How to Know The Best Medical Specialty For Your Personality Type

- Common Myths -
“Orthopedic surgeons are all jocks.”
“Only nerds become internists.”
“Psychiatrists are as crazy as their patients.”
“Pathologists are so socially inept that they only like
working with dead people.”

As the number of available specialties and sub-specialties continue to increase, medical students – and even new doctors – are finding it more difficult to make a choice of the field of medicine to specialize in. For some, it is even a question of whether to specialize at all or to remain in general practice as a medical officer.

Some of the factors that may influence intending doctors’ choice of a medical specialty include:

 

        i.            Individual personality type

      ii.            Intellectual content and clinical issues/cases encountered

    iii.            Length of residency training

     iv.            Difficulty in obtaining residency or fellowship position

       v.            Amount of patient encountered

     vi.            Type of patient encountered

   vii.            Prestige, status and social expectation

 viii.            Lifestyle consideration

     ix.            Future earning or earning potential

       x.            Job opportunities and prediction about specialist workforce

     xi.            Whether to be a specialist, a sub-specialist or to be a generalist

This article focuses mainly on how Personality Types may predict the suitable field of specialization for upcoming doctors.We'll discuss two main ways to do that.

Personality type is a mix of what makes you tick, what gives you satisfaction and fulfillment, how do you interact with your peers. It is considered as perhaps the most important factor. This is because each specialty requires a set of skills, a circle of qualities, and a certain type of disposition. Some of these requirements are unique to each specialty while some of them overlap across various disciplines.

One way to decide which specialty your personality fits into is to pay attention during the clinical rotations. This may be made easy by asking the following questions during each rotation and observing your inner feeling for their answers.

 Would I be comfortable working with this set of doctors? 
Do I feel at home here or does it feel like i'm being forced? 
which set of doctors do I feel most comfortable with? 
Which specialty/specialties appeal most naturally to my gut feeling?

A more practicable way to find out your personality type is to use personality type indicators which have been careful studied by psychologists and prepared over the years. You can search the internet for more information on these type indicators.

The most widely used type indicator is the Myer-Briggs type indicator (MBTI) which was first developed in the 1950s and has stood the test of time with minor modifications over the years.

How Does The Myer-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) Work??

I’ll attempt to summarize the MBTI though its working is more complex than I’ll put it – I trust the average medical student is smart enough to easily understand.

The MBTI theory identifies four (4) main indices of human personality. Each index represents one of 4 basic preferences about how every individual perceives and processes external stimuli and how they use that information to make some kinds of cognitive judgment. As part of one’s overall personality, this judgment guides behavioural preferences in any situation involving other people – like colleagues or patient. These 4 indices are a choice between two extreme poles and you have to choose which pole you’re closer to. The indices (I’ll explain them later) are;

 

a)      Extroversion (E) OR Introversion (I)

b)      Sensing (S) OR Intuition (N)

c)      Thinking (T) OR Feeling (F)

d)      Judgment (J) OR Perception (P)

For example a person whose personality goes more with Extroversion (E), Sensing (S), Feeling (F), Judgment (J) will have a personality type labelled as ESFJ. A person with Introversion (I), Sensing (S), Feeling (F), Judgment (J) is labelled ISFJ etc. 

There are a maximum of 16 possible personality types from combination of above indices. That is, every individual fall into any of these 16 personality types.

 

A brief explanation of the indices follows:

Extroversion (E) OR Introversion (I): This is about how you relate with others, and whether you derive your energy from yourself or from outside.

·         Introverts: doesn’t mean being asocial. They prefer to focus their interest and energy on an inner world of ideas, impressions and reactions. They prefer interactions with greater focus and depth.

·         Extroverts: doesn’t mean being the “life of the party.” They derive their energy from external stimuli and tend to focus more on the outside world. They prefer being engaged in many things at once, with lots of expression, impulsivity, and thinking aloud.

Sensing (S) OR Intuition (N): This deals with what kinds of stimuli you prefer when collecting, processing, and remembering information.

·         Sensors: they are drawn to the immediate, practical details of life that can be taken in through any of the five senses. They look at the reality of the world around them, rely on past experiences, and take things literally.

