The indirect effect of experience between personality hardiness and situational awareness

Abstract

Studies on the relation between personality and Situation Awareness (SA) have been inconclusive. The present study investigates the relation between personality hardiness and SA during a simulated police scenario using a mediation approach. One hundred and sixty-seven police officers completed the test in a scenario with the arrest of a suspected perpetrator. The results showed a direct relationship neither between hardiness and SA, nor a total effect of the model tested. However, an indirect relationship between hardiness and SA, through the amount of annual operational training, beyond mandatory training, occurred. This indirect effect of training occurred for the total hardiness score, and for the control dimension on the facet level of the Dispositional Resilience Scale (15 items). The findings were interpreted as police officers high on hardiness being more motivated and engaged in voluntary operational training. By being more involved in training, they were gaining more experience in perceiving and interpreting critical stimuli in operational scenarios. Thus, the findings of an indirect effect was seen as a result of the relationship between experience and SA.