Abstract:

Background:
Character strengths are usually measured through self-ratings, e.g. with the VIA-IS survey. There is, however, a debate concerning if self-ratings or other-ratings have highest predictive validity. In a meta-analysis of the predictive validity of personality on academic achievement and job performance, Connelly and Ones (2010) found that “other-ratings yielded predictive validities substantially greater than and incremental to self-ratings” (p. 1092).

Objective:
To examine whether self-ratings or other-ratings of character strengths are best for predicting military and academic performance in army cadets.

Methods:
The sample comprised 181 army cadets from three cohorts, attending a three years Bachelor’s degree program at the Norwegian Military Academy (NMA). Self- and other-ratings of 12 character strengths, selected as particularly relevant for succeeding as a military officer, were done one year before final graduation, when the cadets participated in a highly stressful combat fatigue course. Self-ratings were done with VIA-IS survey prior to the combat fatigue course, and with a character strengths observational instrument (OBSCIF) immediately after the course. Other-ratings for each army cadet were done with OBSCIF immediately after the combat fatigue course by 7-9 peer cadets from their own squad. Military performance was measured by two supervisors following them 24/7, who rated the cadets’ performance on a 1-5 scale after the combat fatigue course. Academic performance was measured as Grade Point Average from their Bachelor’s degree program.

Results:
Self-ratings of the 12 character strengths on VIA-IS and OBSCIF correlated satisfactory, and other-ratings showed high consistency among the 7-9 raters. The VIA Survey showed lowest predictive validity, followed by self-rated OBSCIF measures, while other-rated OBSCIF measures of character strengths showed good to very good predictive validity for both military and academic performance.

Conclusion:
This study indicates that other-ratings of character strengths predict military and academic performance much better than self-ratings.

Keywords:

Character strengths, academic performance, military performance, other-ratings, self-ratings.