Nicole J. Borges

Personality and Medical Specialty Choice: A Literature Review and Integration.

This review examines the literature on personality and medical specialty choice. First, it describes studies categorized by medical specialties that to date have used the same measures: Adjective Check List, California Psychological Inventory, Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire, and Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Then it integrates these results using the framework provided by the Five-Factor Model of personality. This model provides a method to organize the personality descriptors associated with medical specialties and to summarize information in an understandable and meaningful way. Conclusions drawn from the review suggest a loose association between a few personality factors and particular medical specialties. Recommendations for further research on personality and medical specialties encourage shifting from the “variable” to the “person” approach and studying how different personalities succeed in the same specialty.

Retheorizing Sexual Harassment in Medical Education: Women Students' Perceptions at Five U.S. Medical Schools

Abstract Background: The literature consistently reports that sexual harassment occurs with regularity in medical education, mostly in clinical settings, and most of it goes unreported. Reasons for nonreporting include the fear of retaliation, a reluctance to be viewed as a victim, a fear that one is being “too sensitive,” and the belief that nothing will be done. Purpose: We wanted to examine with greater concentration the stories women students tell about sexual harassment, including what they count as sexual harassment, for more or different clues to their persistent nonreporting. Methods: We used focus groups to interview 30 women students at 5 U.S. medical schools. We used systematic inductive guidelines to analyze the transcribed data, linking to and building new theoretical frameworks to provide an interpretive understanding of the lived experiences of the women in our study. Results: Consistent with previous literature, most of the students interviewed had either witnessed or observed sexual harassment. We selected 2 theoretical lenses heretofore not used to explain responses to sexual harassment: 3rd-wave feminist theory to think about how current women students conceive sexual harassment and personality theory to explain beliefs about nonreporting. Conclusions: Medical educators need new ways to understand how contemporary women students define and respond to sexual harassment.

Toward Integrated Career Assessment: Using Story to Appraise Career Dispositions and Adaptability

This study examined the validity of using stories to appraise career dispositions and problems associated with career adaptability. Premedical students (63 women, 37 men) wrote narratives about Thematic Apperception Test cards (TAT) and responded to the Strong Interest Inventory (SII). Independent raters identified identical career adaptability dimensions from TAT stories more than 47% of the time. RIASEC codes derived from TAT responses matched measured codes on at least one theme 82% of the time. Results provided modest support for the reliability of using TAT card responses to derive a RIASEC personality type consistent with measured vocational interests. Further study to increase interrater reliability and hone the scoring scheme for deriving RIASEC codes might bolster the validity of using story to assess vocational personality dispositions and career problems. Ultimately, constructivist approaches could augment differential methods for appraising and fostering career exploration and choice in an integrated career assessment and counseling approach.

Holland's Theory Applied to Medical Specialty Choice.

The present study tested the hypothesis that medical specialties classified as technique oriented or patient oriented would be distinguished by RIASEC code, with technique-oriented specialists resembling Investigative-Realistic types and patientoriented specialists resembling Investigative-Social types. Using longitudinal data obtained from 447 college students who aspired to become physicians, the authors found that the predominant RIASEC code was the same in both groups of specialties, namely, Investigative-Social. The data suggested that most medical students could fit equally well in several different medical specialties. Thus, they should use Holland’s model to explore how well their personalities can be expressed in different specialties and practice environments, not use RIASEC codes to match themselves to particular specialties.

Job Satisfaction of Physicians with Congruent Versus Incongruent Specialty Choice

Choosing a specialty within the occupation of medicine is problematic given the number of available specialty choices. A need exists for the development and modification of inventories to be used to help students with selecting a medical specialty. Furthermore, ratings of job satisfaction, regardless of specialty, are mixed with some physicians regretting choosing medicine as a career. Despite its use in medical specialty counseling, research is lacking regarding the Medical Specialty Preference Inventory (MSPI). We examined the predictive validity of the MSPI and compared job satisfaction of physicians (N= 51) whose specialty was correctly (i.e., congruent) versus incorrectly (i.e., incongruent) predicted by the MSPI. The MSPI correctly predicted the specialty for 33%. Congruent physicians had higher job satisfaction than incongruent physicians. Results of this study may help individuals who provide medical specialty counseling or who are involved in designing tools and implementing programs to assist students with medical specialty decision making.

Assessing medical students' personalities : A parallel comparison of normed and perception-based metrics

Various methodologies have been applied in the study of physicians and medical students personalities. Little, however, has been reported on distinguishing medical students self-perceptions from their objectively measured personality traits. 687 first-year medical students at three U.S. medical schools were administered the 16PF and a parallel, author-generated, self-rating form. Paired sample t tests yielded significant differences between students perceived personality traits vs normed measures of these traits on 14 of 16 personality factor dimensions. Students self-attributed greater magnitudes of socially acceptable traits than their objective scores indicated, as well as less domineering, suspicious, and self-doubting. Implications for admissions and career counseling are discussed.