BREAKING THE SILENCE, 2014 Breaking The Silence | Page 44

SPECIALTY TEST
WHAT MEDICAL SPECIALTY FITS YOUR PERSONALITY?
Chibuzor Ogamba, 300L MBBS
T
here are different dimensions of a doctor's
personality. How you handle stress, what gives
you satisfaction, and fulfillment, how you
interact with your peers etc. Discovering your
personality type means identifying your distinctive
attributes, values and affinities, and finding the natural
comfort zone where your time preferences lie as a
physician.
From our first year in medical school, almost all students
would have already started asking themselves questions
relating to what medical specialty specifically suits or
fits them.
Many researchers have also tried to find out what
personalities are better adapted to their various medical
AMSUL Digest 2014
specialties as Surgery, Internal medicine, Family
medicine, Dermatology, Neurology etc. One of the
systems developed to specifically do this is the Myers-
Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator was developed in the
1950s by Isabel Briggs Myers and Katherine Briggs and
has become the most popular and widely used
psychological test in the world. The MBTI can help
medical students to choose the right specialty for their
personalities and temperaments. The test enables you to
learn more about how you perceive and judge others,
whether in an occupational or social situation. It
identifies your strengths and weaknesses, and shows
whether you value autonomy or prefer interdependence.