Character Strengths and Hardiness of Australian Army Special Forces Applicants.

Australian Army Special Forces (SF) applicants (N = 95) were asked to rank themselves on 24 character strengths at the start of the selection process. Across all applicants, the character strength of integrity was most frequently assigned a top-four rank (45%), followed by team worker (41%), persistence (36%), and love of learning (25%). Successful applicants assigned a top-four rank to team worker significantly more often than unsuccessful applicants (65% versus 32%). The likelihood of passing when team worker was highly ranked (37.5%) was 2.6 times greater than without team worker listed in the top ranks (14.3%). Self-ratings of hardiness revealed no discernible differences between successful and unsuccessful applicants, either alone or in combination with the team worker rankings. These results were largely consistent with the results of a previous study with a cohort of applicants for a different Australian SF unit. Results are discussed with respect to their implications for enhancing the assessment of SF applicants.