Do you need to be a “people person” to succeed in psychiatry?

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CidHighwind

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Hello,

Currently a fourth year medical student that still can’t seem to make up their mind on what specialty to do. A lot of people recommended psychiatry to me, and I did enjoy my psych rotation during third year. My question is, how much of a “people person” do you need to be to excel at this field? By that I mean someone that’s extroverted, great with social/nonverbal cues, has lots of friends, etc.
 
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No more than any other specialty or career. Being affable and able to get along with others is even important for pathologists, though maybe a bit less so. You don't have to be a social butterfly, if that's what you mean. The main thing you need is patience and empathy.
If you enjoyed your psychiatry rotation, consider doing another rotation or Sub internship if you want to be sure you enjoy and can do psychiatry.
 
WisNeuro said:
Define "people person."
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I mean, someone that people like and are naturally drawn to with excellent people skills. I get that that trait is good for any job, it just seems like more of a prerequisite for psych.
 
CidHighwind said:
I mean, someone that people like and are naturally drawn to with excellent people skills. I get that that trait is good for any job, it just seems like more of a prerequisite for psych.
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That's still pretty vague, but no, charisma is not a prerequisite in the field. I don't run across many that I would consider more than average in charisma. most are probably a 7-10 on their character sheets.
 
This is non-sense. At this point in time, psychiatry has become a fairly technical specialty, and the interactions with people are generally highly technical in nature. I would compare psychiatry with something like a specialty field of law or some other professional service (i.e. financial services, management consulting, etc), and better yet, another cognitive medical specialty (endocrine, rheumatology, etc).

You'd need to be much more "interpersonally warm"/"extroverted", etc in primary care or pediatrics, IMO.
 
There are plenty of strange psychiatrists that seem to do more or less fine in clinical encounters. I do think it's important to have some soft people skills and have higher-than-average emotional intelligence, but then again there are plenty of people who have neither, so...
 
CidHighwind said:
My question is, how much of a “people person” do you need to be to excel at this field? By that I mean someone that’s extroverted, great with social/nonverbal cues, has lots of friends, etc.
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Number of friends, popularity, and being extroverted in not important.

Reading social and non-verbal cues well can help make you a much better psychiatrist.
 
Most important trait to succeed is the ability to not hit on and not sleep with your patients.
 
TexasPhysician said:
Number of friends, popularity, and being extroverted in not important.

Reading social and non-verbal cues well can help make you a much better psychiatrist.
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Come on bra, I heard like every captain of the football team went into psychiatry bra. I show all my patients my insta likes and twitter follows for instant cred 🤣
 
I do not think extroversion would be particularly helpful in psychiatric practice. It's important to be a good listener. I'm not sure most extroverts have that quality. A lot of them seem to like to talk more than they like to listen, or even have a drive to perform for others' approval. Those traits are not helpful in psychiatry. I do agree with above posters that attunement to social cues is important.

Like hamstergang, I'm a pretty strong introvert and I also think I'm a good psychiatrist.
 
AD04 said:
Most important trait to succeed is the ability to not hit on and not sleep with your patients.
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Lack of failure isn't the same thing as success!

I've been wondering about the OP's question myself since now that I'm a few years out of residency, I'm realizing that I hate everyone. My status as a full-time, board-certified psychiatrist doesn't seem to be in jeopardy, though.

Edited to add: I forgot to mention, what leads to success in medicine, as in any profession, is schmoozing, so what's important is being a people person toward other doctors, not patients. To build a successful private practice, you'll have to go to meetings of your local society and walk around with a cocktail in your hand, striking up conversations with your peers about golf and asking how their wife and kids are doing or whatever it is normies talk about.
 
Trismegistus4 said:
Lack of failure isn't the same thing as success!
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A wise man tweeted (possibly on multiple occasions), "Always protect against the downside--the upside will take care of itself."

There is no success without guarding against failure.
 
