Impact of personality temperaments and characters on academic performance and specialty selection among a group of Egyptian medical graduates

Background: The relationship between personality temperaments, academic achievement and specialty interest is important because of its implications in career counseling. Aim: To assess the effect of personality on academic performance and career selection and to study the impact of some sociodemographic factors on academic achievement and career choice of medical graduates. Methodology: A total of 436 medical graduates of Ain Shams medical school were approached, out of which 331 participated. They were given a sociodemographic questionnaire, and the Temperament and Character Inventory–Revised (TCI-R; 240) for personality construct; they had to answer questions about academic achievement, ranking, scores and choice of medical specialty. Results: Novelty seeking (NS1, NS2 and NS3) and self-transcendence (ST1 and ST2) were correlated with graduation ranking, ( r = .2, p = .00; r = .15, p = .009; r = .16, p = .005; r = .12, p = .003; r = .14, p = .02; r = .17, p = .004; r = .13, p = .03, respectively), that is, lower NS and ST had better academic outcome. Only high school score was associated with better achievement ( p = .00). In specialty selection, females were significantly overrepresented in pediatrics and clinical pathology, whereas males were significantly predominating surgical specialties except for obstetrics and gynecology ( p = .00). Students choosing patient-centered specialties had higher reward dependence (RD), persistence (PS) and cooperativeness (C); those choosing clinical pathology had highest harm avoidance (HA), whereas those choosing radiology had lowest HA and those choosing surgery had significantly higher self-directedness (SD3). Conclusion: Personality impacts academic achievement and specialty choice with other factors as gender and previous scholastic performance.