The surgical personality: comparisons between urologists, non-urologists and non-surgeons

Abstract

Background: Our objective was to compare personality traits between urologists and other surgeons, as well as between surgeons and non-surgeons. Methods: Eighty-six surgeons (57 faculty, 29 residents) completed the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO PI-R), a validated measure of normal personality traits. Subjects agree or disagree with 240 statements to generate a score in each of the 5 major character traits: extraversion (E), openness (O), conscientiousness (C), agreeableness (A) and neuroticism (N). Each factor is subdivided into 6 component facets. Scores for urology faculty and residents were compared to the other surgical groups and 21 pediatricians. Results: The 3 groups differed significantly on extraversion (p < 0.001). Post-hoc analyses indicated that urologists obtained significantly higher extraversion scores than other surgeons (p < 0.05) and non-surgeons (p < 0.001) Other surgeons also scored significantly higher than non-surgeons on the extraversion factor (p < 0.05). No significant differences emerged on openness, conscientiousness, agreeableness or neuroticism. Of the 6 extraversion facets, urologists obtained significantly higher scores on gregariousness and excitement-seeking (p < 0.05) than non-urologist surgeons, and significantly higher scores on gregariousness (p < 0.05), activity (p < 0.01), excitement seeking (p < 0.001), and positive emotions (p < 0.05) than non-surgeons. Non-urologist surgeons obtained significantly higher scores than non-surgeons on Activity and Excitement-seeking (p < 0.01).There were no significant differences in the facets of warmth or assertiveness. Interpretation: Urologists appear to be more extraverted compared to other surgeons. Both groups of surgeons were more extraverted than non-surgeons. If these findings can be confirmed on a wider basis, the data may be helpful in resident selection, mentoring, evaluation and career counselling.

Neurologists, neurosurgeons, and psychiatrists’ personality traits: a comparison

“…For instance, trained as well as training neurosurgeons scored significantly lower on the item neuroticism than their counterparts in neurology and psychiatry. This is in line with previous studies that indicate at least equal [1,23], sometimes lower scores [25,33] in surgeons compared with non-surgical colleagues. Moreover, the observed trend towards higher extraversion in neurosurgeons, followed by neurologists and psychiatrists, is in line with *The share of female respondents for neurosurgeons, neurologists, and psychiatrists in our sample is 31%, 53%, and 56% respectively.…”

“…This may partly explain increasing research interest in those traits that may be relevant to various professional fields, including medical training [16]. We have previously reported differences in medical and surgical specialties across levels of training [33], confirming and extending notions that personality structures differ in students depending on the intended specialty [6,16,21,22,34,37], in trainees of different specialties after graduation from medical school [1,2,5,15,20], and in board-certified specialists of different disciplines [8,9,12,20,23,26,31,35,38].…”

“…Y-axis: z-score; Xaxis: personality item. A z-score of 0 corresponds to the population mean for the corresponding personality trait in the normative data previous reports where this trait appears not only generally more pronounced in physicians than in the normal population [33] but also more significantly so in surgical than medical specialties [23,25,26,34,38]. The lower agreeableness found in surgical vs non-surgical disciplines [1,37] was confirmed for NN&P and was the least pronounced in neurosurgeons, followed by neurologists and psychiatrists, with a statistically significant difference between psychiatrists and neurosurgeons.…”

The Observational Physician and surGEon Automobile Response (TOP GEAR) survey

“…The surgical personality has been discussed extensively in the literature 6 . ‐ 10 Personality traits commonly attributed to surgeons and prospective surgeons include decisiveness, directness, and extroversion. It remains to be seen whether these characteristics are implicitly taught during surgical training or whether this culture is perpetuated by the recruitment of people with personalities similar to those of the interviewing panel.…”

The Association Between Pediatric Faculty Factors and Resident Physician Ratings of Teaching Effectiveness

“…21 Compared with other specialties, pediatric residents may have different emotional intelligence, personality traits, and learning styles, which could influence factors associated with effective teaching. [22][23][24] Distinct challenges to the pediatric learning environment must also be considered. For example, pediatric faculty must balance the need for progressive autonomy in trainee responsibility with the supervisory expectations of concerned parents.…”