scholarly journals Comprehensive meta-analysis of associations between temperament and character traits in Cloninger’s psychobiological theory and mental disorders

2022 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 030006052110707
Author(s):  
Saeid Komasi ◽  
Farzin Rezaei ◽  
Azad Hemmati ◽  
Khaled Rahmani ◽  
Federico Amianto ◽  
...  

Objective To explore the relationship between temperament and character traits in Cloninger’s psychobiological theory and mental disorders. Methods: A systematic literature search was conducted of five international databases for all articles published in English between January 1990 and April 2019 (PROSPERO-CRD42019133214). Owing to heterogeneity, pooled estimates of correlations for personality disorders and standardized mean differences for case–control studies related to other mental disorders were calculated using the random-effects method. Results The pooled effect sizes obtained from 149 studies showed that high harm avoidance (related to 22/24 diagnostic categories), low self-directedness (21/23), low cooperativeness (17/23), high self-transcendence (14/23), low reward dependence (11/24), high novelty-seeking (10/24), low novelty-seeking (7/24), high persistence (2/23), low persistence (2/23) and high reward dependence (2/24) were related to psychopathology. Conclusions All traits provided unique psychobiological tools for differential diagnosis of mental disorders. However, high harm avoidance and low self-directedness played a canonical role in psychopathology. Despite the study limitations, additional studies are warranted to evaluate the differential diagnoses suggested by the present model.

2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 168-180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Calvet ◽  
Marion Péricaud ◽  
Matthieu Parneix ◽  
Adrien Jouette ◽  
Magali Bricaud ◽  
...  

Abstract. The authors examined age and sex trends on the seven dimensions and 25 facets assessed by the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) collected between 2006 and 2014. This cross-sectional study sought to better understand personality differences according to age and sex cohorts in a French nonclinical community sample (1,181 participants). Our results show significant differences in age groups in Novelty Seeking, Reward Dependence, Harm Avoidance, and Self-Transcendence. Women scored higher than men in Harm Avoidance, Reward Dependence, and Cooperativeness. Men between 18 and 29 years old reported higher Novelty Seeking whereas older women had higher Harm Avoidance. Among all the dimensions of the TCI, only Self-Directedness presents a consistent Gender × Age interaction. Our study confirmed that there were personality-specific features in men and women. In addition, there were personality changes with age in both temperament and character dimensions. Our research highlighted the need to take into account both age and gender of subjects in the future analyses and interpretations of findings from the temperament and character inventories.


2015 ◽  
Vol 30 (S2) ◽  
pp. S120-S121 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Calvet ◽  
M. Bricaud ◽  
H. Merveille ◽  
J. Dur ◽  
J.P. Clément

Relationships between the seven dimensions of the Cloninger's psychobiological model (1993) and the five factors of the Costa and McCrae's model (1990) were examined in this study of 200 subjects from French general population. The dimensions of temperament (novelty seeking, harm avoidance, reward dependence) and character (self-directedness, cooperativeness, self-transcendence) from the Cloninger's model were measured by the Temperament and Character Inventory-125 items (TCI-125) and the Five-Factor Model (FFM) (neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness and conscientiousness) was evaluated using the NEOPersonality Inventory-Revised (NEO-PI-R). Correlation and multiple regression analyses have highlighted that all the temperamental and character dimensions predict all Neo-PI-R domains and vice versa. There are particularly close relationships between harm avoidance, self-directedness, neuroticism and extraversion; between novelty seeking and extraversion, openness, conscientiousness; between reward dependence, cooperativeness, extraversion, openness and agreeableness; between persistence and conscientiousness; and finally between self-transcendence and agreeableness. As a result, due to their relationship with temperamental dimensions of psychobiological model, the FFM domains could be related to brain monoaminergic activities.


