title: How do medical students differ in their interpersonal needs?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Knowing one's interpersonal relationship preferences can be tremendously helpful for medical students' lives. The purpose of this study was to examine the interpersonal needs in medical students.
  
  
  METHODS
  Between 2010 and 2015, a total of 877 students from four Korean medical schools took the Korean version of the Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation - Behaviour (FIRO-B) scale. The FIRO-B results were analyzed by descriptive statistics, frequency, independent t-test, and one-way ANOVA.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The medical students' scores for interpersonal needs were moderate overall, with the highest scores for control (M = 8.63, SD = 3.08), followed by affection (M = 8.14, SD = 4.34), and inclusion (M = 7.81, SD = 4.30). Gender differences showed in three areas: expressed control (male > female, t = 4.137, p < 0.001), wanted affection (male < female, t = -3.148, p = 0.002), and control needs (male > female, t = 2.761, p = 0.006). By school type, differences were shown in expressed control (t = 3.581, p < 0.001), wanted inclusion (t = 2.625, p = 0.009), Inclusion (t = 1.966, p = 0.050), and expressed (t = 2.077, p = 0.038); undergraduate medical college (MC) students' needs were greater than the needs of graduate medical school (MS) students, but for wanted control, the MS students showed greater needs (t = -2.122, p = 0.034).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There were differences in all categories except for expressed inclusion, wanted control, and control. The FIRO-B is a useful tool for giving insight into students regarding their interpersonal orientations, which will help them to adjust to medical school life. In addition, the FIRO-B can be useful when mentoring and coaching students.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Education, Konyang University College of Medicine, Daejeon, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Yera
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hur
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Education, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: A Ra
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.affiliation: Department of Parasitology and Institute of Medical Education, College of Medicine, Hallym University, Chuncheon, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Sun
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Huh
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Education, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Republic of Korea. skim@catholic.ac.kr.
authors.forename: Sun
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kim
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002983:Clinical Competence / Q000592:standards; D004503:Education, Medical, Graduate; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D010379:Peer Group; D010555:Personality Inventory; D056910:Republic of Korea; D012737:Sex Factors; D012931:Social Environment; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
keywords: Interpersonal education; Personal characteristics/attitudes; Physician/patient relationship