Do students' personality traits change during medical training? A longitudinal cohort study.

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Version: Final published version
License: CC BY 4.0
Serval ID
serval:BIB_875057B85948
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Do students' personality traits change during medical training? A longitudinal cohort study.
Journal
Advances in health sciences education
Author(s)
Abbiati M., Cerutti B.
ISSN
1573-1677 (Electronic)
ISSN-L
1382-4996
Publication state
Published
Issued date
10/2023
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
28
Number
4
Pages
1079-1092
Language
english
Notes
Publication types: Journal Article
Publication Status: ppublish
Abstract
Many medical schools incorporate assessments of personal characteristics, including personality traits, in their selection process. However, little is known about whether changes in personality traits during medical training affect the predictive validity of personality assessments. The present study addressed this issue by examining the stability of personality traits and their predictive validity over a 6-year medical training course. Participants were two cohorts of Swiss medical students (N = 272, 72% of students admitted to Year 2) from whom we collected demographic data, Swiss medical studies aptitude test (EMS) scores, Big Five personality traits scores measured at three times and scores on the multiple-choice and objective structured clinical examination parts of the final medical examination. Our findings indicated that personality traits had medium-to-high rank-order stability (r > .60 over 3 years and r > .50 over 6 years). Mean-level changes were moderate for agreeableness (d = + 0.72) and small for neuroticism and conscientiousness (d = -0.29, d = -0.25, respectively). Individual reliable change indices ranged from 4.5% for openness to 23.8% for neuroticism. The predictive validity was similar to that of the first three years of follow-up. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate changes in personality across undergraduate curriculum. Medical students' personality traits were mostly stable across medical school and retain their predictive validity. Consequently, this study supports the use of tools measuring constructs underlying personality traits in selection. In addition, this study confirms that examination formats could favor students with certain personality traits.
Keywords
Academic performance, Aptitude testing, Medical school selection, Personality testing
Pubmed
Web of science
Open Access
Yes
Create date
13/02/2023 18:22
Last modification date
23/01/2024 8:29
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