Gender differences in emotional aspects of armed forces aspirants

Emotional or affective aspects of personality play a significant role in determining the success of a leader. The researches on gender differences in emotional aspects reveal inconsistent findings across the culture. The present study was conducted with an aim to assess the gender differences in different aspects of emotionality among the aspirants of the armed forces. The sample of the study consists of 100 male and 100 female technical graduates appearing at Services Selection Board for commission in Indian armed forces. Neuroticism and Extraversion were measured with the help of Neuroticism-Extraversion-Openness Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI, Mccrae, R. R., & Costa, P. T.; 2004) and Emotional Stability Scale (Chaturvedi and Chander, 2010) was used to measure emotional stability on five dimensions i.e. optimism vs pessimism, apathy vs empathy, anxiety vs calm, dependence vs autonomy, and aggression vs control. The obtained scores of male and female aspirants were compared with the help of ‘t’ test on neuroticism, extraversion, pessimism vs optimism, apathy vs empathy, anxiety vs calm, dependence vs autonomy, and aggression vs control. Results indicated statistically significant difference between the male and female aspirants on neuroticism and extraversion, optimism vs pessimism, apathy vs empathy, anxiety vs calm,. The difference on dependence vs autonomy, and aggression vs control was statistically insignificant. The findings are discussed in detail in the light of available literature.