title: Personality types of dentists.
abstract: The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) was used to determine the personality types of dental graduates, 1964-1984, from Creighton University, School of Dentistry. The MBTI reveals the strength and nature of preferences along four dimensions: extraversion-introversion, sensing-intuition, thinking-feeling, and judging-perceptive. In sample (N = 472), four personality types: ISTJ (108), ESTJ (66), ISFJ (48), and ENTJ (37), accounted for 54.9% (N = 259) of the dentists. The remaining 45.1% (N = 213) were divided among 12 personality types without any type accounting for more than 6.1% (N = 29). Comparisons with a general population (N = 9,320) revealed that the dental sample included more introverts (58.9%), thinkers (65.9%) and judgers (75.0%). The implications of personality characteristics, as applied to dentistry through communication patterns, relationships with co-workers and management styles were discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Community and Preventive Dentistry, Creighton University, School of Dentistry, Omaha 68178.
authors.forename: G H
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Westerman
authors.forename: T G
authors.initials: TG
authors.lastname: Grandy
authors.forename: C G
authors.initials: CG
authors.lastname: Erskine
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002170:Canada; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D003815:Dentists / Q000523:psychology*; D005120:Extraversion, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007439:Introversion, Psychological; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010465:Perception; D010551:Personality; D010555:Personality Inventory; D014481:United States