Personality assessment in military – Bright and dark sides of the assessment measures: A review

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Personality assessment has its own bright and dark sides, especially in the military setting. It is at play since the emergence of clinical psychology and its application in the recruitment process during World War I and II. Change in personality assessment trends, the evolution of complex personality traits, and changing geopolitical settings across the world necessitate the development of cost-effective, time-efficient, and reliable assessment measures that overcome issues in current assessment measures and fulfil the needs of present times OBJECTIVE: The objective of this paper is to explore the evolution of personality assessment measures and their uses in military settings along with the comparison of self-report and non-self-report measures. It would give directions for the development of new measures to overcome the issues and drawbacks associated with current measures of research. METHODS: The research question was formulated using the most valid SPIDER technique for a comprehensive search. PubMed, Google Scholar, and PsycNet databases were searched. 19 articles were selected based on inclusion and exclusion criteria out of 775 articles. RESULTS: Thematic analyses show that personality assessment in the military is done to a) detect psychopathology, b) detect aberrant responses, c) recruit new personnel, d) predict training and performance outcomes, and e) predict leadership. The research contributes to the body of knowledge by showing an integrated picture of the most widely used assessment tools and the purpose it serves. CONCLUSION: There is a need to develop assessment measures that are culture free and can assess more complex personality attributes.