DO CHARACTER STRENGTHS PREDICT HOW WELL MILITARY CADETS SUCCEED DURING THEIR BACHELOR’S PROGRAM?

Problem statement:
The Norwegian Military Academy (NMA) aims at educating and developing highly skilled military officers through its Bachelor programs. Prior studies have indicated that twelve character strengths are particularly important for succeeding as a military officer. How important are these character strengths for how the cadets perform academically and physically during the Bachelor’s programs at the NMA?

Purpose of the study:
To examine to what extent the twelve character strengths predict how well military cadets succeed during their Bachelor programs, and if character strengths outperform mental intelligence as predictor of cadet performance.

Methods:
The cadets’ character strengths were measured with an observational instrument (OBSCIF) filled out by peer cadets at the end of a combat fatigue exercise. The cadets’ performance was measured by physical tests and grades from different courses of the Bachelor programs. Mental intelligence was measured as a general ability score, based on a combined measure of the performance on three tests: Arithmetic, Word Similarities and Figures. Analyses included partial correlations between the twelve character strengths and cadet performance indicators, controlling for intelligence.

Results:
Eleven out of twelve character strengths – Leadership, Perspective, Courage, Self-regulation, Integrity, Creativity, Love of learning, Persistence, Teamwork, Social intelligence, and Open-mindedness – correlated moderately to strongly with how the cadets performed either academically or physically, even when controlling for intelligence. The character strength Fairness did not correlate significantly with any of the performance criteria.

Conclusion:
Character strengths seem to be important predictors for how well military cadets succeed during their Bachelor’s programs, and they outperform mental intelligence as predictors of cadet performance. Military education programs should consider selecting cadets characterized by certain character strengths, and aim at further developing these character strengths during the education.