Table 1.

The methodological characteristics of the research-type studies included in this review.

Author, Year, and Country	Title of the Study	Aim	Study Type	Sample	Median Age or Mean (Years)/Gender (%)	Methods/Scales	Observations
Guilera et al., 2019, Spain [1]	Empathy and big five personality model in medical students and its relationship to gender and specialty preference: a cross-sectional study.	To explore the relation-ship between empathy and personality	Prospective cross-sectional study)	110 medical students	22/76.4% F	JSPE IRI EQ NEO-FFI	Empathy is related to personality
Baron-Cohen et al., 2004, United Kingdom [2]	The empathy quotient: an investigation of adults with Asperger syndrome or high functioning autism, and normal sex differences	To test EQ score in high-functioning autism (HFA) and Asperger Syndrome (AS)	Prospective case–control study	180 high-functioning autism (HFA) and Asperger Syndrome (AS) subjects	34.2/72.22% M	EQ WAIS-R	Empathy deficit in AS/HFA
Hojat et al., 2015, USA [4]	Eleven years of data on the Jefferson scale of empathy-medical student version (JSE-S): proxy norm data and tentative cutoff scores	To obtain cutoff scores for the JSE S-version	Prospective observational study	2637 medical students	23.4 ± 2.4 SD/50.66% F	JSE-S	Usefulness of empathy in decision making
Yusoff et al., 2018, Malaysia [5]	Which personality traits have favourable impact on psychological health during stressful condition?	To investigate which personality traits have a favourable impact on the psychological health of medical students during the most stressful period	Prospective cross-sectional study	174 medical students	19.27/67.2% F	Personality type DASS-21 USMaP-i	NEO-FFI Favourable impact on neuroticism, unfavourable impact on stress
Kwon et al., 2016, Korea [6]	Specialty Choice Preference of Medical Students According to Personality Traits by Five-Factor Model.	To evaluate personality by NEO-FFI	Prospective cross-sectional study	110 medical students	28.9 ± 2.1 SD/ 39% F	Personality traits by NEO-FFI	Personality important in choosing medical specialty
McCrae et al., 1989, USA [7]	Reinterpreting the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator from the Perspective of the Five-Factor Model of Personality.	The MBTI indicator was evaluated from the perspectives of Jung’s theory of psychological types and the five-factor model of personality on the NEO-PI	Prospective observational longitudinal study	468 adults	62.7 M and 58.9 F/57.05% M	MBTI indicator NEO-PI Psychological types	To reinterpret the MBTI in terms of the five-factor model
Olsson et al., 2020, Sweden [8]	Personality and Learning Styles in Relation to Attitudes towards Interprofessional Education: A Cross-Sectional Study on Undergraduate Medical Students during Their Clinical Courses	To investigate the effect of personality traits and learning styles on medical students’ attitudes towards IPE	Prospective cross-sectional study	79 medical students	29/63% F	NEO-FFI IPE	No correlation between personality, learning style and attitude towards IPE
Tamannaeifar et al., 2014, Iran [11]	The relationship between personality characteristics, social support and life satisfaction with university students’ academic performance	To investigate the relationship among personality characteristics, social support and life satisfaction with academic performance	Prospective descriptive, correlative survey	250 humanities’ students	-/-	NEO-FFI MOS-SSS SWLS	Relationship between neuroticism and conscientiousness with academic performance
Nasri et al., 2017, Iran [12]	Personality characteristics, irrational beliefs, and communication skills as predictors school counselors’ job performance.	To predict counsellors’ job performance based on their personality	Prospective clustering random sampling method	283 counsellors working	-/-	NEO-FFI	Personality characteristics are predictors of counsellors’ job performance
Vassend et al., 2011, USA [13]	The NEO personality inventory revised (NEO-PI-R): Exploring the measurement structure and variants of the five-factor model	To evaluate NEO-PI-R personality	Prospective study	856 adults	50.8/55.84% F	NEO-PI-R	NEO-PI-R reflects personality
Lievens et al., 2002, Belgium [14]	Medical students’ personality characteristics and academic performance: a five-factor model perspective	To evaluate NEO-PI-R personality	Prospective cross-sectional inventory study and prospective longitudinal study of one cohort of medical students	785 Flemish medical students and 1361 students from Ghent University	18.2/60% F	NEO-PI-R	Personality assessment—a useful tool in student counselling and guidance
Han et a., 2017, USA [15]	Big five personality factors and facets as predictors of openness to diversity	To examine the associations between NEO-FFI higher order factors and lower order factors and universal-diverse orientation	Prospective cross-sectional study	Study 1—388 medical students and Study 2—176 undergraduates	21.18/58.6% F—study 1 21.01/72.2% F—study 2	NEO-FFI UDO	Practical implications on how personality factors are incorporated into current diversity interventions
