The interactions of pilots' five factor personality traits and basic psychological needs satisfaction with perceived flight performance

This study aims to examine the effect of satisfaction of basic psychological needs and five-factor personality traits on the perceived flight performance of pilots. The research population consists of pilots operating in the Turkish civil aviation sector. In this context, the research sample consists of 174 pilots selected by convenience sampling method working in Turkish Civil Airline companies. Four different self-report data collection tools were applied to the participants which are Demographic Information Form, Basic Psychological Needs Scale, Professional Personality Inventory (MKE-5F) and Flight Performance Self-Evaluation Scale. The data were analyzed with the Confirmatory Factor Analysis, Pearson Correlation Test, Regression Analysis, One-Way Analysis of Variance Test (ANOVA) and T Test methods by using the "SPSS 22" and "AMOS" statistical program. As a result of the analysis, positive and negative significant relationships were found between the related variables. However, it has been observed that openness to experience, a five-factor personality trait, significantly and positively affects perceived performance. Furthermore, competence which is a sub-dimension of basic psychological needs, has also a significant positive effect on perceived performance. However, when the five-factor personality traits and sub-dimensions of basic psychological needs are analyzed together, it is seen that the sub-dimension of competence loses significance and the sub-dimension of openness to experience maintains its effect. Moreover, statistically significant differences were found in some of the relevant variables according to the demographic characteristics of the pilots and the marital status and position of the pilots. In addition, it was found that, statistically, the scores obtained from the sub-dimension of openness to experience differed according to the position of the pilots; the scores about the conscientiousness sub-dimension differed as regards the marital status of the pilots; and the scores related to the satisfaction of autonomy sub-dimension, which is one of the basic psychological needs, varies in pursuant of educational status.