Abstract
BackgroundThis study aims to assess the impact of personality traits on emotional intelligence (EI) and decision-making among medical students in Lebanese Universities and to evaluate the potential mediating role-played by emotional intelligence between personality traits and decision-making styles in this population.MethodsThis cross-sectional study was conducted between June and December 2019 on 296 general medicine students.ResultsHigher extroversion was associated with lower rational decision-making style, whereas higher agreeableness and conscientiousness were significantly associated with a higher rational decision-making style. More extroversion and openness to experience were significantly associated with a higher intuitive style, whereas higher agreeableness and conscientiousness were significantly associated with lower intuitive style. More agreeableness and conscientiousness were significantly associated with a higher dependent decision-making style, whereas more openness to experience was significantly associated with less dependent decision-making style. More agreeableness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism were significantly associated with less spontaneous decision-making style. None of the personality traits was significantly associated with the avoidant decision-making style. Emotional intelligence seemed to fully mediate the association between conscientiousness and intuitive decision-making style by 38% and partially mediate the association between extroversion and openness to experience with intuitive decision-making style by 49.82 and 57.93% respectively.ConclusionOur study suggests an association between personality traits and decision-making styles. The results suggest that EI showed a significant positive effect on intuitive decision-making style and a negative effect on avoidant and dependent decision-making styles. Additionally, our study underlined the role of emotional intelligence as a mediator factor between personality traits (namely conscientiousness, openness, and extroversion) and decision-making styles.
Highlights
This study aims to assess the impact of personality traits on emotional intelligence (EI) and decisionmaking among medical students in Lebanese Universities and to evaluate the potential mediating role-played by emotional intelligence between personality traits and decision-making styles in this population
Our study confirmed this relationship to Wood (2012) [41] and Bayram and Aydemir (2017) [26] findings of a positive relationship between dependent decision-making style and agreeableness personality trait and a negative correlation between this same personality trait and spontaneous decision-making style. This negative correlation can be explained by the reliance and trust accorded by agreeable individuals to their surroundings, making them highly influenced by others opinions when it comes to making a decision; avoiding making rapid and snap decisions on the spur of the moment; in order to explore the point of view of their surrounding before deciding on their own
The results suggest that EI showed a significant positive effect on intuitive decision-making style and a negative effect on avoidant and dependent decision-making styles
Summary
This study aims to assess the impact of personality traits on emotional intelligence (EI) and decisionmaking among medical students in Lebanese Universities and to evaluate the potential mediating role-played by emotional intelligence between personality traits and decision-making styles in this population. Decision-making is a central part of daily interactions; it was defined by Scott and Bruce in 1995 as «the learned habitual response pattern exhibited by an individual when confronted with a decision situation. It is not a personality trait, but a habit-based propensity to react in a certain way in a specific decision context» [1]. Its theoretical value is related to the importance of understanding the moral mind to further deepen our knowledge on how the mind works, understanding the role of moral considerations in our cognitive life This understanding is important because we are highly influenced by the moral decisions of people around us [2]. According to Scott and Bruce (1995), there are five distinct decision-making styles (dependent, avoidant, spontaneous, rational, intuitive) [1] and each individuals’ decision-making style has traits from these different styles with one dominant style [3]
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