integrate social psychological theories and insights with research from sociology, clinical psychology, military psychology, and organizational behavior. Theories of compensatory control, stereotype threat, and stereotyping are drawn on to help explain the psychological challenges that veterans may encounter during their transition to civilian society. We present recent research that leverages these theories to understand issues veterans face. This theoretical integration illustrates the opportunity and potential for psychological researchers to conduct basic and applied research in the context of veterans and for clinicians and managers to draw on basic theory to inform programs and interventions.

军队的长期结构特征创造了一种与平民社会截然不同且脱节的文化和社会。因此，向平民社会过渡的退伍军人面临着与满足基本心理需求（例如，结构和秩序、归属感的需要）以及平民依赖刻板印象来了解退伍军人相关的许多挑战。为了丰富对这些挑战的理解，我们将社会心理学理论和见解与社会学、临床心理学、军事心理学和组织行为学的研究相结合。补偿控制、刻板印象威胁和刻板印象的理论被用来帮助解释退伍军人在向平民社会过渡期间可能遇到的心理挑战。我们展示了利用这些理论来理解退伍军人面临的问题的最新研究。这种理论整合说明了心理学研究人员在退伍军人背景下进行基础和应用研究的机会和潜力，以及临床医生和管理人员利用基础理论为计划和干预提供信息的机会和潜力。