Does Personality Matter? Perceptions and Experiences of Introverts and Extraverts as General Surgeons

Abstract

Phenomenon

Medical educators increasingly recognize both the challenges introverts, compared to extraverts, may face in medical training and the unique strengths they bring to practice. However, few researchers have examined in-depth how introverts and extraverts truly experience training and practice, particularly in specialties like surgery that tend to value qualities (e.g., dominance and assertiveness) typically associated with extraverts. This study aimed to explore the perceptions and experiences of individuals with both personalities within the field of general surgery.

Approach

Using a constructivist grounded theory approach, six general surgeons and 10 general surgery residents who identified as introverted, extraverted, or ambiverted were recruited from two Canadian tertiary care hospitals to participate in semi-structured interviews. Data collection and analysis occurred iteratively, and data were analyzed using open, selective, and thematic coding. Constant comparison allowed us to make sense of the similar and dissimilar views that emerged from each interview.

Findings

Irrespective of their personalities, participants voiced two general patterns of responses. Some participants believed that “personality doesn’t matter”: that both introverted and extraverted practice styles were equally viable and neither introverts nor extraverts would find surgical training more challenging than the other (culture of equality). However, others believed that “personality matters,” emphasizing that surgeons should be dominant and aggressive leaders. Only those who believed “personality matters” felt that introverts sometimes needed to act more extraverted in order to succeed in surgical training (culture of hierarchy). Similar numbers of introverts and extraverts adhered to each viewpoint.

Insights

Our qualitative approach allowed us to draw meaning from the complex subjective experiences of our research participants. Our findings suggest that two competing cultures (equality and hierarchy) co-exist within the field of surgery and that trainees, depending on which culture they adhere most to, will or will not “adapt” their personalities to the workplace. These findings deepen our understanding of the nuances of surgical culture and have important implications for how we select candidates based on personality.

Keywords:

• Personality
• surgical culture
• surgical residency
• person-environment fit
• introversion extraversion

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the surgeons and residents who participated in the study. We would also like to thank Drs. Brenda Trofanenko and Anna MacLeod, as well as the committee members for the PI’s master’s thesis, Drs. Robert Seale, Joan Sargeant, and Michael Corbett, for their expert feedback.

Disclosure statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report in this study.

Funding details

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Ethical approval

This study was approved by the Research Ethics Board of the affiliated university as well as the regional health authority.

Informed consent

We obtained informed consent from all the participants in this study. We followed standard procedures as outlined by the Tri-Council Policy Statement (TCPS-2): Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans Course on Research Ethics (CORE).