·         Intuitives: look beyond the facts and evidences for meanings, possibilities, connections, and relationships. They are more imaginative people who like to see the big picture and abstract concepts. They rely on gut feeling rather than past experience.

Thinking (T) OR Feeling (F): This is simply “how do you make decisions and come to conclusions?” It concerns the kind of judgment you trust when you need to make a decision.

·         Thinkers: make their decisions impersonally, based mainly on objective data that makes sense to them. They always consider the logical consequences of their decisions.

·         Feelers: rely on personal, subjective feelings in their decisions. They are sensitive people who take time to consider how their decisions may affect others. They like pleasing others and tend to get their feelings hurt rather easily.

Judgment (J) OR Perception (P): How do you order your life? This describes how you deal with the outside world. What kind of environment make you most comfortable?

·         Judgers: serious, time-conscious individuals who live by schedules. They like things orderly, planned, and controlled. They need a world of structure and predictability to be at their most organized and productive. They make decisions quickly and decisively.

·         Perceivers: they are more open minded, relaxed, and nonconforming. They are much more aware of ideas, events, and things. They gather information leisurely way before making a final decision. They love to experience as much of the world as possible, so they like to keep their options open and are most comfortable adapting.

Now, after using the above explanation to decide your specific personality type. You have two options on how to determine which specialty fits you;

1.      Go online to any of the various personality type websites. Submit your personality type and wait for expert feedback on which specialties best fit you.

2.      Use the findings of various studies and researches. These researches have come up with different specialties that fit into different personalities as listed below:

Introverted–Sensing–Thinking–

Judging (ISTJ)

Dermatology

Obstetrics-gynecology

Family practice

Urology

Orthopedic surgery

Introverted–Sensing–Feeling–

Judging (ISFJ)

Anesthesiology

Ophthalmology

General practice

Family practice

Pediatrics

Introverted–Sensing–Thinking–

Perceptive (ISTP)

Otolaryngology

Anesthesiology

Radiology

Ophthalmology

General practice

Introverted–Sensing–Feeling–

Perceptive (ISFP)

Anesthesiology

Urology

Family practice

Thoracic surgery

General practice

Introverted–Intuitive–Feeling–

Judging (INFJ)

Psychiatry

Internal medicine

Thoracic surgery

General surgery

Pathology

Extroverted–Sensing–Thinking–

Judging (ESTJ)

Obstetrics-gynecology

General practice

General surgery

Orthopedic surgery

Pediatrics

Extroverted–Sensing–Feeling–

Judging (ESFJ)

Pediatrics

Orthopedic surgery

Otolaryngology

General practice

Internal medicine

Extroverted–Intuitive–Feeling–

Perceptive (ENFP)

Psychiatry

Dermatology

Otolaryngology

Psychiatry

Pediatrics

Introverted–Intuitive–Thinking–

Judging (INTJ)

Psychiatry

Pathology

Neurology

Internal medicine

Anesthesiology

Introverted–Intuitive–Feeling–

Perceptive (INFP)

Psychiatry

Cardiology

Neurology

Dermatology

Pathology

Introverted–Intuitive–Thinking–

Perceptive (INTP)

Neurology

Pathology

Psychiatry

Cardiology

Thoracic surgery

Extroverted–Sensing–Thinking–

Perceptive (ESTP)

Orthopedic surgery

Dermatology

Family practice

Radiology

General surgery

Extroverted–Sensing–Feeling–

Perceptive (ESFP)

Ophthalmology

Thoracic surgery

Obstetrics-gynecology

Orthopedic surgery

General surgery

Extroverted–Intuitive–Thinking–

Perceptive (ENTP)

Otolaryngology

Psychiatry

Radiology

Pediatrics

Pathology

Extroverted–Intuitive–Feeling–

Judging (ENFJ)

Thoracic surgery

Dermatology

Psychiatry

Ophthalmology

Radiology

Extroverted–Intuitive–Thinking–

Judging (ENTJ)

Neurology

Cardiology

Urology

Thoracic surgery

Internal medicine

So go ahead. Determine your personality type and see if the study is true for you. GOODLUCK!