Personality styles of first-year dental students

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) was used to measure the personality styles of dental students in two first-year classes. The MBTI measures the strength and nature of preferences along four dimensions: extroversion-introversion, sensing-intuition, thinking-feeling, and judging-perceptive. In the sample (N = 120), four personality styles--ESTJ (19), ESFJ (19), ENTJ (16), and ISTJ (12)--accounted for 55 percent of the students (N = 66). The remaining 45 percent (N = 54) were divided among 12 personality styles with no style comprising more than 5.8 percent of the students (N = 7). Further comparisons of personality traits emphasized the similarities of the student sample on dimensions of extroversion (68.3 percent), sensing (61.7 percent), and judging (74.2 percent). Comparisons with previous research confirmed the predominance of ST (sensing with thinking) and SF (sensing with feeling) combinations within dentistry. The implications for the organization and curriculum of dental schools considering the personality traits of these dental students are discussed.