Comparison of personality variables and values among dental students, practitioners, and faculty.

Changes in personality and values in four classes of dental students at the University of Alabama School of Dentistry were reported in a previous paper. The purposes of this study were to determine the permanency of these changes after graduation and to compare the personalities and values of students and graduates to those of the faculty. Data were collected using the Myers-Briggs type indicator and the All-port-Vernon-Lindzey study of values. Analysis of variance was used to determine differences among the three groups. Graduates tended to resemble themselves as students. On nine of the ten variables, the faculty clustered differently from the students, the graduates, or both groups, raising the issue of the extent to which faculty members serve as role models.

Analysis of personality traits of the contemporary dental student.

The Allport-Vernon-Lindzey Study of Values (AVL) and the Myers-Briggs Type Inventory (MBTI) were administered to four classes of students upon their matriculation into dental school and readministered during each year until graduation. Over the four years, scores on the economic and political scales of the AVL increased significantly but decreased significantly on the social scale. Female students were more aesthetic than males and less politically inclined. On the MBTI, scores remained relatively stable over the entire four years. However, females were significantly more intuitive and more feeling than males. In general, this sample of dental students, who graduated in 1979, 1980, 1981, and 1982, was quite similar in personality to samples of dental students of the early 1960s.