Hans Selye was the first to conceptualize stress as a nonspecific biological response to different types of attacks that can mobilize the resources of an individual to enable him to adapt to the situation. “Stress is the spice of life” he said. Yet even a stressful event does not cause the same reactions in all subjects. According to Folkman and Lazarus, there is a sequential process of evaluation that allows the individual to construct personal meaning of situations. In doing so, stress can be a source of dysfunction and adjustment disorders in an individual. According to the DSM-IV, the adjustment disorders can manifest in different forms: with depressed mood, with anxiety, with mixed anxiety and depressed mood, with disturbance of conduct, with mixed disturbance disruption of emotions and conduct.

In the military forces, the adjustment disorder with disturbance of conduct may be involved in the emergence of addictive behaviors, “moral disengagement” conducts or behaviors that lead the individual to get isolated from the group and military life. These issues are important regarding the three subjects of the military health, the social representation of the army and the maintenance of operational capability.

The finding of the negative effects of stress is at the origin of many researches and models of the vulnerabilities that could explain those reactions. Their objective is to find an opportunity for potential intervention. Indeed several studies show that an upstream intervention through the exercise of an ethical management style has several positive impacts, especially within military institution.