Journal of Education and Health Promotion

The relationship between empathy and personality traits in Saudi medical students

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

. Saba Yasien
. Fadwa Almuzaini

Clinical Psychology Program, Department of Health Sciences, College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Abstract
BACKGROUND: Empathy is regarded as a fundamental personal attribute for in-training and inpractice doctors. Several factors may play a significant role to facilitate or prevent the ability of doctors’
empathy toward their patients. The objective of the present study is to investigate the relationship of
empathy with personality traits (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and
openness to experience) among undergraduate medical students.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study was based on a correlational, cross-sectional design
and was conducted from January 2020 to April 2020. The sample consisted of 301 undergraduate
medical students studying in different medical colleges situated in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Personal
information form, the big-five personality inventory, and the interpersonal reactivity index scales were
administered. Obtained data were analyzed by applying several methods such as mean, standard
deviation, Mann–Whitney U test, Pearson’s correlation coefficient, and multivariable linear regression.
RESULTS: Regression analysis revealed that personality dimensions accounted for 10–19% of
the variance in scores of empathy sub-dimensions of perspective-taking, empathetic concern,
fantasy, and personal distress. Agreeableness was found to be associated with empathetic
concern and perspective-taking. Openness to experience was found to be significantly related to
perspective-taking and fantasy, whereas extraversion was negatively associated with perspectivetaking. Neuroticism had an association with personal distress, empathetic concern, and fantasy.
Additionally, no gender difference was observed and students with people-oriented specialty
preferences showed significantly higher scores on empathy sub-domains than technology-oriented
students.
CONCLUSION: This study confirmed that personality dimensions play a notable role to predict
empathetic behaviors among Saudi undergraduate medical students. This study would help to design
individualized strategies by incorporating personality dimensions in the training program to enhance
empathetic behavior among medical students.

Keywords

Big five model
empathy
personality
Saudi medical students
1. Halpern J. What is clinical empathy? J Gen Intern Med
2003;18:670-4.
2. Mercer S, Reynolds W. Empathy and quality of care. Brit J Gen
Pract 2002;52:9–13.
3. Drdla S, Loffler-Stastka H. Influence of conversation technique
seminars on the doctoral therapeutic attitude in doctor-patient
communication. Wien Klin Wochenschr 2016;128:555–9.
4. Song Y, Shi M. Associations between empathy and big five
personality traits among Chinese undergraduate medical
students. PLoS One 2017;12. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0171665.
5. Walton HJ. Personality assessment of future doctors. J R Soc Med
1987;80:27–30.
6. Melchers MC, Li M, Haas BW, Reuter M, Bischoff L, Montag C.
Similar personality patterns are associated with empathy in four
different countries. Front Psychol 2016;7:290.
7. Abe K, Niwa M, Fujisaki K, Suzuki Y. Associations between
emotional intelligence, empathy and personality in Japanese
medical students. BMC Med Educ 2018;18:47.
8. Cicek E, Yilmaz A, Aslanhan H. Evaluation of empathy and
biopsychosocial approaches of medical faculty assistant doctors.
J Edu Health Promot 2019;8:214.
9. Santos MA, Grosseman S, Morelli TC, Giuliano IC, Erdmann TR.
Empathy differences by gender and specialty preference in
medical students: A study in Brazil. Int J Med Educ 2016;7:149–53.
10. Tariq N, Rasheed T, Tavakol MA. quantitative study of empathy
in Pakistani medical students: A multicentered approach. J Prim
Care Community Health 2017;8:294–9.
11. Yeo S. Differences and changes in the empathy of Korean medical
students according to gender and vocational aptitude, before and
after clerkship. Korean J Med Educ 2019;31:343-55.
12. Hojat M, Gonnella JS, Nasca TJ, Mangione S, Vergare M,
Magee M. Physician empathy: Definition, components,
measurement, and relationship to gender and specialty. Am J
Psychiatry 2002;159:1563–9.
13. John OP, Srivastava S. The Big Five trait taxonomy: History,
measurement, and theoretical perspectives. In: Pervin LA, John
OP, editors. Handbook of Personality: Theory and Research. 2nd
ed. New York: Guilford Press; 1999.
14. Gosling SD, Rentfrow PJ, Swann WB. A very brief measure of the
Big-Five personality domains. J Res Pers 2003;37:504-28.
15. Benet-Martinez V, John OP. Los Cinco Grandes across cultures
and ethnic groups: Multi-trait multi-method analysis of the Big
Five in Spanish and English. J Pers Soc Psychol 1998;75:729-50.
16. Davis CM. What is empathy, and can empathy be taught? Phys
Ther 1990;70:707–11.
17. Williamsons JM. Teaching to Individual Differences in Science
and Engineering Librarianship. United States: Elsevier; 2017.
18. Costa P, Alves R, Neto I, Marvao P, Portela M, Costa, MJ.
Associations between medical student empathy and personality:
A multi-institutional study. PLoS One 2014;9:e89254.
19. Magalhaes E, Costa P, Costa MJ. Empathy of medical students
and personality: Evidence from the Five-Factor model. Med Teach
2012;34:807-12.
20. Guilera T, Batalla I, Forne C, Soler-Gonzalez J. Empathy and big
five personality model in medical students and its relationship
to gender and specialty preference: A cross-sectional study. BMC
Med Educ 2019;19:57.
21. De-Aguiar CS, Formiga NS, Cantinilo A. Personality traits and
empathic abilities: A predictive study on medical students. Bol
Acad Paul Psicol 2017;37:129-38.
22. Habashi MM, Graziano WG, Hoover AE. Searching for the
prosocial personality: A Big Five approach to linking personality
and prosocial behavior. Pers Soc Psychol Bull 2016;42:1177–92.
23. Kearns PO, Tyler JM. Graziano WG. More than fantasy: Prosocial
daydreams relate to prosocial dispositions and behaviour. Int J
Psychol 2020. doi: 10.1002/ijop.12673.
24. Moll J, Krueger F, Zahn R, Pardini M, Oliveira-Souza R,
Grafman J. Human fronto-mesolimbic networks guide decisions
about charitable donation. PNAS 2006;103:15623-8.
25. Villaume WA, Bodie GD. Discovering the listener within us: The
impact of trait-like personality variables and communicator styles
on preferences for listening style. Inter J List 2007;21:102–23.
26. Grant AM. Rethinking the extraverted sales ideal: The ambivert
advantage. Psychol Sci 2013;24:1024–30.
27. Guilera T, Batalla I, Soler-Gonzalez J. Empathy and specialty
preference in medical students. Follow-up study and feedback.
Med Educ 2018;19:153-61.
Journal of Education and Health Promotion
Volume 12, Issue 5
June 2022
Pages 1-5

Home

Guide for Authors

Submit Manuscript

Reviewers

Contact Us