Professionell skepticism

: Sambandet mellan personlighetsdrag och professionell skepticism med kön som betingande faktor

Abstract

To be able to apply professional skepticism in day-to-day work is an important attribute for today’s auditors. However, factors that affect the professional skepticism is not investigated in previous research. The question if personality traits affect the professional skepticism in consideration of gender as a moderating factor is an area where we have not found any previous research. To be able to fulfil the purpose a quantitative approach has been applied and the data has been collected through a survey distributed to economy students attending Högskolan Kristianstad and Jönköping International Business School. The study has applied existing measuring instruments to measure the independent variable personality traits and the dependent variable professional skepticism. The survey also explored a few control variables among the respondents. The results from the study indicate that two of the personality traits in the study (conscientiousness and openness) have a positive correlation with professional skepticism. Furthermore, the study found that a part of the personality trait neuroticism, the stress aspect, has a negative correlation with professional skepticism. The study has found no proof that support the belief that gender has a moderating effect on the correlation between personality traits and professional skepticism. The study showed that the control variable mother tongue has a significant correlation with professional skepticism. This is something that future research in the field should examine further.