Personality Characteristics of Occupational Therapy Students and Clinicians

Abstract

Various occupational groups are often viewed as having a set of distinctive personality characteristics. The purpose of this study was to examine the personality traits of five subject groups: occupational therapy students in first, second, third and fourth years (N = 60) at the School of Rehabilitation Therapy at Queen 's University, and practicing occupational therapy clinicians from the Kingston area (N = 22). The Personality Research Form—E (PRF-E) was used to collect the data. As a combined group, students and clinicians were not distinguishable from the general population in terms of personality. For students notable correlation scores (p .01) between the year of study and the obtained PRF-E scores were observed on two scales: endurance (r = −0.31) and nurturance (r = −0.41). Analysis of variance indicated statistically significant differences (p .01 and p .05) between fourth year students and clinicians on certain personality variables. Fourth year students scored higher on the abasement, affiliation, change, nurturance, play and social recognition scales. Clinicians obtained higher scores for endurance and harm avoidance.