TEMPS-A[p] temperament profile related to professional choice: A study in 1548 applicants to become a cadet officer in the Italian air force.
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.
Maremmani
Icro
I
Department of Psychiatry, University of Pisa, 67 56100 Pisa, Italy. maremman@med.unipi.it
Dell'Osso
Liliana
L
Rovai
Luca
L
Pacini
Matteo
M
Arduino
Gualberto
G
Montagnari
Antonio
A
Abbenante
Domenico
D
Maremmani
Angelo G I
AG
Giulio
Perugi
P
Akiskal
Kareen
K
Akiskal
Hagop
H
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