Personality traits are associated with cognitive empathy in medical students but not with its evolution and interventions to improve it

2021 ◽  
pp. 110410
Author(s):  
Guillaume Airagnes ◽  
Céline Buffel du Vaure ◽  
Eric Galam ◽  
Lucie Bunge ◽  
Nicolas Hoertel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Medical Students ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Cognitive Empathy

scholarly journals Differences in empathy toward patients between medical and nonmedical students: an fMRI study

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shin Ah Kim ◽  
Young-Mee Lee ◽  
Stephan Hamann ◽  
Sang Hee Kim
Keyword(s):  
Medical Students ◽  
Patient Perspective ◽  
Medical Curriculum ◽  
Imaging Study ◽  
Cognitive Empathy ◽  
Functional Brain Imaging ◽  
Temporal Region ◽  
Fmri Study ◽  
Imaging Results ◽  
Increased Activity

AbstractThere is growing concern about a potential decline in empathy among medical students over time. Despite the importance of empathy toward patients in medicine, it remains unclear the nature of the changes in empathy among medical students. Thus, we systematically investigated affective and cognitive empathy for patients among medical students using neuroscientific approach. Nineteen medical students who completed their fifth-year medical curriculum and 23 age- and sex-matched nonmedical students participated in a functional magnetic resonance imaging study. Inside a brain scanner, all participants read empathy-eliciting scenarios while adopting either the patient or doctor perspective. Brain activation and self-reported ratings during the experience of empathy were obtained. Behavioral results indicated that all participants reported greater emotional negativity and empathic concern in association with the patient perspective condition than with the doctor perspective condition. Functional brain imaging results indicated that neural activity in the posterior superior temporal region implicated in goal-relevant attention reorienting was overall increased under the patient perspective than the doctor perspective condition. Relative to nonmedical students, medical students showed decreased activity in the temporoparietal region implicated in mentalizing under the patient perspective versus doctor perspective condition. Notably, this same region showed increased activity under the doctor versus patient condition in medical students relative to nonmedical students. This study is among the first to investigate the neural mechanisms of empathy among medical students and the current findings point to the cognitive empathy system as the locus of the primary brain differences associated with empathy toward patients.

scholarly journals Variation in personality traits of medical students between schools of medicine

2013 ◽  
Vol 35 (11) ◽  
pp. 944-948 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Wilson ◽  
Barbara Griffin ◽  
Lisa Lampe ◽  
Diann Eley ◽  
Gerry Corrigan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Medical Students ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Schools Of Medicine

scholarly journals Searching for the erosion of empathy in medical undergraduate students: a longitudinal study

BMJ Open ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. e041810
Author(s):  
José Manuel Blanco ◽  
Fernando Caballero ◽  
Santiago Álvarez ◽  
Mercedes Plans ◽  
Diana Monge
Keyword(s):  
Medical Students ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Cognitive Empathy ◽  
Primary Outcome Measure ◽  
Undergraduate Medical Students ◽  
School Settings ◽  
School Year ◽  
School Of Medicine ◽  
Medical Undergraduate ◽  
Sociocultural Differences

ObjectiveTo analyse the trajectory of empathy throughout the degree programme of medicine in a Spanish school of medicine.DesignLongitudinal, prospective 5-year study, between October 2014 and June 2019.SettingStudents from a Spanish university of medicine.ParticipantsTwo voluntary cohorts of undergraduate medical students from two different school years were invited to participate (n=135 (cohort 1, C1) and 106 (cohort 2, C2) per school year). Finally, a total number of 174 students (102 (C1, 71.6% women) and 72 (C2, 70.8% women) students, respectively) were monitored for 5 years. Each cohort was divided in two subcohorts of paired and unpaired students that were analysed to check possible social desirability bias.Primary outcome measureThe Jefferson Scale of Empathy (JSE).ResultsThe cohort of 102 students (C1) monitored between their first and fifth years of study (71.6% women) showed an improvement among paired women of 2.15 points in total JSE score (p=0.01) and 2.39 points in cognitive empathy (p=0.01); in the unpaired female cohort the increase was of 2.32 points (cognitive empathy) (p=0.02). The cohort of 72 students (C2) monitored between their second and sixth years of study (70.8% women) displayed a cognitive empathy increase of 2.32 points (p=0.04) in the paired group of women. There were no significant differences between paired and unpaired results for either cohort. Empathy scores among men did not decrease.ConclusionsThe empathy of medical students at our school did not decline along grade years. In fact, it improved slightly, particularly cognitive empathy, among women. This paper contributes to enlarge data from Europe, where longitudinal studies are scarce. It supports the idea that there may be global geo-sociocultural differences; however, more studies comparing different school settings are needed.

scholarly journals Predicating Attitude Toward Learning Communication Skills in Medical Students of Shahid Beheshti University

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-25
Author(s):  
Maryam Akbarilakeh ◽  
Fahimeh Fargah ◽  
Katatyoun Razjouyan ◽  
Mitra Rahimzadeh
Keyword(s):  
Medical Students ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Communication Skills ◽  
Medical Training ◽  
Medical Curriculum ◽  
Attitude Scale ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Five Dimensions ◽  
Significant Relationships ◽  
Convenience Sampling

Background: The ability of communicating with people is of great importance for physicians. Predicting unknown variables like personality traits is one of the important impressive issues in choosing future medical experts in medical training. Regarding this, medical colleges have training programs all around the world. The present study aimed to investigate the attitude toward learning communication skills based on the personality traits of medical students. Materials and Methods: This correlational study was done in 2019 and the participants were medical students who were selected using a convenience sampling method. Zuckerman-Kuhlman personality questionnaire and communication skills attitude scale (CSAS) were used for data collection. CSAS was used to assess positive and negative attitudes. Results: The results showed that only the sociability dimension among the five dimensions of personality had a significant relationship with attitude toward learning communication skills (P=0.018). Moreover, significant relationships of gender (P=0.022), mother’s education level (P=0.049), and residence (P=0.036) with attitude to learning communication skills were found. Conclusion: According to the results, the dimension of demographic characteristics is effective in improving communication skills of medical students. Therefore, it is recommended that it should be considered in medical curriculum development and revision and modifications.

