Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore whether hardiness and Big Five personality trait levels of students would change during the Norwegian bachelor programme in policing. The police students (n = 57) were assessed with the measures of BFI-20 and DRS-15-R at the beginning (Time 1) and on completion of their training (Time 2), as were a comparison group of psychology bachelor students (n = 40). The results revealed some differences in the scores between the study groups, where the most significant finding was that police students reported higher mean levels of the emotional stability personality trait compared with psychology students. Moreover, whereas the police students reported several mean-level changes when comparing the personality trait and hardiness scores obtained at the beginning and end of the study programme, such changes were not witnessed by the psychology students. Lastly, the findings revealed that the scores on the personality traits of agreeableness and emotional stability underwent significantly different change patterns when comparing the student groups. Police and psychology students reported opposing changes on these traits, respectively, a decrease and an increase. We conclude that the bachelor programme in policing seems to influence the student’s personality characteristics.