| Title |
Exploration of a possible relationship between examiner stringency and personality factors in clinical assessments: a pilot study
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
BMC Medical Education, December 2014
|
| DOI | 10.1186/s12909-014-0280-3 |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
Yvonne Finn, Peter Cantillon, Gerard Flaherty |
| Abstract |
BackgroundThe reliability of clinical examinations is known to vary considerably. Inter-examiner variability is a key source of this variability. Some examiners consistently give lower scores to some candidates compared to other examiners and vice versa ¿ the `hawk- dove¿ effect. Stable examiner characteristics, such as personality factors, may influence examiner stringency. We investigated whether examiner stringency is related to personality factors.MethodsWe recruited 12 examiners to view and score a video-recorded five station OSCE of six Year 1 undergraduate medical students at our institution. In addition examiners completed a validated personality questionnaire. Examiners¿ markings were tested for statistically significant differences using non-parametric one way analysis of variance. The relationship between examiners¿ markings and examiner personality factors was investigated using Spearman correlation coefficient.ResultsAt each station there was a statistically significant difference between examiners markings, confirming the presence of inter-examiner variability. Correlation analysis showed no association between stringency and any of the five major personality factors. When we omitted an outlier examiner we found a statistically significant negative correlation between examiner stringency and openness to experience with a correlation coefficients (rho) of ¿ 0.66 (p¿=¿0.03). Conversely there was a moderate positive correlation between examiner stringency and neuroticism with a correlation coefficient (rho) of 0.73 (p¿=¿0.01).ConclusionsIn this study we did not find any relationship between examiner stringency and examiner personality factors. However, following the elimination of an outlier examiner from the analysis, we found a significant relationship between examiner stringency and two of the big five personality factors (neuroticism and openness to experience). The significance of this outlier is not known. As this was a small pilot study we recommend further studies in this field to investigate it there is a relationship between examiner stringency in clinical assessments and personality factors. |
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Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Unknown | 1 | 100% |
Demographic breakdown
| Type | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals) | 1 | 100% |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 52 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 1 | 2% |
| Unknown | 51 | 98% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Student > Postgraduate | 7 | 13% |
| Other | 6 | 12% |
| Student > Master | 6 | 12% |
| Lecturer > Senior Lecturer | 5 | 10% |
| Lecturer | 3 | 6% |
| Other | 16 | 31% |
| Unknown | 9 | 17% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Medicine and Dentistry | 25 | 48% |
| Social Sciences | 5 | 10% |
| Nursing and Health Professions | 4 | 8% |
| Environmental Science | 2 | 4% |
| Unspecified | 1 | 2% |
| Other | 5 | 10% |
| Unknown | 10 | 19% |
Attention Score in Context
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#21,264,673
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Outputs of similar age from BMC Medical Education
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