2010 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Markus Jokela ◽  
Taina Hintsa ◽  
Mirka Hintsanen ◽  
Liisa Keltikangas‐Järvinen

Emerging evidence suggests that temperament may predict childbearing. We examined the association between four temperament traits (novelty seeking, harm avoidance, reward dependence and persistence of the Temperament and Character Inventory) and childbearing over the life course in the population‐based Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns study (n = 1535; 985 women, 550 men). Temperament was assessed when the participants were aged 20–35 and fertility history from adolescence to adulthood was reported by the participants at age 30–45. Discrete‐time survival analysis modelling indicated that high childbearing probability was predicted by low novelty seeking (standardized OR = 0.92; 95% confidence interval 0.88–0.97), low harm avoidance (OR = 0.90; 0.85–0.95), high reward dependence (OR = 1.09; 1.03–1.15) and low persistence (OR = 0.91; 0.87–0.96) with no sex differences or quadratic effects. These associations grew stronger with increase in numbers of children. The findings were substantially the same in a completely prospective analysis. Adjusting for education did not influence the associations. Despite its negative association with overall childbearing, high novelty seeking increased the probability of having children in participants who were not living with a partner (OR = 1.29; 1.12–1.49). These data provide novel evidence for the role of temperament in influencing childbearing, and suggest possible weak natural selection of temperament traits in contemporary humans. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


2007 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 778-780 ◽  
Author(s):  
GARY CHEUNG

Harm avoidance is one of the four temperament dimensions in Cloninger's psychobiological model of personality (Cloninger et al., 1993). In this model, personality is conceptualized as having four temperament dimensions (novelty seeking, harm avoidance, reward dependence, persistence) and three character dimensions (self-directedness, cooperativeness, self-transcendence). Individuals high in harm avoidance (HA) tend to be described as “worrying and pessimistic; fearful and doubtful; shy; and fatigable.” Those with low HA scores are “relaxed and optimistic; bold and confident; outgoing; and vigorous.” HA was initially proposed as a personality trait that is independent of the state of depression. However, other reports have found HA to be positively correlated with the severity of depression (Hansenne et al., 1999; Hirano et al., 2002). Repeated within-subject measures have been used to explore the stability of HA in major depression. However, conflicting results are reported in the literature and research in HA is largely with adults (Chien and Dunner, 1996; Marijnissen et al., 2002). The aim of this study is to investigate whether the personality trait of HA is stable over a 12-month period in a group of older people with a history of depression. This is a first report on the stability of HA in an exclusive elderly sample.


PeerJ ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. e1481 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfonso Gutierrez-Zotes ◽  
Javier Labad ◽  
Lourdes Martorell ◽  
Ana Gaviria ◽  
Carmen Bayón ◽  
...  

Objectives.The psychometric properties regarding sex and age for the revised version of the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI-R) and its derived short version, the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI-140), were evaluated with a randomized sample from the community.Methods.A randomized sample of 367 normal adult subjects from a Spanish municipality, who were representative of the general population based on sex and age, participated in the current study. Descriptive statistics and internal consistency according toαcoefficient were obtained for all of the dimensions and facets.T-tests and univariate analyses of variance, followed by Bonferroni tests, were conducted to compare the distributions of the TCI-R dimension scores by age and sex.Results.On both the TCI-R and TCI-140, women had higher scores for Harm Avoidance, Reward Dependence and Cooperativeness than men, whereas men had higher scores for Persistence. Age correlated negatively with Novelty Seeking, Reward Dependence and Cooperativeness and positively with Harm Avoidance and Self-transcendence. Young subjects between 18 and 35 years had higher scores than older subjects in NS and RD. Subjects between 51 and 77 years scored higher in both HA and ST. The alphas for the dimensions were between 0.74 and 0.87 for the TCI-R and between 0.63 and 0.83 for the TCI-140.Conclusion.Results, which were obtained with a randomized sample, suggest that there are specific distributions of personality traits by sex and age. Overall, both the TCI-R and the abbreviated TCI-140 were reliable in the ‘good-to-excellent’ range. A strength of the current study is the representativeness of the sample.


2004 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 193-195 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ladislav Hosák ◽  
Marek Preiss ◽  
Martin Halíř ◽  
Eva Čermáková ◽  
Ladislav Csémy

AbstractWe applied the temperament and character inventory (TCI) personality questionnaire in 41 inpatients dependent on metamphetamine, and 35 controls. Novelty seeking, harm avoidance and self-transcendence were significantly higher, and persistence, self-directedness and cooperativeness were significantly lower in the patients than in the healthy volunteers. The detected differences may be important for prevention and treatment.


