Personality preferences of lecturers and students at a pharmacy schgol SEBASTIAAN ROTHMA , WILLEM DIEDERICK BASSON and ’JOHANNA CHRISTINA ROTHMANN Background - Jung’s theory of psychological types and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) continue to gain popularity in social and behavioural sciences. The MBTI was developed to measure people’s personality preferences. Objectives - To compare the personality preferences of pharmacy students and lecturers at a tertiary education institution and to determine if personality preferences are related to academic performance. Method - A survey design was used. and lecturers of a pharmacy school at a university. Key findims - The MBTI instrument was completed by 603 out of 686 undergraduates (87.9 per cent), all master’s students and all 35 lecturers. The results showed that pharmacy students and lecturers preferred sensing and judgment. It appeared that students’ preferences for extraversion and perception were related to lower academic performance and slower advancement through the pharmacy course. Conclusion - Pharmaceutical care requires understanding of the preferences of self and others. Pharmacy students and lecturers need to know their own and others’ MBTI preferences, and to develop skills in the opposite or shadow preferences. - The study population included undergraduate and master’s students THE personality preferences of pharmacy stu- dents and lecturers play a role in their learning and teaching. In a study in the United States it was found that the learning styles of students are largely dependent on their personality prefer- Ences.1 Differences in personality preferences be- tween people will cause natural and predictable differences in learning styles and in students’ re- sponses to teaching methods.2 The personality preferences of lecturers may also differ from each xher as well as from those of their students, which will cause different teaching styles.3 The Pharmacy Council of South Africa adopt- :d the concept of pharmaceutical care for the practice of pharmacy.4 According to Cipolle et zl,5 pharmaceutical care is a practice in which the practitioner takes responsibility for the drug-re- lated needs of a patient and is subsequently held accountable for meeting those needs. The implementation of pharmaceutical care requires that pharmacists should move away from a product approach towards the needs of 3atients. Pharmacy lecturers’ and students’ per- sonality preferences might be a stumbling block n implementing the policy of pharmaceutical :are, especially if they are not aware of their pref- :rences and those of their patients or clients.6 Jung’s theory of psychological types7 and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)* are often itilised to conceptualise personality preferences and the effects thereof on education. The MBTI measures the following preferences of people: 0 The way individuals prefer to relate to others: 0 The way individuals prefer to gather data: 0 The way individuals prefer to make decisions: 0 The way individuals prefer to organise them- extraversion (E) - introversion (I) sensing (S) - intuition (N) thinking (T) - feeling (F) selves: judgment (J) - perception (P). All individuals can be plotted on these contin- uums and receive a four-letter code which de- scribes their personalities. Individuals are mostly interested in their dominant preferences, which lead them to become more skilful in them.* While the development of the preferred function is oc- curring, there is a relative neglect of the opposite pole of the same preference that will stay unde- veloped. The educational environment can either en- courage or discourage individuals’ natural pref- erences. Individuals with the same kinds of preferences are inclined to understand each oth- er the best.8 A lecturer may reinforce the prefer- ences of students that correspond with his or her own and/or neglect the fact that students whose preferences differ from his or hers prefer other learning styles. Students whose preferences are Programme in Industrial and Personnel Psychology, Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, Private Bag X6001, Potchefstroom 2520, South Africa Sebastiaan Rothmann, PhD, associate professor Department of Pharmacy Practice, Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education Willem Diederick Basson, Mpharm, lecturer Department of Research, Development and Training, S. Buys Pharmacy Group, Western Levels, South Africa Johanna Christina Rothmann, PhD, MPharm, research, development and training consultant Correspondence: Dr S. Rothmann bpksr@puknet.puk. ac.za Int J Pharm Pract 2000;8:225-33 SEPTEMBER 2000, THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PHARMACY PRACTICE 225