Effects of stress and social phobia on medical students' specialty choices

As a consequence of stress in medical school, the careers of students with social phobia might be significantly influenced by behaviors and decisions based on avoidance of stressful situations. In 1985 third- and fourth-year students at Wright State University School of Medicine were asked to rate specialties as most and least stressful, to indicate whether they considered stress to be favorable or unfavorable, and to complete instruments measuring their stress and social phobia. Contrary to the investigators' expectations, there was no significant association among high stress, social phobia, and choice of least stressful specialties. Certain students who indicated that stress was unfavorable nevertheless chose high-stress specialties. Implications of these findings are discussed, and the findings are compared with outcomes of related studies.