Borges et al., 2008, USA [16]	Emotional intelligence and medical specialty choice: findings from three empirical studies	To examine emotional intelligence (EI) and specialty choice among students at three US medical schools	Prospective observational study	84 medical students—study 1 250 medical students—study 2 292 medical students—study 3	24.3/50% F—study 1 22.7/44.8% F—study 2 23.6/38% F—study 2	MSCEIT TM study 1 TMMS and IRI, study 2 EQ-I®, study 3	No significant differences in EI between students entering primary care and non-primary care specialties
Hojat et al., 2008, USA [17]	Personality and specialty interest in medical students	To evaluate the impact of personality score on career interests	Prospective observational study	1076 medical students	-/64% M	ZKPQ-S	Personalities of medical students predict their career interests
Lambert et al., 2005, USA [18]	The relationship between specialty choice and gender of U.S. Medical Students, 1990–2003	To assess the relationship between specialty choice and gender	Prospective observational study on 14 years	184262 medical school graduates	-/34.6% F	AAMC GQ	Women were not more responsible than men for from uncontrollable lifestyle specialties
McGreevy et al., 2002, USA [19]	Preliminary measurement of the surgical personality.	To test for a distinct surgical personality	Prospective observational study	39 surgical residents	/61.53% M	NEO-PI-R	Similarity of trait variance from the general population in both male and female surgical residents
Hoffman et al., 2010, United Kingdom [20]	Personality differences between surgery residents, nonsurgery residents, and medical students	To examine specialty group differences in personality traits	Prospective observational study	274 surgical residents and 207 medical students	/53% M	OCEAN personality	Greater levels of conscientiousness were observed in surgery residents
Preece et al., 2016, United Kingdom [21]	Are surgeons born or made? A comparison of personality traits and learning styles between surgical trainees and medical students	To score 5 personality domains (extraversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, openness to experience, and neuroticism)	Prospective cross-sectional study	53 medical students and 37 surgical trainees	-/-	FFM	Similarities in the personality traits and learning styles of surgical trainees and students interested in surgical career
Foster et al., 2010, USA [22]	A psychological profile of surgeons and surgical residents	To determine work-related personality and interest variables	Prospective observational study	63 surgical residents and 27 attending/teaching surgeons	31.2/74.60% M surgical residents 49.3/ 92.59% M teaching surgeons	CIA JSI	WOWI Online assessment tool provides a stable profile of successful surgeons
Hayashi et al., 2012, Japan [23]	Changes in attitudes toward interprofessional health care teams and education in the first- and third-year undergraduate students	To assess the implementation of a lecture style for 1st year students and a training style for 3rd year students	Prospective observational study	285 medical students	-/-	ATHCTS RIPLS	Scores improved after the training-style learning approach was implemented in the third-year students
Wilhelmsson et al., 2011, Sweden [24]	Are female students in general and nursing students more ready for teamwork and interprofessional collaboration in healthcare?	To investigate if student characteristics have an impact on their open-mindedness about cooperation with other professionals	Prospective cross-sectional study	670 medical students	-/73.1% F	RIPLS	Indicates some directions for more successful interprofessional education
Alghasham et al., 2021, Saudi Arabia [25]	Effect of students’ learning styles on classroom performance in problem-based learning	To identify learning styles	Prospective observational study	65 medical students	-/73.84% M	Learning Style Inventory Questionnaire	Students should be informed about their preferred learning style
Tariq et al., 2016, Pakistan [26]	Association between academic learning strategies and annual examination results among medical students of King Edward Medical University	To find an association between academic learning strategies and annual examination	Prospective simple random sampling	300 medical students	-/56% F	Biodata pro forma ILS questionnaire	Females outperform their male counterparts in academic performance
Avrech Bar et al., 2018, Israel [27]	The role of personal resilience and personality traits of healthcare students on their attitudes towards interprofessional collaboration.	To examine the attitudes of nursing, occupational therapy and physical therapy students towards interprofessional collaboration	Prospective descriptive cross-sectional study	184 healthcare students	25.4 ± 2.8/16.8% M	IEPS CD-RISC BFI	IPE, including PBL, should be integrated in health profession students’ training
Hojat et al., 2011, USA [28]	Empathic and sympathetic orientations toward patient care: conceptualization, measurement, and psychometrics.	To develop instruments for measuring empathic and sympathetic orientations in patient care and to provide evidence in support of their psychometrics	Prospective observational study	201 medical students	-/-	JSE IRI Empathic and Sympathetic Care	The validated measures of empathic and sympathetic orientation provide research opportunities
