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Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 127 (2014) 479 – 483

PSIWORLD 2013

Dimensions of the personality of the military students from Land

Forces Academy of Sibiu. A psychometric approach.
Sumedrea Cristian Mihaia *, Mosoiu Corneliua, Ilie Sandinab
a
University of Bucharest, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Bucharest, Romania
b
Nicolae Balcescu Land Forces Academy, Sibiu, Romania

Abstract

Military environment is a genuine generator of complex behaviors. The purpose of military training aims both, adaptation to
situations of high uncertainty manifested in conflict areas and adjustment to special situations in peacetime. The goal of this
paper consists in the standardization of the AMN Toolkit personality tests on the population of the students of the Land Forces
Academy of Sibiu. The statistical approach led to the obtaining of a valid instrument for the assessment of the military students’
personality. Moreover, the obtained norms are representative since the whole population of the land military students from
Romania was tested.

© 2014 The
© Sumedrea Cristian
Authors. Mihai.
Published byPublished by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
Elsevier Ltd.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of PSI
Selection Romanian
WORLD Society
2013of Applied
and Experimental
their Guest Psychology.
Editors: Dr Mihaela Chraif, Dr Cristian
Vasile and Dr Mihai Anitei

Keywords: Big Five superfactors; land military training; mental adaptability; military students’s personality; personality assessment instruments

1. Introduction

The assessment of students’ mental capacities follows a process of construction, validation and calibration of
some psychological dimensions considered to be relevant. The concerns of military psychologists concentrate on the
development of personality assessment instruments, constantly updated, focused on adopting informatics solutions
that provide flexibility in constructing and validating of items as on generating real–time reports prepared for each

* Corresponding author. Tel.: 0733244290.

E– mail address: sumedreacristian@yahoo.com

1877-0428 © 2014 Sumedrea Cristian Mihai. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of Romanian Society of Applied Experimental Psychology.
doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.03.294
480 Sumedrea Cristian Mihai et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 127 (2014) 479 – 483

assessed student. The developing of a valid instrument for the assessment of the military students’ personality
represents the purpose of this research. Analysis made by military psychologists focused on the Big Five super–
factors considered to be relevant for mental adaptability, namely: emotional stability (Cobb– Clark, & Schurer,
2012; Ferguson, 2004; Hills & Argyle, 2001; Judge & Bono, 2001; McCrae & Costa, 1985), extraversion (Lucas, Le
& Dyrenforth, 2008; Thompson, 2008), agreeability (Chamorro–Premuzic, 2007; Lee & Ashton, 2012),
consciousness (Banks, 2009; Bayne, Cleeremans & Wilken, 2009; Bussche, Huges, Humbeek & Reynvoet, 2010;
Graziano & Kastner, 2011; Seth, 2009; Velmans, 2009) and openness to new experiences (Piedmont, Sherman &
Sherman, 2012).
AMN TOOLKIT personality tests, developed by a dutch specialized company, were chosen as the software
solution for this research.

2. The personality construct

2.1. Characteristics of the personality construct

The dutch construct consists of three tests, namely: PT (personality test), MOT E and MOT G. The dimensions
measured by MOT E and MOT G are called facets. They do not bring new information but rather are used to outline
and complete the profile provided by the well known five super–factors.
The PT test (personality test) is considered the most important one of the AMN TOOLKIT series. This test is
actually a self–assessment questionnaire constructed in order to measure the Big Five super–factors.
MOT E (motivation/emotion) and MOT G (motivation/attitude) tests are used in order to measure specific
personality facets.
The approach of the adaptation of AMN construct followed the well known translation procedures (Dutch–
Romanian and Romanian–Dutch) which have been validated by romanian and dutch experts.
In agreement with our approach, six personality dimensions were analyzed. Each participant had to evaluate 61
statements. The time required for this task of assessment was approximately 16 minutes.

Table 1. AMN TOOLKIT personality tests, the number of items and the time of administration

Test Scale Number of items The time of administration

PT Emotional stability 10
Extraversion 10
Consciousness 10 10 minutes”3minutes
Openness to new experiences 9
Mot E Need for external stimulation 10 3 minutes”1 minute
Mot G Thoroughness 12 3 minutes”1 minute

2.2. Scores of the investigated dimensions

The maximum and the minimum scores (M,m) on each tested dimension are: Emotional stability: (40,0);
Extraversion: (40,0); Consciousness: (40,0); Openness to new experiences: (36,0); Need for external stimulation:
(40,0); Thoroughness: (48,0).
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3. Research design

In order to achieve our objective, the validation and calibration of the AMN TOOLKIT personality tests, the
research consists in the following steps:
1. Analysis of the investigated subjects;
2. Analysis of the distributions of scores on each investigated dimension;
3. Analysis of items for each investigated dimension;
4. Validity analysis;
5. Reliability analysis on each dimension;
6. Establishing the norms for the reliable dimensions.

