Personality and performance of preclinical medical students

Abstract

This study deals with personality variables of medical students in relation to their academic success in the preclinical stage. One hundred and one students completed the 16PF Questionnaire at the beginning of their medical course and the scores were analysed in relation to their marks obtained at the end of the 2-year preclinical stage. This study shows that the 16PF Questionnaire can be a useful instrument for identifying personality variables in candidates who are likely to have academic problems and those who are likely to do well in the preclinical stage of a medical course. Students of urban origin and the eldest in the family performed better in their preclinical years. Performance was not related to sex, ethnic group, family size of entrance qualification into medicine. Personality variables of being enthusiastic, venturesome, self-opinionated, imaginative, experimenting, resourceful and driven correlate positively with performance, whereas being self-assured has negative correlation. Problem students were more reserved, emotionally less stable and more apprehensive than non-problem students.

Personality assessments and outcomes in medical education and the practice of medicine: AMEE Guide No. 79

“…Roessler et al 1978;Lipton et al 1984;Westin et al 1986); the 16 Personality Factor (16PF) Questionnaire (e.g. Lipton et al 1984;Green et al 1993;Peng et al 1995); the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI; e.g. Turner et al 1974;Tharp 1992); and the Jefferson Scale of Empathy (JSE; e.g.…”

“…Personality attributes such as being enthusiastic (a feature of the Liveliness factor), venturesome (a feature of the Social Boldness factor), imaginative (a feature of the Abstractedness factor) and experimenting (a feature of the Openness to Change factor) correlated positively with indicators of success. A personality attribute such as being self-assured (a feature of the Apprehension factor) was negatively correlated with performance measures (Peng et al 1995). Students who were academically in trouble were more likely to be reserved, less emotionally stable, and more apprehensive than others.…”

“…Students who were academically in trouble were more likely to be reserved, less emotionally stable, and more apprehensive than others. The authors concluded that the 16PF Questionnaire is a useful instrument for identifying the personality profile of students who are likely to have academic problems (Peng et al 1995). Huxham et al (1985) administered the 16PF questionnaire and the EPI (Eysenck & Eysenck 1964, 1975) to a cohort of 142 medical students in Australia in the second and sixth years of medical school.…”

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.…”

Influyen las características psicológicas y los estilos de aprendizaje en el rendimiento académico de los estudiantes de medicina? Un estudio retrospectivo

“…Estas variables han sido objeto de estudio, durante las últimas décadas, por parte de escuelas de medicina europeas y norteamericanas por su posible relación con el desempeño académico, la elección de especialidad y la satisfacción de sus alumnos [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] . En Chile se ha investigado la relación entre rasgos psicopatológicos y rendimiento académico en estudiantes universitarios 9,10 , pero no hay estudios que relacionen características de personalidad de individuos clínicamente normales y desempeño académico.…”