Comparative study of affective temperaments between medical students and humanities students(evaluation by validated temps-a)

Introduction While the links between cyclothymia and creativity are well documented, the experts have tried to determine whether temperament would influence the major choices of life such as career. Objectives The study aims mainly to evaluate the temperaments of a sample of Tunisian students, and to look for the possible correlations between the temperament and the choice of studies. Methods The Tunisian version of the TEMPS-A which is a self-evaluation measure to assess affective temperaments was administered to 100 medical students and 100 humanities students. Results Student populations differed in their socio-demographic and scholar variables such as age, sex ratio or socio-economic level, choice of studies and their religiosity. The temperamental prevalences were close between our two populations by considering the threshold score Mean +1standard deviation; they ranged between 13 and 18%. Hyperthymic and cyclothymic scores were significantly higher among humanities students (11.38 ± 4.385 versus 9.00 ± 4.192 and 11.96 ± 4.497 versus 9.63 ± 4.499 respectively) and irritable scores were higher in the latter, though not significant (6.45 ± 3.823 versus 5.39 ± 2.998). Depressive and anxious temperament scores were close in both groups. The study showed significant temperament differences within gender, socioeconomic status, high school marks, religiosity and political affiliation. Conclusions It is relevant and even necessary to include such studies in the selection of candidates who could adapt to a specific professional field on the basis of objective criteria such as conscientiousness, and privileging profile diversity.