Serious gaming for resilience screening

The aim of the project is to develop a digital game, a so-called serious game, for measuring resilience in connection with the selection and training of personnel in high-risk occupations in defence and police operations.

The purpose of the project is to develop a digital game, a so-called serious game, for measuring resilience in connection with the selection and training of personnel for high-risk professions within the defence and policing sectors.

Need for new assessment methods

The project is based on the fact that there is currently no instrument capable of effectively assessing candidates’ ability to manage demanding and high-risk situations, including adaptability, situational awareness and resilience. To map these abilities, self-report questionnaires are often used; however, such methods have certain limitations, as the results may be influenced by social desirability bias as well as subjective and hypothetical assessments of one’s own capabilities and resilience in critical situations.

The idea behind the study is that a game could potentially provide greater validity and predictive accuracy than a questionnaire, as participants/candidates are exposed to a range of scenarios within a fictional critical context. This is expected to encourage individuals to display behaviours that more closely reflect those they would exhibit in a real-life critical situation.

Development of a digital tool for selection and training

The project consists partly of a comprehensive review of knowledge and research on the use of gamified assessment for personnel selection and competence development in high-risk organisations, and partly of the development and validation of a web-based game based on evidence-based methods and measurable psychological constructs.