ABSTRACT

Although many studies have compared military vs. civilian samples on a wide variety of characteristics, few have examined these differences within the context of those who commit a portion of their life to the military. In this study, we explored how West Point cadets with (“military brat cadet”) or without (“non-brat cadet”) a family military background might differ in terms of their character strengths. Although the cadets shared many similarities, we found that several strengths related to self-control were higher in non-brat cadets than brat cadets and that many of these self-control-related strengths were important predictors of performance for brat cadets (but not non-brat cadets). For non-brat cadets, strengths related to a drive to fully involve themselves and navigate relationships with others were better predictors of performance. In a second study utilizing a different class of cadets, we again found support for the idea that nonmilitary brat cadets possessed more self-control than military brat cadets. Better understanding the unique strengths and weaknesses of those within the military who have vs. don’t have a military background may provide important insights for future recruitment, training, and military preparation.

摘要

尽管许多研究在各种特征上比较了军事样本和民用样本，但很少有人在那些将部分生命奉献给军事人员的背景下研究了这些差异。在这项研究中，我们探讨了具有（“军事小子”学员）或没有（“非小子”学员）家庭军事背景的西点军校生在品格优势方面可能会有所不同。尽管这些学员有很多相似之处，但我们发现，与小孩子学员相比，与小孩子学员相比，与自我控制相关的一些优势更高，而与这些与自我控制相关的优势中的许多是小学生学员表现的重要预测指标（但非-brat学员）。对于非粗俗的学员，与充分参与自己并与他人建立关系的动力相关的优势可以更好地预测绩效。在使用不同类别的学员的第二项研究中，我们再次发现非军事小学生比军事小学生具有更多的自控能力。更好地了解那些拥有或没有军事背景的军人内部的独特优势和劣势，可能为将来的招募，训练和军事准备提供重要的见识。