Personality and values as predictors of medical specialty choice

Personality and values as predictors of medical specialty choice

Taber B J; Hartung P J; Borges N J

Journal of Vocational Behavior

2011

2011-04

Research rarely considers the combined influence of personality traits and values in predicting behavioral outcomes. We aimed to advance a germinal line of inquiry that addresses this gap by separately and simultaneously examining personality traits and physician work values to predict medical specialty choice. First-year medical students (125 women and 119 men) responded to measures of personality and physician work values. After graduation, participants' residency choices were identified. Results indicated that personality traits predict person- or technique-oriented medical specialty choice. Physician work values, whether used alone or in tandem with personality traits, however, did not significantly predict specialty choice. Implications for practice and research are discussed. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

career; Career decision making; Career specialty; choice; job-satisfaction; Medical career development; motivation; personality; physicians; Psychology; students; traits; vocational interests; Work values; Work values

Journal Article

Article information provided for research and reference use only. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).

202-209

2

78