An Adjective Check List Scale to Predict Military Leadership

The 300-item Adjective Check List is proposed as a useful device for cross-cultural research. This study evaluated the ACL as a predictor of leadership ratings in two Italian officer training programs and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Ns were 244, 415, and 523. A 50-item `Military Leadership Scale" (MLS) was developed from protocols gathered at the time of application or entry. Its correlations with the leadership criteria, available from one year to four years later, were .25, .19, and .22. High scorers described themselves as conscientious, self-disciplined, and goal-directed. Low scorers described themselves as less well-organized and as having more varied and less socially desirable dispositions. In a sample of 100 Air Force officers, MLS correlated .24 with a composite criterion of performance. For 61 males and 61 females rated on leadership in experimental leaderless group discussions, correlations between ratings and MLS were .39 and .30. Psychodiagnostic implications of the scale included self-confidence, ambition, initiative, and industriousness for persons with high scores, and awkwardness, lack of ambition, and narrowness of interests for those scoring low.