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Quality control pharmacy tasks: big five personality model and accuracy of error detection
Kraig L Schell1, Sean P Reilley
1Department of Psychology and Sociology, Angelo State University, San Angelo, TX 76909, USA.
Psychological Reports
|September 15, 2004
Summary
Personality traits like extraversion and conscientiousness impact performance on error detection tasks, but only under stable workloads. Shifting workloads may negate these effects, suggesting workload conditions are crucial for understanding trait-performance links.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Cognitive Psychology
- Industrial-Organizational Psychology
Background:
- Understanding the influence of personality traits on task performance is crucial in various applied settings.
- Workload fluctuations can significantly impact cognitive performance and decision-making accuracy.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between the Big Five personality traits (extraversion, conscientiousness, neuroticism) and performance in an error detection task.
- To examine how stable versus shifting workload conditions moderate this relationship.
Main Methods:
- 114 participants completed an error detection task involving fictitious prescriptions with varying error rates (26-38%).
- Workload was manipulated through time constraints: stable (45 min/set) and shifting (60 min/set 1, 30 min/set 2).
- Performance metrics included hit rates and false alarm rates.
Main Results:
- Extraversion and conscientiousness were positively correlated with hit rates in the stable workload condition.
- These correlations were not significant in the shifting workload condition.
- Neuroticism did not show significant correlations with performance metrics in either condition.
Conclusions:
- Personality traits, specifically extraversion and conscientiousness, are associated with improved accuracy in error detection tasks, but this association is contingent on stable workload conditions.
- The findings suggest that workload dynamics can alter the predictive validity of certain personality traits for task performance.
- Future research should explore the mechanisms underlying these workload-trait interactions and their implications for personnel selection and training.