title: [The influence of phychological features and learning styles on the academic performance of medical students].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The degree of difficulty we experience while learning different concepts and skills depends, among other things, on our psychological features and learning style. This may be particularly true for medical students, whose formation involves the acquisition of multiple cognitive, affective and psychomotor skills.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To assess whether the psychological features and learning styles of medical students are associated with their academic performance.
  
  
  METHODS
  The psychological preferences and learning styles of 66 students of the 2001-graduating cohort were determined with the Myers Briggs Type Inventory (MBTI) and the Kolb Learning Style Inventory (LSI), respectively. The academic performance was assessed by the Calificación Médica Nacional (CMN), Chile and by the marks obtained during the Basic (1st to 3rd), Preclinical (4th and 5th) and Clinical (6th and 7th) years of undergraduate training.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The psychological features, together with the sex of students were found to be associated with the performance in the Preclinical and Clinical years, and to the CMN. In men, the interest and ability to communicate with people and the concern for harmony, and in women the tendency to function in a systematic and orderly way are the features associated to high academic performance. No associations were found between learning styles and academic performance.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The finding that the psychological preferences of medical students are relevent to their academic performance opens a new perspective to analyze the medical education and to design programs aimed at improving learning.
authors.affiliation: Centro de Educación Médica, Escuela de Medicina, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. mbitran@med.puc.cl
authors.forename: Marcela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bitran
authors.forename: Montserrat
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lafuente
authors.forename: Denisse
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zúñiga
authors.forename: Paola
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Viviani
authors.forename: Beltrán
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Mena
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002677:Chile; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate / Q000592:standards*; D004521:Educational Measurement; D005120:Extraversion, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007439:Introversion, Psychological; D007858:Learning; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012737:Sex Factors; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*