Associations between empathy and big five personality traits among Chinese undergraduate medical students

Abstract

BackgroundEmpathy promotes positive physician-patient communication and is associated with improved patient satisfaction, treatment adherence and clinical outcomes. It has been suggested that personality traits should be taken into consideration in programs designed to enhance empathy in medical education due to the association found between personality and empathy among medical students. However, the associations between empathy and big five personality traits in medical education are still underrepresented in the existing literature and relevant studies have not been conducted among medical students in China, where tensions in the physician-patient relationship have been reported as outstanding problems in the context of China’s current medical reform. Thus, the main objective of this study was to examine the associations between empathy and big five personality traits among Chinese medical students.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted in a medical university in Northeast China in June 2016. Self-reported questionnaires including the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) and Big Five Inventory (BFI) and demographic characteristics were distributed. A total of 530 clinical medical students became our final subjects. Hierarchical regression analysis was performed to explore the effects of big five personality traits on empathy.ResultsResults of this study showed that big five personality traits accounted for 19.4%, 18.1%, 30.2% of the variance in three dimensions of empathy, namely, perspective taking, empathic concern and personal distress, respectively. Specifically, agreeableness had a strong positive association with empathic concern (β = 0.477, P<0.01), and a moderate association with perspective taking (β = 0.349, P<0.01). Neuroticism was strongly associated with personal distress (β = 0.526, P<0.01) and modestly associated with perspective taking (β = 0.149, P<0.01). Openness to experience had modest associations with perspective taking (β = 0.150, P<0.01) and personal distress (β = -0.160, P<0.01). Conscientiousness had a modest association with perspective taking (β = 0.173, P<0.01).ConclusionThis study revealed that big five personality traits were important predictors of self-reported measures of both cognitive and affective empathy among Chinese medical students. Therefore, individualized intervention strategies based on personality traits could be integrated into programs to enhance empathy in medical education.

Honesty‐humility and prosocial behavior: The mediating roles of perspective taking and guilt‐proneness

“…First, a body of literature has confirmed that prosocial personality traits are positive predictors of perspective taking (Magalhães, Costa & Costa, 2012;Melchers, et al, 2016). For example, Big Five agreeableness has consistently been positively correlated with perspective taking (Mooradian, Davis & Matzler, 2011;Song & Shi, 2017). Thus, as a prosocial personality trait, honesty-humility may be linked to perspective taking.…”

Do university students' personality traits affect their attitudes towards gender roles?

“…Social environment, mass communication used, and childhood period interaction of families and individuals are of great importance in the development of personality traits . Studies in literature reported a relationship between the personality traits of high school and university students and emphatic features, problematic internet use, childhood period traumas and depressive symptoms, and narcissism …”

“…4,6 Social environment, mass communication used, and childhood period interaction of families and individuals are of great importance in the development of personality traits. 7 Studies in literature reported a relationship between the personality traits of high school and university students and emphatic features, 8,9 problematic internet use, 10 childhood period traumas and depressive symptoms, 11 and narcissism. 12 Youth, a transition period from childhood to adulthood with biological, psychological and social developments, is an important period that prepares the individual to social wisdom.…”

Response distortion on personality tests in applicants: comparing high-stakes to low-stakes medical settings

“…Although research has examined correlations of medical student personality with academic performance (Doherty et al, 2011;Ferguson et al, 2003;Haight et al, 2012;Knights et al, 2007;Lievens et al, 2009;McLarnon et al, 2017;Peng et al, 1995) and other outcomes (Hojat et al, 2015;Jerant et al, 2012;McManus et al, 2004;Pohl et al, 2011;Song et al, 2017;Tyssen et al, 2007), there appears to be no research that has systematically compared responses to personality in a large sample of medical students with applicants to medical programs. So, the "jury is still out" regarding the extent to which applicants to medical programs distort their responses.…”