title: TEMPS-A[p] temperament profile related to professional choice: A study in 1548 applicants to become a cadet officer in the Italian air force.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Temperaments have been described with respect to their adaptive roles. Thus, depressive traits seem to increase sensitivity to suffering, cyclothymic traits appear relevant to creativity, and hyperthymic traits have been implicated in territoriality and leadership and more generally in active pursuits.
  
  
  METHODS
  The temperaments of 1548 candidates applying to become a cadet officer in the Italian air force, who had taken the 2005 entrance examination, were compared with deviant and non-deviant peers. At a psychological level, we also compared those who had applied to become a cadet officer with other applicants who had failed in a previous entrance examination and with applicants who had passed or failed to pass the specific psychological entrance examination.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Applicants who took the entrance examination are more hyperthymic than their peers, regardless of any concurrent psychosocial deviance (i.e. drug addiction). The specificity of this correlation is confirmed by the fact that applicants who made a second attempt to pass the entrance examination after an initial failure were more hyperthymic than first-time applicants. Similarly, success in specific psychological admission tests is related to the same temperamental profiles, since those who prove to be psychologically fit are more hyperthymic. The inverse relationship emerges from an examination of other temperamental scales, which are better represented in controls (non-applicants), or other applicants making their first attempt at admission, or those who were excluded due to psychological flaws.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In the present study, extremely high scores on the hyperthymic scale combined with extremely low ones in the cyclothymic scale seem to correspond to the specific temperament profile and to the highest likelihood of success in those applying to become a cadet officer in the Italian air force.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Pisa, 67 56100 Pisa, Italy. maremman@med.unipi.it
authors.forename: Icro
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Maremmani
authors.forename: Liliana
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Dell'Osso
authors.forename: Luca
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Rovai
authors.forename: Matteo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pacini
authors.forename: Gualberto
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Arduino
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Montagnari
authors.forename: Domenico
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Abbenante
authors.forename: Angelo G I
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Maremmani
authors.forename: Perugi
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Giulio
authors.forename: Kareen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Akiskal
authors.forename: Hagop
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Akiskal
mesh_terms: D000124:Achievement; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000523:psychology; D002321:Career Choice; D003527:Cyclothymic Disorder / Q000523:psychology; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006556:Heroin Dependence / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D007586:Job Application; D008297:Male; D008889:Military Personnel / Q000523:psychology*; D010379:Peer Group; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010560:Personnel Selection; D011594:Psychometrics; D012016:Reference Values; D013694:Temperament; D055815:Young Adult