The relationship between personality and success in language production tasks in pre-medical education

The study examined the impact of five personality traits (openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism) on communication skills of future physicians. A total of 139 pre-medical and health sciences students completed the 44-item Big Five Inventory and performed academic writing and oral presentation tasks. Analyses revealed that openness to experience and extraversion were positively associated with success in both writing (r = 0.292 and r = 0.310) and oral communication. Conscientiousness, agreeableness, and neuroticism showed no significant correlation with performance in these communication tasks. A strong positive correlation (r = 0.500) was found between written and oral proficiency, suggesting shared underlying cognitive processes. The results emphasize the importance of personality factors in medical education and indicate that identifying stable personality profiles can help educators provide targeted support for pre-medical students' diverse communication needs.