Assessment of personality type and medical specialty choice among medical students from karachi; using myers-briggs type indicator (MBTI) tool

Objective: to assess personality type of medical students and associate it with their choice of medical specialty. methods: this cross-sectional study was conducted in february 2014 at one public and one private medical university of karachi,and comprised medical students. a self- administered questionnaire based on myers-briggs type indicator was used to collect data which was analysed using spss 20. results: of the 400 participants,there were 200(50%) each from public and private universities. of all,201(50.3%) students were found to be extroverted and 199(49.8%) were introverted personality types. clinical fields were the main preference of students after their medical degree as selected by 317(79.2%) students; of the,extroverted-sensing-feeling-perceptive was the most common type identified in39(7.2%) students. extroverted-sensing-feeling-perceptive 11(2.8%),extroverted-sensing-thinking-judging 12(3%),extroverted-sensing-feeling-judging 5(1.3%),introverted-sensing-feeling-judging 6(1.5%),introverted-sensing-thinking-perceptive 7(1.8%) had preference for surgery,medicine,gynaecology,paediatrics and cardiology,respectively. conclusion: personality had significant impact on specialty and career choice. © 2017,pakistan medical association. all rights reserved.