gms | German Medical Science

Introduction: The acceptance of feedback depends on various factors like for example the learning environment [1]. Individual personality factors and their role in the acceptance of feedback by medical students have only been rarely investigated.

Subjects: Do the personality factors such as uncertainty tolerance, fear of negative evaluation, neuroticism, extraversion, social compatibility, openness for new experience and conscientiousness influence the perception of feedback?

Method: 128 students in their first year of study and 100 students in their 4th year of study at HHU Düsseldorf participated in an online questionnaire including the scale fear of negative evaluation (SANB-5), the uncertainty tolerance scale (UGTS) and the personality questionnaire NEO-FFI. Afterwards an online survey on the general perception of peer-feedback was performed based on scientific sources regarding the perception of feedback. It was analyzed descriptively, by Spearman rank correlation.

Results: Several interrelationships between personality characteristics and single items of the questionnaire for the perception of peer-feedback were found. The higher the values for uncertainty tolerance, the less students had problems with the acceptance of feedback (r=224; p=.003 N=170). In contrast, the higher the values on the scale fear of negative evaluation (r=-.332; p<.001 N=170) and for neuroticism (r=-.271; p<001 N=172) among the students, the more difficulties they had with accepting feedback. For giving feedback it was exactly the opposite. The higher the values for uncertainty tolerance, the better they felt prepared to give feedback (r=-.16 p=.037 n=170). In contrast, the higher the values on the scale fear of negative evaluation (r=.282 p<.001 N=170) and for neuroticism (r=.156; p=.041 N=172) among the students, the worse they feel prepared to give feedback.

Discussion: The results suggest that personality factors do have an influence on the perception of feedback. In addition to the learning environment, personality factors should be more considered in feedback-situations and in the preparation for feedback.