Inter-correlations between Cloninger's temperament dimensions — A meta-analysis

The Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) was developed to measure the following temperament dimensions: novelty seeking (NS), harm avoidance (HA), reward dependence (RD) and persistence (P). These four dimensions of temperament were originally proposed to be independent of one another. In this study the inter-relationships between the dimensions were studied with meta-analytic techniques. We also studied the effects of sociodemographic factors (location of the study, mean age and gender distribution) on correlations between temperament dimensions. We searched studies on healthy (non-clinical) populations that used the TCI (version 9), and that had a required sample size of at least 100. The search resulted in 16 articles. The resulted pooled correlation coefficient was medium level between NS and HA (-0.27). Correlations were small for HA-P (-0.20), NS-P (-0.14), NS-RD (0.10), RD-P (0.05) and HA-RD (0.04). In meta-regression, the correlation NS-P was significantly affected by the location of the study (Asian/other) and by the gender distribution of the sample. In the HA-P correlation, the mean age of the sample affected the correlation. In conclusion, we found a medium level negative correlation between NS and HA; other correlations between the dimensions were small. These findings mainly support Cloninger's theory of independent dimensions.

[1]  T. Przybeck,et al.  Distributions by Age and Sex of the Dimensions of Temperament and Character Inventory in a Cross-Cultural Perspective among Sweden, Germany, and the USA , 2001, Psychological reports.

[2]  Douglas G. Altman,et al.  Systematic Reviews in Health Care: Meta-Analysis in Context: Second Edition , 2008 .

[3]  C. Robert Cloninger,et al.  Genetic and environmental structure of the Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire: three or four temperament dimensions? , 1996, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[4]  J. Lépine,et al.  Normative data and factor structure of the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) in the French version , 2000, Psychiatry Research.

[5]  T. Przybeck,et al.  Assessing Personality: The Temperament and Character Inventory in a Cross-Cultural Comparison between Germany, Sweden, and the USA , 1999 .

[6]  Jacob Cohen,et al.  A power primer. , 1992, Psychological bulletin.

[7]  C. R. Cloninger,et al.  A unified biosocial theory of personality and its role in the development of anxiety states. , 1986, Psychiatric developments.

[8]  T. Przybeck,et al.  Swedish normative data on personality using the Temperament and Character Inventory. , 1998, Comprehensive psychiatry.

[9]  K. Gana,et al.  Structure invariance of the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) , 2003 .

[10]  T. Kitamura,et al.  Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) as predictors of depression among Japanese college students. , 2000, Journal of clinical psychology.

[11]  S. Kanba,et al.  The genetic structure of Cloninger's seven-factor model of temperament and character in a Japanese sample. , 2002, Journal of personality.

[12]  P. Spinhoven,et al.  The Dutch temperament and character inventory (TCI): dimensional structure, reliability and validity in a normal and psychiatric outpatient sample , 2000 .

[13]  A. Ozerdem,et al.  [Factorial structure, validity, and reliability of the Turkish temperament and character inventory]. , 2005, Turk psikiyatri dergisi = Turkish journal of psychiatry.

[14]  Wei J Chen,et al.  Cloninger's Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire: psychometric properties and construct validity in Taiwanese adults. , 2002, Comprehensive psychiatry.

[15]  T. Matsudaira,et al.  Personality traits as risk factors of depression and anxiety among Japanese students. , 2006, Journal of clinical psychology.

[16]  C. Robert Cloninger.  A systematic method for clinical description and classification of personality variants. A proposal. , 1987, Archives of general psychiatry.

[17]  M. Eisemann,et al.  Depressive mood and personality in terms of temperament and character among the normal population and depressive inpatients , 2003 .

[18]  C. Robert Cloninger,et al.  The Temperament and Character Inventory‐Revised (TCI‐R): psychometric characteristics of the French version , 2005, Acta psychiatrica Scandinavica.

[19]  C. R. Cloninger,et al.  A psychobiological model of temperament and character. , 1993, Archives of general psychiatry.

[20]  Y. Ono,et al.  GENETIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL STRUCTURE OF CLONINGER'S TEMPERAMENT AND CHARACTER DIMENSIONS , 2004 .

[21]  In Kyoon Lyoo,et al.  Reliability and validity of the Korean version of the Temperament and Character Inventory. , 2002, Comprehensive psychiatry.

[22]  Shigeto Yamada,et al.  Correlations between trait anxiety, personality and fatigue: study based on the Temperament and Character Inventory. , 2003, Journal of Psychosomatic Research.

[23]  Samet Kose,et al.  Turkish version of the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI): reliability, validity, and factorial structure , 2004 .

[24]  Cloninger Cr.  A systematic method for clinical description and classification of personality variants: A proposal. , 1987 .

[25]  Cloninger Cr.  Discussions arising from: Cloninger, CR. A. unified biosocial theory of personality and its role in the development of anxiety states. , 1987, Psychiatric developments.

[26]  N. Freimer,et al.  A large population cohort provides normative data for investigation of temperament , 2004, Acta psychiatrica Scandinavica.

[27]  J. Sterne,et al.  Meta‒Analysis in Stata™ , 2008 .

[28]  C. Robert Cloninger,et al.  Temperament, character, and personality disorders. , 1998, Journal of personality disorders.

[29]  M. Ansseau,et al.  Belgian normative data of the temperament and character inventory , 2001 .

[30]  Erkki Isometsä,et al.  Temperament, character and symptoms of anxiety and depression in the general population , 2006, European Psychiatry.

[31]  C. Robert Cloninger,et al.  Further contribution to the conceptual validity of the unified biosocial model of personality: US and Yugoslav data. , 1991, Comprehensive psychiatry.

[32]  T. Kitamura,et al.  Reliability and Validity of the Japanese Version of the Temperament and Character Inventory , 2000, Psychological reports.

[33]  N. Martin,et al.  Testing a model for the genetic structure of personality: a comparison of the personality systems of Cloninger and Eysenck. , 1994, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[34]  M. Järvelin,et al.  International comparison of Cloninger’s temperament dimensions , 2006 .

[35]  J. Veijola,et al.  Sex differences in Cloninger's temperament dimensions--a meta-analysis. , 2007, Comprehensive psychiatry.

[36]  C. R. Cloninger,et al.  The temperament and character inventory (TCI) : a guide to its development and use , 1994 .

[37]  Y. Ono,et al.  Genetic and environmental structure of Cloninger's temperament and character dimensions. , 2004, Journal of personality disorders.