Department of Psychiatry, Centro Hospitalar Lisboa Norte, Portugal.
Int J Med Educ. 2021 Apr 29;12:76-83. doi: 10.5116/ijme.606a.f16c.
We aimed to explore empathy, moral competencies, callous traits, and temperament in a sample of medical students. Furthermore, we aimed to investigate differences in our variables across the 1st and 5th years of medical education and possible correlations between them.
This was a cross-sectional study with 138 medical students. We resorted to self-reported instruments that were given at the end of classes: Barrett-Lennard Relational Inventory, Temperament Evaluation of Memphis, Pisa and San Diego Auto-questionnaire, Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits, and Moral Competence Test. For the statistical analysis, we resorted to descriptive and inferential statistics, using non-parametric tests when data didn't follow a normal distribution.
We found no statistical difference between empathy scores in 1st (N=104, Mean=41.42, SD=22.48) and 5th year students (N=34, Mean=37.35, SD=23.35), t=0.908, p=0.366. Callous traits were negatively correlated with empathy (r=-0.444, p=0.000) and no correlation between moral competences and empathy (r=0.029, p=0.779) was observed. We found a negative correlation between empathy and cyclothymic, anxious and irritable temperaments (r=-0.334, p=0.000, r=-0.281, p=0.001, r=-0.400, p=0.000).
Our scores corroborate previous evidence that medical students are empathic, have good moral standards and low callous traits. We saw no differences in empathy scores between the two years and future studies could explore the particulars of medical curriculums impacting this variable. In our study, empathy was negatively correlated with callous traits and linked with specific temperaments. Considering these variables at admission to medical school as well as preserving and improving them in medical education might offer better standards of care.
我们旨在研究医学生群体中的同理心、道德能力、冷酷特质和气质。此外，我们还旨在调查医学教育第 1 年和第 5 年之间变量的差异，并研究它们之间的可能相关性。
这是一项横断面研究，共有 138 名医学生参与。我们使用课堂结束时的自我报告式工具：巴雷特-伦纳德关系量表、孟菲斯、比萨和圣地亚哥自动问卷气质评估量表、冷酷无情特质量表和道德能力测验。对于统计分析，我们使用描述性和推断性统计，当数据不符合正态分布时使用非参数检验。
我们没有发现第 1 年（N=104，平均值=41.42，标准差=22.48）和第 5 年学生（N=34，平均值=37.35，标准差=23.35）之间的同理心得分有统计学差异，t=0.908，p=0.366。冷酷特质与同理心呈负相关（r=-0.444，p=0.000），而道德能力与同理心之间没有相关性（r=0.029，p=0.779）。我们发现同理心与环性、焦虑和易怒气质呈负相关（r=-0.334，p=0.000，r=-0.281，p=0.001，r=-0.400，p=0.000）。
我们的分数证实了之前的证据，即医学生具有同理心、良好的道德标准和较低的冷酷特质。我们没有发现这两年之间的同理心得分差异，未来的研究可以探索影响这一变量的医学课程的具体细节。在我们的研究中，同理心与冷酷特质呈负相关，与特定气质相关。在医学院入学时考虑这些变量，并在医学教育中保留和提高这些变量，可能会提供更好的护理标准。
