The Effect of military training on personality Traits in military Students

P ersonality is one of the most fundamental concepts of psychology that is affected by various experiences. Having an acceptable character is an ideal view and a remarkable point for military forces. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the effects of military training on personality traits of non-athlete students who enter the military environment.

This quasi-experimental study was carried out in 2011. The study subjects were 105 non-athlete male students who entered one of the Cadet Universities of Iran in the academic year of 2010-11 and were selected by simple random sampling. The data gathering tools were personal characteristics questionnaire and Bern Reuter Personality Inventory. Data were analyzed by Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and dependent T-test using SPSS 16 software.

Military training had a significant positive effect on four of the studied characteristics and increased self-confidence, dominancy, extroversion and the decrease of neurotic tendency (p=0.001). This happened while military training had a significant negative effect on sociability (p=0.002) and self-sufficiency (p=0.001) and caused increase in isolation and decrease in sociability.

Military training increases emotional balance, extroversion, self-confidence and dominancy in students, while it results in dissociability and isolation of students. Authorities should consider necessary arrangements during military training in order to wash out negative effects and enhance more positive effects of this period on students’ personality traits.