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A preliminary measurement of the surgical personality
James McGreevy1, Deborah Wiebe
1Department of Surgery, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84132, USA.
Background:
We used the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (Psychological Resources, Inc.) to test for a distinct surgical personality.
Methods:
The NEO-PI-R is a compilation of 240 statements. Subjects agree or disagree with the statements, generating a score in five personality traits according to the five factor theory: neuroticism (N), extraversion (E), openness (O), agreeableness (A), and conscientiousness (C). Each score is compared with that for the general population.
Results:
Twenty-four male and 15 female surgical residents voluntarily took the inventory. Compared to the general population, males scored lower in N (p <0.05), higher in E (P <0.001), O (P <0.05) and C (p <0.001), and average in A (no significant difference). Females scored average in N and A (no significant difference), and higher in E (p <0.001), O (P <0.05), and C (P <0.001).
Conclusions:
The similarity of trait variance from the general population in both male and female surgical residents supports the concept of a surgical personality.