Self-report personality tests and medical school selection

Abstract

Background: There has been a growing interest on the assessment of personality when selecting medical students. However, how faking may affect its usefulness has been poorly addressed. Therefore, we aimed to assess the faking effect on self-report personality tests in the selection process of graduates to a medical school. Methods: Sixty-seven graduates admitted as medical students completed the 60-item NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability short-form scale at the stage of applying (baseline assessment) and after they had already been admitted (follow-up assessment). Reliability was assessed by the intra-class correlation coefficient and means of the personality traits compared by two paired sample t tests. Results: At baseline assessment, the participants showed higher scores on the conscientiousness and lower scores on the neuroticism traits, respectively, 40.3 vs. 38.5 (p = 0.026) and 17.0 vs. 18.5 (p = 0.089). Also, at the follow-up assessment, the participants with low social desirability scored higher on the traits of openness to experience (−1.63 vs. 1.12, p = 0.036), conscientiousness (−3.09 vs. 0.03, p = 0.022), and neuroticism (3.88 vs. −0. 69, p = 0.012). Conclusions: Our study does not suggest the use of self-report personality assessment in medical student's selection as it can be faked particularly among applicants with low social desirability. Research is required to evaluate the faking effect on indirect personality assessment, namely through the tools that aim to select non-academic characteristics.

Personality and achievement along medical training: Evidence from a cross-lagged analysis

“…Faking consists of the deliberate false presentation of the self that may be favourable (fake good) or unfavourable (fake bad) [ 21 ]. In addition, a recent study has suggested that graduate applicants who have participated in a medical school selection process, have faked on self-report personality tests [ 22 ].Account must be taken of the fact that some of these studies, besides having a cross-sectional design, have conceptualized personality traits only as explanatory variables. This conceptualization is in accordance with a perspective of personality traits as deterministic and stable all over a lifetime and that do not develop through experience [ 23 ].…”