Personality factors in professional ethical behaviour: Studies of empathy and narcissism.

An investigation into personality factors possibly underlying ethical behaviour in medical students and doctors suggested the need to investigate two primary dimensions, empathy and narcissism. An experimental self-report questionnaire combining these dimensions was devised and administered in various forms to large samples of medical school applicants (total N > 8000). Factor analyses yielded four factor scales, labelled Narcissism, Aloofness, Empathy and Confidence, which were combined in a 100-item instrument intended for screening purposes. Two validation studies were subsequently undertaken, with New Zealand medical students (n = 237) and Scottish medical school applicants (n = 510), with different batteries of personality, values and attitude scales, plus a measure of moral orientation (see Bore et al, this symposium). Both samples yielded strikingly similar factor structures, showing separate factors for narcissism (related to disagreeableness, rejection of social conventions, anxiety, aggression, social dominance and reward sensitivity), empathy (related positively to emotional intelligence, openness, 'moving towards' others and negatively to aloofness and tough-mindedness), and moral orientation, plus a bipolar general factor Extraversion versus Neuroticism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]