Abe et al., 2018, Japan [29]	Associations between emotional intelligence, empathy and personality in Japanese Medical Students.	To investigate: (1) The association between empathy, EI, and personality (2) Gender differences in the association between empathy, EI, and personality	Prospective observational study	351 medical students	20.42/70% M	TEIQue-SF JSPE NEO-FFI	Medical students’ EI may be enhanced with thoughtful training
Costa et al., 2014, Portugal [30]	Associations between medical student empathy and personality: a multi-institutional study.	To assess associations across institutions, looking for personality differences between students with high empathy and low empathy levels	Prospective observational study	472 medical students	21/66.10% F	NEO-FFI JSPE	Medical schools may need to pay attention to the personality of medical students
Chew et al., 2013, Malaysia [31]	Emotional intelligence and academic performance in first and final year medical students: a cross-sectional study	To examine the effect of EI on academic performance in first- and final-year medical students	Prospective cross-sectional study	163 medical students	21.8 ± 1.98/68.7% F	MSCEIT	Emotional skill development may enhance medical students’ academic performance
Aithal et al., 2016, India [32]	A survey-based study of emotional intelligence as it relates to gender and academic performance of medical students	To assess trait EI, to examine possible differences in EI level, and to establish a correlation between the EI of medical students and their academic performance	Prospective cross-sectional survey	200 undergraduate medical students	-/107 F/95 M	TEIQue-SF	Positive correlation between EI and academic performance
Magalhães et al., 2012, Portugal [33]	Empathy of medical students and personality: evidence from the five-factor model	To test hypothetical associations between personality dimensions and empathy scores in medical students	Prospective observational study	350 medical students	-/69.8% F	NEO-FFI JSPE-spv	Personality of students should be taken into account in programs to enhance empathy
Hojat et al., 2013, USA [34]	Enhancing and sustaining empathy in medical students	To test the hypotheses that medical students’ empathy can be enhanced and sustained by targeted activities	Prospective control-group study	248 medical students	-/51% F	JSE	Medical students’ empathy can be enhanced and sustained
Bertram et al., 2016, USA [35]	Strong correlations between empathy, emotional intelligence, and personality traits among podiatric medical students: a cross-sectional study	To evaluate empathy levels in podiatric medical students in a 4-year doctoral program	Prospective cross-sectional observational study	150 medical students	-/53.3% F	EI JSPE NEO-FFI	Strong correlation between empathy, EI, and personality in podiatric medical students
Youssef et al., 2014, Caribbean [36]	An exploration of changes in cognitive and emotional empathy among medical students in the Caribbean	To explore the empathy profile of students across five years of medical training	Prospective comparative cross-sectional design	669 medical students	22–27 years/65% F	JSPE RMET TEQ	Medical students’ lower empathy scores appear to be due to a change in the affective component of empathy
San-Martín et al., 2016, Spain [37]	Empathy, inter-professional collaboration, and lifelong medical learning in Spanish and Latin-American physicians-in-training who start their postgraduate training in hospitals in Spain. Preliminary outcomes	To identify similarities and differences in empathy, abilities toward interprofessional collaboration, and lifelong medical learning, between Spanish and Latin-American physicians	Prospective observational study	156 physicians-in-training	24–50 years/63.46% F	JSE Jefferson scale attitudes	Positive influence of empathy in the development of interprofessional collaboration abilities
Dávila-Pontón et al., 2020, Ecuador [38]	Empathy and personality styles in medical students	To establish the relationship between empathy and personality styles in medical students	Prospective non-experimental, descriptive, cross-sectional study	278 medical students	20.88 ± 2.78/59.7% F	JSE MIPS	Female students present an average score of total empathy greater than men
Ratelle et al., 2007, Canada [39]	Autonomous, controlled, and amotivated types of academic motivation: a person-oriented analysis.	To investigate students’ profiles regarding autonomous, controlled, and amotivated regulation, and test whether profile groups differed on some academic adjustment outcomes	Prospective control group study	4498 high school students	14.97/50.28% M	Academic motivational profiles	Underscores the importance of studying students’ motivation using a person-oriented approach
