This paper presents personality testing data from final stage applicants to the NASA astronaut program. Questions addressed include whether personality predicted final selection into the astronaut corps, whether women and men demonstrated typical gender differences in personality, and whether three characteristic clusters found in other high performance populations replicated in this group. Between 1989 and 1995, 259 final stage astronauts completed the Personal Characteristic Inventory (PCI) which assesses personality characteristics related to the broad traits of Instrumentality and Expressivity. In addition, 147 of these individuals also completed an abbreviated version of the NEO Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) which assesses the "Big Five" traits of Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness, Agreeableness, And Conscientiousness. Three previously identified trait clusters (Right, Wrong, and No Stuff) were found to replicate in this population. No differences were found on th.
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This paper presents a review of personality research conducted by investigators at The University of Texas at Austin and the University of Bergen. Over the past several years, personality data have been collected on active duty NASA astronauts (N=66), final stage astronaut applicants (N=259), Australian Antarctic station personnel (N=111) and Norwegian polar scientists (N=34). Analyses of the astronaut data have demonstrated that astronauts and astronaut applicants possess atypical personality profiles characterized by positive affect, low neuroticism and high levels of conscientiousness and achievement motivation. Analyses of the Antarctic personnel data have suggested a cross culturally consistent profile of low interpersonal negativity and low neuroticism. These two populations differ primarily on measures of achievement motivation, with astronauts scoring higher than both the Antarctic personnel and a comparative student population on scales assessing those traits. Implications .
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Aviation Psychology and Applied Human Factors
. Most research on cognitive and personality characteristics needed for effective military aircrew has focused on identifying measures that predict initial training outcomes ( Carretta & Ree, 2003 ). While many of the same cognitive aptitudes predictive of military pilot training outcomes are likely to also predict on-the-job technical performance, the strict technical focus of training may make it difficult to fully evaluate the relations of personality to broader job performance criteria. This study evaluated the extent to which pre-accession personality measures were predictive of the stratification (i.e., ranking based on job performance) of early-career US Air Force aviators on Officer Performance Reports in assignments after initial training. Supervisor and senior rater stratifications of aviators on overall job performance were significantly related to pre-accession personality scores. For both pilots and navigators whose job performance was ranked, higher levels of Extraversion and Agreeableness were associated with more favorable supervisory performance rankings (uncorrected r values = .20–.28).
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Personality has been acknowledged since the 1970’s as an influencing factor in pilot performance and training outcomes (King, 2014; Bartram, 1995). Since the late 1940’s, pilot selection techniques have included personality related questions (Olson, Phillips, aWalker, 2009; Callister, King, Retzlaff, a Marsh, 1999; Dolgin a Gib, 1988; Fiske, 1947). Unfortunately, despite the large number of different personality indexes used within this line of research, there has not been an aggregation of all aviation studies examining pilot personality and its impact on performance and success. In the current effort, a literature review was conducted to identify research that examined pilot personality traits, and a high-level summary of the findings related to trends in pilot personality traits is provided. The summary includes an examination of personality traits across the differing pilot categories (i.e., commercial, student, and military pilots) and pilot genders. When examining pilots, in g.
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Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
What are personality traits? Are all “broad” traits equally broad in the constructs they encompass and in the pervasiveness of their effects? Or are some traits more or less affective, behavioral, or cognitive in nature? The present study examined these issues as they applied to the Big 5 traits of Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness. Expert and novice raters judged the extent to which items from four popular Big 5 inventories contain behavioral, cognitive, or affective components. Traits and inventories were then compared in terms of their relative assessment of these components. Results indicate convergence among inventories but remarkable differences between traits. These findings have implications for the conceptualization and assessment of traits and suggest directions for future research.
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International Journal of Selection and Assessment