The short answer is no. Extroversion/introversion has little to do with your ability for self-reflection, to listen, empathize, connect or read social cues. I've seen outstanding psychiatrists who can be either, and I actually think psychiatry is one of the medical specialties with the least bias against introverts.
 
Yes you have to have people skills and attunement to social cues to be a good psychiatrist. No possessing those attributes does not make you an extrovert or particularly "successful" in your personal life. You might have greater attunement to these things than you are aware.

I think the best people to ask are those to have clinically supervised you.
 
the tools that psychiatrists use and have are words and behavior. Therefore, it is very important that they are chosen carefully. Using them thoughtlessly will send patients into disaster mode.
 
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WisNeuro said:
Your charisma is more like a 5 on your character sheet. 2nd Edition, none of this 5th edition or whatever BS.
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Harsh--a -1 to 0 bonus i.e. below average. (3d6 average is 10.5)

That actually raises a good question--what would be the primary stat for MH professionals? I'd think CHA which is usually linked to empathy. Our patients would think WIS but I think that's a secondary stat related to good judgement. Same with INT which is not primary but definitely helpful. Or maybe it's some combination of all three.

Also, I think MH professionals definitely have to have a certain type of "charisma." Not so much the high-extroversion low-neuroticism "people person" the OP is describing but more a force of personality that conveys care and safety, which is essential for a therapeutic alliance. There are plenty of odd people but I think the ones who are odd and effective have what I just described.
 
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OldPsychDoc said:
Cats are sociopaths.
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Are you suggesting cats are unworthy of care because of their constitutional personality structure? If you extend that attitude to humanity, you'll see why it's important to be a cat person. Also dogs drool. :whistle:
 
FlowRate said:
Harsh--a -1 to 0 bonus i.e. below average. (3d6 average is 10.5)

That actually raises a good question--what would be the primary stat for MH professionals? I'd think CHA which is usually linked to empathy. Our patients would think WIS but I think that's a secondary stat related to good judgement. Same with INT which is not primary but definitely helpful. Or maybe it's some combination of all three.

Also, I think MH professionals definitely have to have a certain type of "charisma." Not so much the high-extroversion low-neuroticism "people person" the OP is describing but more a force of personality that conveys care and safety, which is essential for a therapeutic alliance. There are plenty of odd people but I think the ones who are odd and effective have what I just described.
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I find that low-neuroticism helps a lot as it fits into conveying care and safety. Also speaking about studies/receptors/pharmacodynamics/kinetics (Int related) helps convey that to certain populations. Other's care a lot about anecdotes or famous people who have gone through what they've gone through. Figuring out how to convey the right thing to the right patient seems mostly in the realm of wisdom to me. I'd personally say Wisdom primary, Int/Cha (empathic, not leadership) secondary.
 
The variety of responses here is pretty entertaining. That said, it is of course framed in the wrong way. "People persons" probably disproportionately choose to work on cruise ships or in sales jobs.

However, I hope no one is underestimating the importance of having appropriate social skills, as well as the genuine desire to get to know people's inner worlds/lives for the field of psychiatry? But I also hope people don't think that being extroverted, gregarious, or vivacious are necessary temperaments either?

I also hope that people, in general, don't find it too much of stretch to take an interest in their friends and colleagues lives/family and well-being. That comment was a bit perplexing too me.
 
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smh everyone in here still not playing 5e

EDIT: inb4 someone tells me that THAC0 is a good system
 
hamstergang said:
I feel that I should be insulted by this, but my username doesn't actually have anything to do with me.
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Oh, that was definitely a general comment. Rodent people are weird. Not giant rodent persons, but people who have rodents as pets. Though I guess the former would be weird too.
 
WisNeuro said:
Oh, that was definitely a general comment. Rodent people are weird. Not giant rodent persons, but people who have rodents as pets. Though I guess the former would be weird too.
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especially rodent people who eat mushrooms off grass lawns. gotta look out for those rodentia 😉
 
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