Background: Personality traits may also be associated with preference for a particular specialty. However, little is known about the relationship between the surgical career preferences of medical students and their temperament traits.
Purposes: The aim of the study was to explore the relationship between surgical or nonsurgical specialties and temperament in 6th-year medical students.
Methods: The study included 409 students (283 women, 126 men) of the 6th year at the Medical University of Lodz. The subjects fulfilled a career preference and demographic questionnaire as well as the Formal Characteristics of Behaviour-Temperament Inventory by Zawadzki and Stelau.
Results: The surgical specialty was preferred by 30.1% of the students and by 64.5% of the nonsurgical; 5.4% were undecided. The specialty preference of the medical students was associated with temperament traits. An analysis of variance showed differences in Emotional Reactivity, F(1, 380)=3.888, p=049, η2=01; Endurance, F(1, 380)=10.973, p=001, η2=028; and Briskness, F(1, 380)=10.252, p=001, η2=026. Students preferring surgical specialty scored significantly higher on Endurance (M=11.21, SD=4.8) and Briskness (M=16.54, SD=2.82) scales than students choosing a nonsurgical specialty (M=9.12, SD=4.51) and (M=15.19, SD=3.21), respectively. Those preferring a surgical specialty scored lower on the Emotional Reactivity (M=8.91, SD=4.55) scale than students choosing nonsurgical specialty (M=10.53, SD=4.22).
Conclusions: The findings suggest that certain temperament traits may be related to preference of surgical or nonsurgical specialties. This knowledge of temperament traits could be a useful tool in helping graduates choose a fulfilling career best suited to their psychological well-being and diagnosing work related issues in the medical profession.
Keywords: medical specialty preference; medical students; personality; surgical specialty; temperament.