Personality and values as predictors of medical specialty choice Brian J. Taber a, ⁎, Paul J. Hartung b , Nicole J. Borges c a Department of Counseling, Oakland University, 440F Pawley Hall, Rochester, MI 48309-4494, USA b Department of Behavioral and Community Health Sciences, Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy, USA c Department of Community Health, Boonshoft School of Medicine, Wright State University, USA article info abstract Article history: Received 31 August 2010 Available online 16 September 2010 Research rarely considers the combined influence of personality traits and values in predicting behavioral outcomes. We aimed to advance a germinal line of inquiry that addresses this gap by separately and simultaneously examining personality traits and physician work values to predict medical specialty choice. First-year medical students (125 women and 119 men) responded to measures of personality and physician work values. After graduation, participants' residency choices were identified. Results indicated that personality traits predict person- or technique-oriented medical specialty choice. Physician work values, whether used alone or in tandem with personality traits, however, did not significantly predict specialty choice. Implications for practice and research are discussed. © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Personality Work values Career decision making Career specialty choice Medical career development Work values have long been considered as a trait variable suitable for matching people to jobs in individual difference tradition (Lofquist & Dawis, 1978; Holland, 1997; Rounds, 1990; Super, 1970). As such, theorists and researchers have advanced work values, much like personality traits, as useful for predicting and promoting a range of behavioral outcomes. Such outcomes include occupational choice, work adjustment, and job satisfaction (Dawis, 1991, 2001; Holland, 1997; Super, 1995; Zytowski, 1994). Both work values and personality traits are widely thought to affect work motivation (Dawis, 2001; Furnham, Forder, & Ferrari, 1999) and research generally supports links between personality and vocational choice (Phillips & Jome, 2005). The utility of values alone as an individual difference variable for predicting vocational choice, while receiving some support (e.g., Judge & Bretz, 1992), has not, however, been as well studied and consequently not as well supported by the literature (Dawis, 2001; Hirschi, 2008). Some research suggests that examining the combined influence of values and other variables, such as personality and vocational interests, may be a more useful approach to using values for predicting behavioral outcomes like vocational choice (Duffy, Borges, & Hartung, 2009; Hirschi, 2008; Parks & Guay, 2009; Rounds, 1990). The present study aimed to further test this possibility by examining the combined influence of personality traits and values in predicting medical specialty choice. Distinct lines of inquiry have investigated the particular and separate influences of values and personality on human behavior. Seldom have researchers examined the potential joint influences of these variables on behavioral outcomes. To address this problem, Parks and Guay (2009) developed a model that simultaneously considers values and personality in motivational processes related, respectively, to goal content such as achieving good grades and goal striving such as persisting in a behavior despite obstacles. Within this framework, personality traits reflect what people tend to do naturally and values reflect what people believe they ought to do. When combined, personality traits and values may increase predictability of behavioral outcomes because they represent distinct yet complementary variables (Parks, 2007). Recent work in vocational psychology (Berings, De Fruyt & Bouwen, 2004; Hirschi, 2008; Duffy et al., 2009) has begun to examine personality and values, both in tandem and along with other constructs. This work aims to gain a more complete and holistic understanding of how these variables influence vocational behavior. Notably, Hirschi (2008) examined personality Journal of Vocational Behavior 78 (2011) 202–209 ⁎ Corresponding author. Fax: +1 248 370 4141. E-mail address: taber@oakland.edu (B.J. Taber). 0001-8791/$ – see front matter © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2010.09.006 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Vocational Behavior journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jvb