Candidate Personality Traits Associated with Ratings in a Military Officer Selection Setting

Abstract

While studies of the relationship between applicant personality and selection assessment ratings are widespread within personnel psychology, studies on military samples are scarcer. The current study aimed to investigate the associations between the Five-Factor Model of personality and ratings in (1) a military selection interview and (2) a field selection exercise simulating a war-like scenario. Research participants were candidates attending a selection program for military officer schools in the Norwegian Armed Forces (N = 901). The study used the NEO-PI-3 for measuring personality, and a shorter military personality measure (NMPI) was added for purposes of convergent test validation. Military selection officers rated candidates based on mission command leadership competencies. After controlling for sex, age, and general mental ability, results demonstrated small predictive effects of extraversion (+) and openness (–) toward mean competency ratings in both the interview and the field selection exercise. Furthermore, the selection officers used somewhat global evaluations of candidates in their ratings due to high correlations between competencies. Based on the findings, we suggest that personality testing may be useful in the selection process and contribute to a more nuanced rating of competencies.