ABSTRACT
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is a psychological measure designed to determine personality preferences, learning styles and management styles and to assist with career choices. The authors surveyed 1,117 practicing dentists to determine if the MBTI was useful in determining which respondents were most likely to be specialists. They found no significant differences between general practitioners and specialists.
Subject(s)
Career Choice , Dentists/psychology , Personality Inventory/statistics & numerical data , Adult , Attitude of Health Personnel , Chi-Square Distribution , Extraversion, Psychological , Female , Forecasting , General Practice, Dental/statistics & numerical data , Humans , Introversion, Psychological , Male , Psychometrics , Reproducibility of Results , Specialties, Dental/statistics & numerical data , ThinkingABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to identify the perceived stress of dental students across the entire curriculum (D1-D4 years). The dental environmental stress (DES) questionnaire was administered to 244 (90.4 percent) dental students during 1990. Significant differences were found for 12 questionnaire items across four classes. For male-female comparisons, significant differences were found for 17 questionnaire items, all perceived as more stressful by females; and between classes, significant differences were accounted for by three questionnaire items. Comparisons with previous dental students (1980s) on the identical questionnaire were noted.
Subject(s)
Stress, Psychological/etiology , Students, Dental/psychology , Analysis of Variance , Female , Humans , Male , Midwestern United States , Schools, Dental , Sex Factors , Surveys and QuestionnairesABSTRACT
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) was used to determine the personality types of dental graduates, 1964-1984, from Creighton University, School of Dentistry. The MBTI reveals the strength and nature of preferences along four dimensions: extraversion-introversion, sensing-intuition, thinking-feeling, and judging-perceptive. In sample (N = 472), four personality types: ISTJ (108), ESTJ (66), ISFJ (48), and ENTJ (37), accounted for 54.9% (N = 259) of the dentists. The remaining 45.1% (N = 213) were divided among 12 personality types without any type accounting for more than 6.1% (N = 29). Comparisons with a general population (N = 9,320) revealed that the dental sample included more introverts (58.9%), thinkers (65.9%) and judgers (75.0%). The implications of personality characteristics, as applied to dentistry through communication patterns, relationships with co-workers and management styles were discussed.
Subject(s)
Dentists/psychology , Personality , Adult , Canada , Chi-Square Distribution , Extraversion, Psychological , Female , Humans , Introversion, Psychological , Judgment , Male , Middle Aged , Perception , Personality Inventory , United StatesABSTRACT
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) was used to measure the personality styles of dental students in two first-year classes. The MBTI measures the strength and nature of preferences along four dimensions: extroversion-introversion, sensing-intuition, thinking-feeling, and judging-perceptive. In the sample (N = 120), four personality styles--ESTJ (19), ESFJ (19), ENTJ (16), and ISTJ (12)--accounted for 55 percent of the students (N = 66). The remaining 45 percent (N = 54) were divided among 12 personality styles with no style comprising more than 5.8 percent of the students (N = 7). Further comparisons of personality traits emphasized the similarities of the student sample on dimensions of extroversion (68.3 percent), sensing (61.7 percent), and judging (74.2 percent). Comparisons with previous research confirmed the predominance of ST (sensing with thinking) and SF (sensing with feeling) combinations within dentistry. The implications for the organization and curriculum of dental schools considering the personality traits of these dental students are discussed.