Investigation of personality profi̇les of the policemen graduatied from the schools of Security Deparment

The use of psychological tests and personality inventories to select and eliminate police candidates has a long history. However, the studies on policeman are limited in Turkey. In this study, personal profiles of police men and sociodemographic factors that may relate to these profiles have been investigated. The sample of this study consisted of 576 police officers (39 police women and 537 police men) who were employed by the Anti Riot Forces, Istanbul Police Headquarters. The data were gathered through demographic information form and the Five Factors Personality Inventory. The findings have shown that both police women and police men obtained the highest score from the Open for Improvement factor and the lowest score from the Emotional Incoherence factor. Sociodemographic factors such as gender, age, marital status, number of siblings, opportunity of going on holidays during annual leaves, type of police school that is graduated from, seeing oneself succesful in the police profession and being satisfied with police profession were related to personality profiles. This study showed that sociodemographic factors were related to personality profiles. It is envisaged that in future studies, the study of the relationship of five factor personality characteristics with different factors on different samples will help to learn more about this field and to contribute to human resources management practices in this area.Key Words : Polıce Profession, personality, Five Factors Personality Inventory