Does personality predict medical students' attitudes to learning communication skills?

Abstract

Objectives: To determine whether personality is related to medical students' attitudes towards learning communication skills and self-ratings on communication skills. Methods: 524 first-and 507 second-year medical students completed the Communications Skills Attitudes Scale and rated their own communication skills. First-year students answered the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, and second-year students the Zuckerman-Kuhlman Personality Questionnaire. Multiple regression analyses, controlling for gender, were conducted to study the impact of personality on attitudes. Analysis of variance followed by post hoc Duncan test was used to compare differences in personality traits depending on students' self-ratings on communication skills. Results:After controlling for gender, personality traits predicted differences in attitudes and were significantly related to medical students' self-ratings. Medical students with higher scores on psychoticism or aggression-hostility showed worse attitudes. Students who tended to have a better self-image scored higher on extraversion, psychoticism, impulsive-sensation seeking, or aggression-hostility traits. Conclusions: Findings support the consideration of personality traits for better student career guidance and counselling. Some students could have more difficulties to internalize certain healthcare professional competencies and show more resistance to attitude change.

Pakistani Medical Students’ Attitudes towards Communication Skills Learning: A Correlation of Demographic and Education-Related Characteristics

“…Personality traits also influence students' attitudes towards learning communication skills as Molinvevo and Torrubia (2013) found in their study involving the first year and second year students [13]. Findings showed that students with higher aggression showed worse attitudes.…”

“…"It's too much trouble to attend sessions on communication skills" was included in order to remove ambiguity. Questionnaire of this research consisted of 21 items(1,2,3,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,13,14,17,18,19,20, 21, 22, 23, 24 and 25) with two subscales. Ten items represented positive attitudes towards communication skills learning and remaining eleven items represented negative attitudes towards communication skills.…”

Personality, learning, and the mediating role of epistemic curiosity: A case of continuing education in medical physicians

“…However, some studies on academic performance have reported that successful students are generally introverted (Broadbent, 1958;Furneaux, 1957), and Goff and Ackerman (1992) also found a negative relation between extraversion and students' GPA. Molinuevo and Torrubia's (2013) study, which specifically focused on medical students, reported a positive relation between extraversion and learning. Thus, although the literature is not unambiguous, we expected a positive relation for the group of medical physicians:…”

“…An added offshoot of this study is the analysis of the direct personality-learning relation, which holds significance in various work settings. It also has implications for the learning of health professionals (Dohetry & Nugent, 2011;Molinuevo & Torrubia, 2013) because systematic investigations are required to test the personalities and learning of health professionals (Ferguson, James, & Madeley, 2002).…”

Nurse anesthesia student’s personality characteristics and academic performance: A big five personality model perspective

“…[12] The literature has demonstrated a correlation between personality and academic success, which supports the consideration of personality traits to better direct students' academic performance. [13][14][15][16] Unfortunately, the primary method of assessing the personality of candidates is through face-to-face interviews, which is a poor practice at best. [1] Therefore, the purpose of this correlational research was to assess the association between the Five Factor Model (FFM) of personality traits and the GPA of students enrolled in a NAP.…”