Personality and hardiness among police students: An evaluative pilot study

Abstract

The purpose of the current pilot study was to evaluate the suitability and usefulness of short-form measures of personality (BFI-20) and hardiness (DRS-15-R) for an upcoming research project. We used a sample of police students (N = 129) to investigate: (1) the rudimentary psychometric properties of the instruments, and (2) the covariation between the obtained scores on these measures. The results showed that hardiness and Emotional stability had a large covariation and that Emotional stability was a strong predictor of the total hardiness score. We discuss the results in relation to previous research and conclude that useful knowledge of individual differences among police students can be obtained with these measures.