Personality Types: Predictors for Pediatric Dentists-Pilot Study

Personality Types of Pediatric Dentistry Residents and Residency Applicants PURPOSE: Dentists may possess unique personality traits that distinguish them from the general population. Within the profession, there may be personality traits that are more prevalent in one specialty than another. This project was designed to determine if personality profiling could be a predictor for success in a specialty field, i.e. pediatric dentistry. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) was developed to make the theory of psychological types, described by Carl Jung, understandable and useful to people's everyday lives. Jung's theory is that much of what seems like random human behavior is due to basic differences in the . way people use their perception and judgment. The purpose of this study was to determine if interviewees to a pediatric dentistry residency program possessed similar personality traits to pediatric dentistry faculty/residents by comparing the Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) results of the 2 groups. METHODS: Thirty-one pediatric dentistry faculty/residents were.compared with 46 pediatric dentistry residency interviewees. Each member of both groups anonymously completed the MBTI profile. RESULTS: This study indicates that there are no significant differences in MBTI personality types between pediatric dentistry faculty/residents versus interviewees to a pediatric dentistry residency (p=0.168), except that interviewees were more likely to exhibit the ESFJ type than were faculty/ residents (p=0.015). ESFJ represents E, extrovert, S, sensing, F, feeling and J, judging. All comparisons were conducted with the asymptotic chi-square test, except when expected cell counts were <5. For the latter comparisons, the Fisher's exact version of the chi-square test was used, p< .05 CONCLUSION: It is concluded that no common personality type, as determined by the MBTI, exists between pediatric dentistry faculty/residents and interviewees for residency, and that personality characteristics cannot be used as predictive factors in selection of pediatric dentistry residents.