Doménech-Betoret et al., 2017, Spain [40]	Self-Efficacy, satisfaction, and academic achievement: the mediator role of students’ expectancy-value beliefs.	To examine and identify underlying motivational processes through which students’ academic self-efficacy affects student achievement and satisfaction	Prospective observational study	797 secondary education students	12–17 years/ 50.7% M	Self-efficacy The achievement/satisfaction relationship	Students’ expectancy value beliefs played a mediator role between academic self-efficacy and the achievement/satisfaction relationship
Webb et al., 2010, USA [41]	Emotional Intelligence and the ACGME Competencies.	To evaluate the use of EI assessment and training tools in assessing and enhancing interpersonal and communication skills	Prospective control-group study	21 residents	-/-	ESCI	EI is a necessary skill in today’s health care
Gough et al., 1991, USA [42]	Performance of residents in anesthesiology as related to measures of personality and interests	To study personality variables	Prospective observational study	99 residents in anaesthesiology	-/-	CPI SII	Empathic sensing by the anaesthesiologist function positively
LePine et al., 2000, USA [43]	Adaptability to changing task contexts: effects of general cognitive ability, conscientiousness, and openness to experience	To examine the extent to which cognitive ability, conscientiousness, and openness to experience predict decision-making performance	Prospective observational study	73 undergraduates	-/-	BFIDecision making performance	Unexpected low conscientiousness made better decisions
Shankar et al., 2013, Caribbean [44]	Student attitude towards communication skills learning in a Caribbean Medical School.	to establish the attitude of students towards to communication skils	Prospective observational study	73 undergraduate medical students	20–25 years/47.1% M	CSAS	Students overall had a positive attitude towards communication skills
Akbarilakeh et al., 2020, Iran [45]	Predicating attitude toward learning communication skills in medical students of Shahid Beheshti University.	To investigate the attitude toward learning communication skills based on the personality traits of medical students	Prospective correlational study	234 medical students	-/65% F	CSAS Zuckerman–Kuhlman personality questionnaire contains 5 personality dimensions	The dimension of demographic characteristics are effective in improving the communication skills of medical students
Gheirati et al., 2016, Iran [46]	Relationship between communication skills and mental health among the students of Mashhad University Of Medical Sciences	To determine associations between communication skills and mental health	Prospective cross-sectional analytical study	210 medical students	-/-	Communication Skills Questionnaires General Health Questionnaires	To promote the mental health of the students, it is recommended to conduct psychological assessments of the students
Nami et al., 2014, Iran [47]	The Role of students personality traits on students learning style in university of medical sciences	To investigate the relationship between personality traits and Kolb learning style	Prospective observational study (MANOVA test)	300 medical students	-/-	Neo-FFI Kolb learning style questionnaire	Significant relationships among the components of personality traits and their learning style
Molinuevo et al., 2013, Spain [48]	Does personality predict medical students’ attitudes to learning communication skills?	To determine whether personality is related to medical students’ attitudes towards learning communication skills and self-ratings on communication skills	Prospective control-group study	1031 medical students (divided in 2 groups: 524 1st-year students and 507 2nd-year students)	18.89 ± 3.21 years—1st-year students/66% F 20.11 ± 3.10 years—2nd-year students/70% F	CSAS EPQ ZKPQ	Personality traits are useful for better student career guidance and counselling
Zare-Alamshiri et al., 2017, Iran [49]	Prediction of communication skills based on psycho-social class atmosphere and social anxiety of high school students	To predict the psychological atmosphere of social communication skills and social anxiety in high school students	Prospective observational study	210 high school students	-/-	Social anxiety scale CSAS classroom psychosocial climate scale	Psychosocial classroom atmosphere can predict communication skills and social anxiety
O’Tuathaigh et al., 2019, Ireland [50]	Medical students’ empathy and attitudes towards professionalism: relationship with personality, specialty preference and medical programme	To examine how empathy, personality, and background factors might impact students’ attitudes towards professionalism in medicine	Prospective cross-sectional questionnaire-based study	241 medical students	18–22 (46.6%), 23–27 (43.3%), 28–32 (8.8%), 33–37 (0.8%), 38–42 (0.5%)/49.2% F	JSE NEO-FFI Attitudes towards professionalism scale	Empathy and personality factors may act as determinants of students’ attitudes
Sims et al., 2017, United Kingdom [51]	Do the big-five personality traits predict empathic listening and assertive communication?	To investigate whether the Big Five had predictive influences on communication competences of active-empathic listening (AEL) and assertiveness	Prospective observational study	245 adults	<25 years 59; 26–35 years: 42; 36–45 years: 50; 46–55 years: 64; >56 years: 28/75.9% F	AEL IPIP RAS	Agreeableness and Openness uniquely predicted AEL Extraversion had the biggest influence on assertiveness
