Revised NEO personality inventory profiles of male and female U.S. Air Force Pilots

Military Medicine, Dec 1999 by Callister, Joseph D

The study of pilot personality characteristics has a long and controversial history. Personality characteristics seem to be fairly poor predictors of training outcome-, however, valid personality assessment is essential to clinical psychological evaluations. Therefore, the personality characteristics of pilots must be studied to ensure valid clinical assessment. This paper describes normative personality characteristics of U.S.

Air Force pilots based on the Revised NEO Personality Inventory profiles of 1,301 U.S. Air Force student pilots. Compared with male adult norms, male student pilots had higher levels of extraversion and lower levels of agreeableness. Compared with female adult norms, female student pilots had higher levels of extraversion and openness and lower levels of agreeableness. Descriptive statistics and percentile tables for the five domain scores and 30 facet scores are provided for clinical use, and a case vignette is provided as an example of the clinical utility of these U.S. Air Force norms.

Introduction

Psychologists first measured pilot personality characteristics during World War I, and even at that time there were starkly divergent ideas about which personality characteristics were most important. For example, Rippon and Manuel described1 the ideal pilot as high-spirited and happy-go-lucky, whereas Dockeray and Isaacs2 described the ideal pilot as quiet and methodical. The controversy over pilot personality continues today. driven primarily by strong evidence that personality measures are poor predictors of completion of initial training.3 On the other hand, personality measures may have more utility in predicting performance beyond initial training completion. For example, Houston 4 found that personality measures were the best predictors of the ratings given to first officers by captains in commercial airlines. Similarly, personality characteristics appear to significantly affect training in crew resource management.5 Moreover, personality measures taken during initial training appear to predict retention characteristics in U.S. Air Force pilotS.6

Beyond the selection. training, and retention issues, the assessment of personality is an essential part of the clinical evaluation of pilots. Despite the controversy over the relationship between "normal" personality characteristics and pilot performance, there is little argument that there are "abnormal" personality characteristics that are undesirable. Highly anxious, hostile, or impulsive people probably should not control aircraft. In the U.S. Air Force, personality disorders are not medically disqualifying: however, administrative separation can occur when personality characteristics are judged to significantly impair the performance of military duties (Air Force instruction 48-123). Also, U.S. Air Force flight surgeons are required to judge aircrew suitability for flying duty during selection physical examinations through a process known as the Adaptability Rating for Military Aeronautics (ARMA). The ARMA typically involves assessment of motivation, insight, social poise, and past accomplishments.7 Identified problems in these areas warrant further psychological evaluation. Verdone et al.8 describe a number of limitations in the ARMA as a screening tool and report that flight surgeons would like better training, guidance, and more objective methods of evaluating potential pilots.

Currently, U.S. Air Force psychologists often use standard personality measures such as the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory9 and the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory10 when evaluating pilots. These tests have been normed on the general population but not on military pilots, and for this reason experienced aviation psychologists use pilot-based normative data whenever possible.11,12 However, appropriate pilot norms are difficult to establish because psychological tests are rarely given to large representative samples of pilots.

Many authors have suggested that pilots are more extroverted and independent than the general population. However, large studies using reliable, valid, and relevant tests are rare. This is particularly true with regard to female pilots, with the exception of studies by Novello and Youssef13 and more recently King et al. 14

There are several distinct types of personality inventories that differ according to the purpose for which they were developed. For example, tests such as the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory and the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory were designed to identify psychopathology, whereas measures such as the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R),15 the Personality Research Form,16 and the Eysenck Personality Inventory17 were designed to describe normal personality characteristics. Both types of test overlap to some degree, but the distinction is important because testing for psychopathology has been shown to be of limited value in the assessment of the high-functioning pilot population.18 On the other hand, measures of normal personality characteristics have been shown to be useful in a variety of settings and populations.19 In 1994, the U.S. Air Force began using the NEO-PI-R to assess normal personality characteristics of new pilots because of this test's widespread use in both research and clinical applications.20 The purpose of this paper is to describe these data and illustrate their potential clinical utility.