1992 ◽  
Vol 71 (3_suppl) ◽  
pp. 1027-1038 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard D. Wetzel ◽  
Stephen L. Brown ◽  
Mary Ann Knesevich ◽  
Harold A. Wolff ◽  
Charles J. Horn ◽  
...  

The pattern of correlations between selected MMPI scales and the scales of the Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire were examined in a convenience sample of 88 patients who had received both tests. Time between tests (usually less than one year) did not affect the correlations, but MMPI response-set variables ( L, F, K, F–K) did. The Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire harm avoidance scale and subscales had many correlates on the MMPI. The Novelty seeking scale and subscales showed a number of moderate correlations with a smaller number of MMPI scales; these correlations did not significantly exceed the correlations with MMPI response-set variables. The Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire reward dependence scale and subscales had few, if any, significant MMPI correlates. It was also noted that no Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire scales were related to MMPI repression factor scores.


2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Akiko Murakoshi ◽  
Nobuyuki Mitsui ◽  
Jiro Masuya ◽  
Yota Fujimura ◽  
Shinji Higashi ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Previous studies reported that subjective well-being in adulthood correlates with perceived parental bonding in childhood as well as personality traits. However, whether personality traits mediate the effect of perceived parental bonding on well-being or not has not been reported to date. In this study, we hypothesized that ‘parental care and overprotection’ in childhood affect ‘well-being’ in adulthood through various ‘personality traits’, and analyzed this using structural equation modeling. Methods A total of 402 adult volunteers from the community provided responses to the following questionnaires: 1) Parental Bonding Instrument, 2) Temperament and Character Inventory, and 3) The Subjective Well-being Inventory. Two structural equation models were designed and the maximum likelihood estimation method was used for covariance structure analysis. Results Parental care in childhood directly increased well-being in adulthood and indirectly increased it through personality traits (harm avoidance, reward dependence, and self-directedness). Parental overprotection in childhood had no direct effect on well-being in adulthood but decreased well-being in adulthood indirectly through personality traits (harm avoidance, reward dependence, and self-directedness) and increased it through one personality trait (self-transcendence). Conclusions This study showed that the influences of perceived parental bonding on well-being in adulthood are mediated by self-directedness, harm avoidance, reward dependence, and self-transcendence among the seven personality dimensions evaluated by the Temperament and Character Inventory.


2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (S1) ◽  
pp. S298-S299
Author(s):  
G. Hurtado ◽  
G. Mateu ◽  
R. Martinez ◽  
A. Farre ◽  
J. Marti ◽  
...  

Personality dimensions related with drug use are novelty seeking, impulsivity and harm avoidance. Studies predicting drug of choice over personality variables are controversial.ObjectiveTo describe personality profile of drug users in relation to substance of choice.AimsTo know personality dimension differences according to drug used.MethodsCloninger's TCI-R was administered to 218 patients in a dual diagnosis unit.SPSS was applied.ResultsOf the patients, 33.94% had personality disorder. Principal substances used were alcohol, cocaine and cannabis.Most of drug users had normal scores in each dimension. No high scores were found in reward dependence, self-directedness and cooperativeness with any drug.High scores were observed for novelty seeking in 42.9% of timulants users; for arm avoidance in a quarter of cocaine, alcohol and methadone users and for persistence in 18.2% of hypnotics users.Low scores were observed for reward dependence in 45% of heroine and hypnotics users; for persistence in 50% of methadone and 32% of cocaine users; for self-directedness in most of types of drug users and for cooperativeness in up to 50% in heroine, hypnotics, stimulants and cocaine users.Statistical significant differences were observed for cocaine use and high novelty seeking and low cooperation; for non cannabis use and high harm avoidance; for non anfetamine use and low scores in reward dependence; for opiate use and low self-directedness.ConclusionsMost of patients had normal scores in the different dimensions.Presence of comorbid personality disorder led us to consider the results with caution.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.


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