Eysenck Personality Inventory and Choice of Psychiatry as a Career

Abstract

Various investigations have explored motivations behind the choice of the profession of psychiatry. The presence of factors of cultural, social, economic, and psychological origin has been noted, but it is not yet clear which or how factors contribute to the choice in the most determining way. In relation to the psychological factors, emphasis has been placed on neuroticism, extraversion, emotional instability, intolerance of ambiguity, degree of reflectiveness and psychological mindedness (2, 4, 5, 6, 7). It should be noted chat these personality characteristics are assessed in different and sometimes conflicting ways by the various authors. To clarify this problem the Eysenck Personality Inventory (1) was administered to 47 applicants to the School of Specialization in Psychiatry (M age 28.5 + 2.8 yr.; 34 men, 13 women) and to a control group of 60 applicants (48 men, 12 women) to the School of Dentistry at the same university (M age 29.2 2 3.2 yr.). Groups were similar for age and sex. As shown below, applicants to psychiatry scored significantly lower on Neuroticism than applicants to dentistry, a result which conflicts with other findings (3, 6). The dentistry applicants, however, presented a significantly lower index of Psychoticism. No significant difference between the two groups were found for Extraversion. Although the scores on the inventory indicate differences between the groups, these fall within the normal ranges reported by Eysenck This consideration, together with the relatively low levels of statistical significance, suggests that other variables probably play a more incisive role in the choice of psychiatry as a career.