Character Strengths of Junior Australian Army Officers

Character Strengths of Czech Army Excellent Officers as Perceived by Cadets and Soldiers Serving in Reconnaissance Units

INTRODUCTION

A deeper understanding of personality specifics in military personnel may increase the efficacy of health care professionals in this field. Changes in modern warfare require army officers to make decisions in complicated situations with increasing levels of autonomy. Character is traditionally regarded as a key quality in these dynamics. However, it remains unclear which character strengths are conducive to effective leadership in the military. The present study aims at mapping Czech Army cadets' and professional soldiers' perceptions of the character strengths of those officers, who they consider the best they served under. The study also examined how these perceptions vary across soldiers at different stages of their careers and how much they overlap with the same soldiers' ratings of their own strengths. In addition, a regression analysis, to outline combinations of strengths for various aspects of character-based leadership, was performed.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Respondents (N = 199) were recruited from three different subpopulations of the Czech Army-serving members of two reconnaissance units (N = 38), and 1st (N = 81) and 5th (N = 80) year cadets at the University of Defense. They rated the character strengths of chosen officers and themselves on the Character Strengths Leadership Inventory and the Values in Action Inventory of Strengths Revised. This study was approved by the units' commanding officer and the representatives of the University of Defense.

RESULTS

Subordinates rated honesty, leadership, perspective, teamwork, fairness, creativity, love of learning, and zest highest in their chosen officers. These officers' mean profiles strongly correlated in all the three groups (rs = .82-.86). The mean correlation between officers' and respondents' self-reported strengths was not strong (rs = .18). Multiple regression models of the perception of an officer's success, success of their team, them as a leadership example, and them as having a good character, most frequently, involved fairness, honesty, kindness, and social intelligence, while forgiveness was negatively associated with these parameters.

CONCLUSIONS

The present study achieved its aims. First, it suggests the officers' character strengths that tend to be most valued by their subordinates among Czech Army cadets and soldiers serving in reconnaissance units. Second, the strong overlap of best officers' character profiles in all groups suggests that this perception may remain stable throughout a soldier's career. Third, the relationship between chosen officers' and respondents' self-reported strengths was negligible, suggesting that the perception of officer's strengths may not be an individual's projection. Fourth, regression models of character-based leadership proposed a combination of character strengths that may contribute to the officer's perceived efficacy. Compared to other studies, the sample included both cadets and military professionals with a proportional number of females being included. These results imply that health care practitioners working with military clients may benefit from the acknowledgment of their specific character strengths, most notably honesty and fairness, while providing care to this population.

The effect of courage on stress: The mediating mechanism of behavioral inhibition and behavioral activation in high-risk occupations

Employees in high-risk occupations are exposed to tremendous work acute stress or prolonged stress disorders that are likely to undermine the health and organizational effectiveness. Based on positive psychology, courage which refers to behavioral approach despite the experience of fear could buffer the negative effects on stress. However, there is little known about the mechanisms by which courage decreases the risk of stress. Motivational systems may play an underlying role in this process, as behavioral inhibition system (BIS) is inhibited and behavioral activation system (BAS) is evoked by risk or threat. The current study aimed to examine the mediating effects of behavioral inhibition and activation on the relationship between courage and stress in the high-risk occupations. This study recruited 1,761 high-risk employees aged from 18 to 27 (M = 19.32; SD = 4.14) with a cluster sampling method who completed Courage Measure (CM), the BIS/BAS Scales and the Psychological Stress Evaluation Test (PSET). The correlation and mediation analyses examined the inter-variable correlations as well as the underlying mechanism between courage and stress. The results support the hypothesis and reveal that the behavioral inhibition mediates the association between courage and stress (Bindirect = −0.02, p < 0. 01, 95%CI = −0.03 to −0.003). The behavioral activation of fun seeking mediates the association between courage and stress as well (Bindirect = −0.04, p < 0. 01, 95%CI = −0.058 to −0.029). These findings suggest that behavioral inhibition and activation of fun seeking play imperative mechanism underpinning the buffering effect of courage on stress. Other theoretical and applied implications for desensitizing stress in the high-risk occupations are discussed.

The Validity of Virtual Courage for Trainees in High-Risk Occupations

Background

Employees in high-risk occupations are exposed to tremendous work stress that hinders organizational effectiveness and personal mental health. Based on positive psychology, courage can be considered a protective factor that buffers the adverse effect of high-risk surroundings on employees. However, little is known about the way courage is simulated or evaluated in response to safety concerns. Virtual reality (VR) is an accessible tool for courage simulation due to its immersive qualities, presence and interactive features and may provide a promising pathway to achieve a scientific, accurate and ecologically valid evaluation of high-risk employees.

Methods

The sample consisted of 51 high-risk employees who were recruited voluntarily. Before and after experiencing the VR courage scenarios, the participants completed the VR features questionnaire, the Physical Courage at Work Scale (PCWS), the Courage Measure (CM), and the Positive and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS). During the process of watching the VR courage scenarios, the participants’ heart rate and skin conductance at resting-state baseline and during virtual courage scenarios were recorded through HTC VIVE Pro Eye and BioGraph Infiniti 8.

Results

The results support the hypothesis and reveal that the interaction, immersion and presence scores of the scenarios were all significantly higher than the median 4 points. The score for the CM in the posttest was significantly higher than that in the pretest. The scared and afraid scores for the posttest were significantly higher than those for the pretest. The heart rate and skin conductance of each scenario showed an increase compared with the baseline. The Pearson’s correlation between physiological indicators and the score of the PCWS was 0.28~0.54.

Conclusion

This study developed virtual courage for high-risk occupations based on well-established theory and VR technology. Experimental data revealed that the paradigm conformed to the requirements of VR features and was able to activate fear and evoke the quality of courage. Thus, the virtual courage paradigms have good validity in simulating scenarios for high-risk employees, which might accelerate organizational effectiveness while buffering working stress.