Pilots and ground officers investigated by process tests of creativity, extraversion, and stress control

In an exploratory investigation of personality patterns, Swedish air force pilots (n = 22) and ground officers (n = 14) were tested with the Creative Functioning Test, the Serial Color Word test, and the Spiral After-Effect Technique. The participants also answered open questions about their work and about creativity related items. Achievement ratings were made by their superior officers.
An initial discriminant analysis separated the groups to 83.3 %. Next, cluster analyses were conducted on the test results, resulting in three pilot clusters and three ground officer clusters. The pilot clusters were interpreted as forming meaningful groups, in agreement with previous research. Thereafter the clusters were compared with the results on the open questions. The significant answering categories gave face validity support to the clusters.
It was concluded that it is important to investigate personality patterns, as measured by process tests, and, in future research, to make comparisons with biological markers as well as questionnaires.