A study of the relationship between selected measures of authoritarian personality and the officer biographical inventory portion of the Air Force Officer Qualifying Test

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine if a significant relationship could be inferred to exist between the Officer Biographical Inventory (OBI) component of the Officer Quality Composite (OQC) of the Air Force Officer Qualifying Test (AFOQT) and measures of authoritarian personality. The hypothesized relationship, if confirmed to exist, might have been the basis for criticism not only of the AFOQT but of the Air Force ROTC Program selection and commissioning process which the AFOQT directly affects. The California F-scale, in two separate forms, was administered to a relatively large sample population of AFROTC cadets at a large state university in Texas. An additional scale was devised, developed, and used in conjunction with the F-scale in order to add confidence to the F-scale validity. The raw scores from each of these scales were correlated with corresponding OBI raw scores of individuals in the sample population. Each of the scales measuring authoritarianism were also correlated with each other to determine their interrelationship. No significant relationship was found to exist between the raw scores of the OBI and the scales measuring authoritarianism thus implying that the OBI did not measure authoritarian attributes. There was found to be a significant relationship between the three measures of authoritarianism used in this study. Inferences were drawn from these findings that the OBI neither measures nor does it predict authoritarian traits in prospective officer trainees.