The whole research was carried out between 15.12.2012–10.02.2013 at Nicolae Balcescu Land Forces Academy
of Sibiu.

3.1. Analysis of the investigated subjects

The population universe includes all the students, from the first year up to the third, of the academy mentioned
above. This institution is the only one which offers land military training in Romania. The group of investigated
subjects coincides with the universe of population.

Table 2. The structure of the investigated population

Gender Frequency Percentage Cumulative percentage

Male 300 82.64% 82.64%
Female 63 17.36% 100%
Total 363 100%

3.2. Analysis of the distributions of scores on each investigated dimension

Using the Kolmogorov–Smirnov test, the normality of the distributions of scores was tested. The obtained scores
confirmed normality as follows: emotional stability (p= .711), extraversion (p= .672), openness to new experiences
(p= .757), need for external stimulus (p= .688), thoroughness (p= .733), consciousness (p= .701).

3.3. Analysis of items for each investigated dimension

For each tested dimension, analysis was done by assessing internal consistency of items. The results showed very
similar values between high internal consistency of each scale and internal consistency of the scale if the item would
have been ignored.

3.4. Validity analysis

The validation of the tests took into account the apparent and content validity method. In the apparent validity
case, observing the methodological procedure, all the tested persons were asked to consider the validity of the tests,
the precision of measurement and the degree to which there are items that measure, through their construction,
personality. Test results indicate that most tested students (over 95%) consider the tests to be valid, with high
measurement precision and the lack of irrelevant questions for personality assessment.
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Using the method of experts, the content validity has been confirmed. The measurability of the investigated
dimensions has been analyzed by defining their characteristic and opposite behaviors.

3.5. Reliability analysis on each dimension

Reliability analysis was done by half–split method and by assessing internal consistency (Alpha Cronbach
coefficient). The obtained values are presented below:

Table 3. Reliability of the psychological dimensions

Dimensions Alpha Crombach Guttman coefficient

coefficient
Need for external stimulation 0.890 0.906
Thoroughness 0.881 0.881
Consciousness 0.817 0.834
Openness to new experiences 0.863 0.816
Extraversion 0.852 0.738
Emotional stability 0.837 0.848

3.6. Establishing the norms for the reliable dimensions

The scores of each scale were sequenced and divided in percentages, as follows: 10%, 20%, 40%, 20% and 10%.
The reliability indicators and the norms for each analyzed dimension are presented in the table below.

Table 4. The norms of the analyzed dimensions

Dimensions Norms
Need for external stimulation Lowest 10%, 0–14; Next 20%, 15–21; Middle 40%, 22–28;
Next 20%, 29–32; Highest 10%, 33–40.
Thoroughness Lowest 10%, 0–32; Next 20%, 33–35; Middle 40%, 36–41;
Next 20%, 42–46; Highest 10%, 47–48.
Consciousness Lowest 10%, 0–25; Next 20%, 26–28; Middle 40%, 29–33;
Next 20%, 34–36; Highest 10%, 37–40.
Openness to new experiences Lowest 10%, 0–24; Next 20%, 25–27; Middle 40%, 28–31;
Next 20%, 32–35; Highest 10%, 36–36.
Extraversion Lowest 10%, 0–24; Next 20%, 25– 28; Middle 40%, 29–33;
Next 20%, 34–38; Highest 10%, 39–40.
Emotional stability Lowest 10%, 0–23; Next 20%, 24–28; Middle 40%, 29–32;
Next 20%, 33–37; Highest 10%, 38–40.

4. Conclusion

The research has allowed obtaining a valid evaluation instrument of personality for military students. The tests
are reliable, with high internal consistency (Alpha Cronbach coefficients > 0.816; Guttman coefficients > 0.737).
Validity of the tests was confirmed by the method of validity of the construct. Taking into account the reliability and
 Sumedrea Cristian Mihai et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 127 (2014) 479 – 483 483

validity criteria, the scores obtained by dividing and ordering the scores of each dimension, according to the
corresponding percentage mentioned above, were found to be valid.
This instrument will be used for the annual assessment of the land military students in order to evaluate the
possible deviations of the personality traits from a standard profile defined by the standard norms.
The research will be extended to the other military universities from Romania. Thus, the Land Forces Academy
of Sibiu will become the psychological assessment center of the military students.

Acknowledgements

The research was supported by AMN Beheer Company from Holland.

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