Personality attributes that predict cadet performance at West Point

- Mental abilities and Big Five traits were studied among cadets at West Point.
- The abilities included verbal, math, spatial, and personal intelligences.
- Key variables predicted academic and leadership outcomes at consequential levels.
- Enhanced predictions arose when specific abilities matched coursework content.
- The results held broadly in the main (N = 1102) and replication (N = 1049) samples.

Using data from the United States Military Academy at West Point (N = 1102 and N = 1049) from two successive years, we examined psychological measures of cadets and the correlations of those measures with consequential outcomes such as cadet performance and leadership potential. We examined four broad intelligences, two of which were thing-focused (spatial and mathematical) and two people-focused (verbal and personal intelligences) and their predictions to thing- and people-centered courses (e.g., chemistry versus psychology). We found support for a thing-people differential in reasoning. The broad intelligences and the Big Five personality traits also predicted academic and other performance criteria at consequential levels.