Kuntze etl., 2016, Holland [52]	Big five personality traits and assertiveness do not affect mastery of communication skills.	To investigate whether the big-five personality factors and assertiveness predict mastery of communication skills	Prospective observational study	143 bachelor students of a psychology curriculum	19/83% F	FFPI SIB CSPT	Trainees can become professional communicators, regardless of their scores on these personality factors
Franco et al., 2020, Brazilia [53]	The assessment of personality traits and its association with learning communication skills	To investigate the association between personality traits and attitudes toward learning communication skills in undergraduate medical students	Prospective observational study	204 students	-/-	CSAS BFMM	Elation between agreeableness, extraversion and openness to experience with attitudes on communication skills in students
Vermetten et al., 2001, The Netherlands [54]	The Role of personality traits and goal orientations in strategy use	To contribute to the development of an integrated theory on individual learning differences	Prospective observational study	310 students	21.5/75% F	ILS Goal orientation scale SITIQ Big Five personality factors	Individual differences in learning consist of and help explain regularities in learning behaviour
Holen et al., 2015, Norway [55]	Medical students’ preferences for problem-based learning in relation to culture and personality: a multicultural study	To explore positive and negative preferences towards PBL in relation to personality traits and sociocultural context	Prospective cross-sectional survey	449 medical students (123 from Nepal, 229 from Norway and 97 from the USA)	21.4 Nepal/34.9% F 22.1 Norway/55.28% F 24.1 USA/ 46.10% F	PBL	Preferences related to PBL were significantly and independently determined by personality traits and culture
Tsou et al., 2013, Taiwan [56]	Using personal qualities assessment to measure the moral orientation and personal qualities of medical students in a non-western culture	To select candidates with appropriate personal qualities for medical school	Prospective observational study	746 medical students	20.3 ± 2.2/ 65.8% M	Mojac and NACE scale of PQA Big Five” personality traits	Significant relationships were observed between test components and between the NACE and Big 5

Legend: AAMC GQ—Association of American Medical Colleges’ (AAMC) Medical School Graduation Questionnaire (GQ); AEL—active-empathic listening; AS—Asperger Syndrome; ATHCTS—modified Attitudes Toward Health Care Teams Scale; BFI—Big Five Inventory; BFMM—the Big Five Mini-Markers; CD-RISC—Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale; CIA—Career Interest Activities; CPI—California Psychological Inventory; CSAS—Communication Skills Attitude Scale; CSPT—Communication Skills Progress Test; DASS-21—21-item Depression Anxiety Stress Scale; EI—emotional intelligence; EPQ—Eysenck Personality Questionnaire; EQ—the Empathy Quotient; EQ-I^®—Bar-On Emotional Quotient Inventory; ESCI—Emotional and Social Competence Inventory; FFM—International Personality Item Pool Big-Five Factor Marker; FFPI—Five Factor Personality Inventory; HFA—high-functioning autism; F—female; ILS—Index of Learning Style; IPE—interprofessional education; IEPS—The Interdisciplinary Education Perception Scale; IPIP—Big-Five factor markers from the International Personality Item Pool; IRI—Interpersonal Reactivity Index; JSE—Jefferson Scale of Empathy; JSI—Job Satisfaction Indicators; JSPE—Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy; JSE-S—the Jefferson Scale of Empathy—medical student version; M—male; MBTI—The Myers–Briggs Type Indicator; MIPS—Millon Index of Personality Styles; MOJAC—to measure moral orientation; MOS-SSS—MOS-Social Support Scale; MSCEIT ^TM—Mayer–Salovey–Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test; NACE scale measures: Narcissism (N), Aloofness (A), (Self-)Confidence (C), and Empathy (E); NEO-FFI—the NEO-FFI Big Five personality model (neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness and conscientiousness); NEO-PI—NEO Personality Inventory; NEO-PI-R—The NEO personality inventory revised; OCEAN personality: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism; PBL—problem-based learning; PQA—Personal Qualities Assessment; RAS—Rathus assertiveness schedule; RIPLS—modified Readiness of health care students for Interprofessional Learning Scale; RMET—Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test; SF—Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire-Short Form; SIB—Scale for Interpersonal Behavior; SII—Strong Interest Inventory; SITIQ—Self-Implicit Theories of Intelligence Questionnaire; SWLS—Satisfaction With Life Scale; TEQ—Toronto Empathy Questionnaire; TEIQue-TMMS—Trait Meta–Mood Scale; UDO—universal diverse orientation; USMaP-i—USM Personality Inventory; WAIS—Wechsler adult intelligence scale; ZKPQ—Zuckerman-Kuhlman Personality Questionnaire; ZKPQ-S—Zuckerman–Kuhlman personality questionnaire—short form.