Are the medical students who seem most on top of everything also under the most strain?
A research poster presented at the 2026 AMA Poster Showcase explores whether personality type influences how medical students experience stress and emotional exhaustion. The central findings indicate that many medical student traits that may foster success in medical school—drive, urgency and competitiveness—may also be linked to greater emotional exhaustion, stress and cynicism.
In medical school, “there’s this constant pressure not to miss a deadline, not to forget something and not to make a mistake, and all of that adds up mentally,” said Nazia Haque, a third-year medical student who was the research poster’s lead author.
How do different personality types experience stress in medical school? What might the findings mean for medical student wellness? Here’s what the research showed.
Type A personalities more common
The impetus to explore the topic that ultimately became Haque’s research poster was born during a marathon study session. As first-year medical students, Haque and her peers were studying for their endocrine and renal block, and most peers she spoke with expressed that they were exhausted.
In that moment, she began wondering whether differences in type A versus type B personality traits might shape how medical students experience stress, which led her to create a survey.
This eventually led to a cross-sectional single-institution study of the topic. The 51 medical students who responded to the survey completed assessments on burnout, stress and life satisfaction. Specifically, they completed the Maslach Burnout Inventory, the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-4) and the Satisfaction With Life Scale.
Using standardized trait assessments, the study found that 70.6% of respondents fell into the Type A group, compared with 29.4% in the Type B group.
In putting medical students into a bucket, Type A characteristics included competitiveness, time urgency, high drive and strong achievement orientation. Type B characteristics included a more relaxed approach to time, lower competitiveness, greater patience, and less urgency around achievement
While Haque, an AMA member, cites the small sample of respondents as one of the poster’s important limitations, she said the findings back up what she has observed so far in medical school. Medical students are more likely to be type A, in her view, because “med school tends to favor the type A traits.”
Learn concrete actions that help medical students navigate the challenges of their educational experiences in the AMA STEPS Forward® toolkit, “Medical Student Well-Being: Minimize Burnout and Improve Mental Health Among Medical Students.”
Type A medical students more prone to stress
Compared with type B medical students, type A medical students reported higher levels of emotional exhaustion, cynicism and perceived stress. Life satisfaction was comparable for both groups.
Haque and her research colleagues also found that high achievement drive and emotional exhaustion were strongly correlated.
Hague identifies as more of a type A personality. She described medical school as an environment where even small mistakes can feel outsized, especially among medical students already inclined toward high standards.
“If we miss a tiny detail, we beat ourselves up over it,” Haque said.
The research poster’s findings also may cause some medical students pause in peer comparison.
“Even if someone is doing well academically, they still feel tired,” Haque said. “A lot of people who seem fine on the outside are still carrying their own struggles.”
Redefining success
In examining how the pressure for high-achieving medical students could be reduced, Haque and her colleagues suggested that medical schools do more to prioritize sustainable medical student health over productivity metrics.
Haque said her definition of success has changed during medical school
“I don’t really care about getting a 95 anymore,” she said. “At this point, I care more about passing, being OK and making sure the people around me are OK too.”
“Even if someone is doing well academically, they still feel tired. A lot of people who seem fine on the outside are still carrying their own struggles.”
In offering advice to her fellow medical students trying to balance well-being with the demands of medical school, Haque stressed the importance of basics such as healthful eating, sleep hygiene and maintaining relationships outside of medicine.
She also offered practical advice for any future physicians who may recognize themselves in the study’s findings.
“If you’re studying, and you feel like your brain can’t process any more information, put the book down, put the Anki down, and like, take a nap,” Haque said. “You’ll thank yourself the next morning.”
Learn more with the AMA about five stress-busting habits to support well-being in medical school.
