Many studies have concluded that doctors -irrelevant of their specialties- have higher levels of hostility and psychological problems compared to these observed in the general population.

The investigation of psychological characteristics of Greek male and female resident doctors.

To demonstrate the high hostility rates among physicians.

102 Greek resident doctors in the field of Internal Medicine, 45 male and 57 female, participated in the present study. The scientific tools used were: a) the Other As Shamer Scale (OAS), b) the Experience of Shame Scale (ESS), c) the Hostility and Direction of Hostility Questionnaire (HDHQ), d) The Symptom Checklist-90-R (SCL-90-R), e) a questionnaire concerning socio-demographic information.

The 52% of the sample(73,3% of male and 33,5% of female) are single with mean age 33,9 and 34,2 correspondingly. In their comparison using the T-Test it was observed that the male resident doctors showed a statistically higher mean value in the subscales of: behavioral shame (P=0,045), criticism of others (P=0,031), extrapunitiveness (P=0,048). No other significant differences were demonstrated between the two groups.

There were not demonstrated significant differences between male and female doctors. Both male as well as female resident doctors of the sample showed high levels of hostility, a result that is supported by many other international studies. Concerning the socio-demographic results of the study it must be stressed that the medical doctors used in the sample are married at a higher age compared to the general Greek population of their coevals.