Psychological determinants of successful practical teaching: personality traits, self-efficacy, and subjective perception in a hands-on clinical skills course

PURPOSE: Physical examination is central to undergraduate medical education, yet students may differ in how they experience group-based clinical skills training. This study investigated associations between personality traits, self-efficacy, comfort in group learning settings, and self-assessed learning success in a peer-led physical examination course with standardized patients. METHODS: Medical students completed an online survey before and after the course. Personality traits were assessed using the NEO Five Factor Inventory, and self-efficacy was measured with the General Self-Efficacy Scale. Custom-designed scales assessed comfort in group learning settings and self-assessed confidence in eight physical examination skills. Self-assessed learning success was defined as the individual change in confidence between the two measurement points. RESULTS: Comfort in group learning settings was positively associated with self-efficacy and negatively associated with neuroticism. After Bonferroni correction, no significant associations were found between comfort and extraversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, or openness. neuroticism and self-efficacy were substantially negatively correlated. Comfort in group learning settings was positively associated with self-assessed learning success. Exploratory cluster analysis suggested two student profiles differing in neuroticism/self-efficacy, comfort, and self-assessed learning success. CONCLUSION: The findings indicate that students' experiences in group-based physical examination training are associated with individual psychological characteristics, particularly neuroticism and self-efficacy. Clinical skills training should foster psychological safety, structured feedback, scaffolded practice, and low-stakes learning opportunities to support students with different learner profiles. Future studies should include objective performance measures to complement self-assessed outcomes.