Empathy in medical students as related to specialty interest, personality, and perceptions of mother and father

This study was designed to examine relationships between empathy, specialty interest, personality and perceptions of mother and father. Participants were 422 first-year medical students who completed the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy (JSPE), and the Zuckerman-Kuhlman Personality Questionnaire (ZKPQ, short form). They also reported their specialty interest and their perceptions of early relationships with their parents. Results showed that women outscored men on the empathy scale. Also, we found that higher scores on the JSPE were associated with students' interest in people-oriented specialties (as opposed to procedure- and technology-oriented specialties), higher level of satisfaction with early maternal relationship, higher sociability and lower aggressive-hostility scores. Controlling for gender and social desirability did not change the general pattern of findings.