scholarly journals Different but similar: personality traits of​ surgeons and internists—results of a cross-sectional observational study

BMJ Open ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (7) ◽  
pp. e021310 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin N Stienen ◽  
Felix Scholtes ◽  
Robin Samuel ◽  
Alexander Weil ◽  
Astrid Weyerbrock ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Medical Students ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Medical Practice ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Five Factor Model ◽  
Normal Population ◽  
Openness To Experience ◽  
Personality Profiles ◽  
Medical Specialties ◽  
Linear Discriminant

ObjectivesMedical practice may attract and possibly enhance distinct personality profiles. We set out to describe the personality profiles of surgical and medical specialties focusing on board-certified physicians.DesignProspective, observational.SettingOnline survey containing the Ten-Item Personality Inventory (TIPI), an internationally validated measure of the Five Factor Model of personality dimensions, distributed to board-certified physicians, residents and medical students in several European countries and Canada. Differences in personality profiles were analysed using multivariate analysis of variance and Canonical Linear Discriminant Analysis on age-standardised and sex-standardised z-scores of the personality traits. Single personality traits were analysed using robust t-tests.ParticipantsThe TIPI was completed by 2345 board-certified physicians, 1453 residents and 1350 medical students, who also provided demographic information.ResultsNormal population and board-certified physicians’ personality profiles differed (p<0.001). The latter scored higher on conscientiousness, extraversion and agreeableness, but lower on neuroticism (all p<0.001). There was no difference in openness to experience. Board-certified surgical and medical doctors’ personality profiles were also different (p<0.001). Surgeons scored higher on extraversion (p=0.003) and openness to experience (p=0.002), but lower on neuroticism (p<0.001). There was no difference in agreeableness and conscientiousness. These differences in personality profiles were reproduced at other levels of training, that is, in students and training physicians engaging in surgical versus medical practice.ConclusionThese results indicate the existence of a distinct and consistent average ‘physician personality’. Despite high variability within disciplines, there are moderate but solid and reproducible differences between surgical and medical specialties.

scholarly journals The Association Between Personality Traits and Specialty Preference Among Medical Students in Jordan

2020 ◽  
Vol Volume 13 ◽  
pp. 599-607
Author(s):  
Mohammed Nawaiseh ◽  
Rund Haddadin ◽  
Belal Al Droubi ◽  
Hussam Nawaiseh ◽  
Salameh Alarood ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Medical Students ◽  
Personality Traits

Reading other minds

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maja Djikic ◽  
Keith Oatley ◽  
Mihnea C. Moldoveanu
Keyword(s):  
Personality Traits ◽  
Short Story ◽  
Cognitive Empathy ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Affective Empathy ◽  
Other Minds ◽  
Report Measure

The potential of literature to increase empathy was investigated in an experiment. Participants (N = 100, 69 women) completed a package of questionnaires that measured lifelong exposure to fiction and nonfiction, personality traits, and affective and cognitive empathy. They read either an essay or a short story that were equivalent in length and complexity, were tested again for cognitive and affective empathy, and were finally given a non-self-report measure of empathy. Participants who read a short story who were also low in Openness experienced significant increases in self-reported cognitive empathy (p .05). No increases in affective empathy were found. Participants who were frequent fiction-readers had higher scores on the non-self-report measure of empathy. Our results suggest a role for fictional literature in facilitating development of empathy.

scholarly journals Psychiatry as a career choice among medical students: a cross-sectional study examining school-related and non-school factors

BMJ Open ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (8) ◽  
pp. e022201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lee Seng Esmond Seow ◽  
Boon Yiang Chua ◽  
Rathi Mahendran ◽  
Swapna Verma ◽  
Hui Lin Ong ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Medical Students ◽  
Medical School ◽  
Career Choice ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Psychiatric Training ◽  
Outcome Variable ◽  
Personality Factors ◽  
School Factors ◽  
Cross Sectional

ObjectivesGiven the low recruitment to psychiatry worldwide, the current study aimed to examine how premedical and intramedical school factors, perception of career aspects, attitudes towards psychiatry, stigma towards mental illness and personality traits may affect the likelihood of psychiatry as a career choice.DesignCross-sectional online study.Participants502 medical students from two public medical institutions in Singapore.MethodsWe critically examined existing literature for factors identified to influence psychiatry as a career choice and explored their effects in a group of medical students in Singapore. To avoid overloading the regression model, this analysis only included variables shown to have significant association (p<0.05) with the outcome variable from the initial Χ2test and independent t-test analyses.ResultsA considerable number of non-medical school factors such as preschool influence and interest, personality traits and importance of a high status specialty in medicine were found to affect students’ choice of psychiatry as a career. Among medical school factors, attending a psychiatry/mental health club was the only influential factor. Negative attitudes towards psychiatry, but not stigma towards people with mental illness, significantly predicted the likelihood of not choosing psychiatry as a career.ConclusionsImproving educational environment or teaching practice in psychiatric training may aid in future recruitment for psychiatrists. While the changing of premedical school influences or personality factors may be infeasible, medical schools and psychiatry institutes could play a more critical role by enhancing enrichment activities or clerkship experience to bring about a more positive attitudinal change towards psychiatry among students who did consider a career in psychiatry.

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