Is medical school a personal change incubator? a six years longitudinal study of students' personality traits.

Abstract

Purpose To determine if there were changes in personality’s profile of medical students throughout their academic career in Medical School, and the direction of those changes if confirmed. Method In this longitudinal study, Revised NEO Personality Inventory was administered at 146 students from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Coimbra at the beginning of college’s first year. At the end of sixth year, 70 of the initial 146 students answered the questionnaire again. Personality facets’ averages were compared using Student’s t-test for paired samples. Results The medical students’ population has changed its personality profile during its academic course in the Medical School. Neuroticism decreased significantly, while Agreeableness and Conscientiousness suffered only a marginally significant reduction. Students demonstrated a decrease in the personality’s facets of Anxiety (p < .01), Depression (p < .05), Vulnerability (p < .05), Altruism (p < .05) and Modesty (p < .05), and an increase in Self-discipline facet (p < .05). Discussion Students’ decrease in Anxiety, Depression and Vulnerability facets indicates they are more stable, confident, hopeful and resilient in the end of the academic course. Their increased Self-Discipline points to their ability in the future to continuously update the knowledge they 5 received in order to provide always the best for their patients. However, the decrease in personality’s facets Altruism and Modesty is concerning - these findings suggest medical students may have developed an arrogant and overrated vision of themselves in relation to others, and also they became reluctant to get involved with others’ problems