
The Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) is an inventory for personality traits devised by Cloninger et al. It is closely related to and an outgrowth of the Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire (TPQ), and it has also been related to the dimensions of personality in Zuckerman's alternative five and Eysenck's models and those of the five factor model.
TCI operates with seven dimensions of personality traits: four so-called temperaments
- Novelty seeking (NS)
- Harm avoidance (HA)
- Reward dependence (RD)
- Persistence (PS)
and three so-called characters
- Self-directedness (SD)
- Cooperativeness (CO)
- Self-transcendence (ST)
Each of these traits has a varying number of subscales. The dimensions are determined from a 240-item questionnaire.
The TCI is based on a psychobiological model that attempts to explain the underlying causes of individual differences in personality traits.
Versions
Originally developed in English, TCI has been translated to other languages, e.g., Swedish, Japanese, Dutch, German, Polish, Korean, Finnish, Chinese and French. There is also a revised version TCI-R. Whereas the original TCI had statements for which the subject should indicate true or false, the TCI-R has a five-point rating for each statement. The two versions hold 189 of the 240 statements in common. The revised version has been translated into Spanish, French, Czech, and Italian.
The number of subscales on the different top level traits differ between TCI and TCI-R. The subscales of the TCI-R are:
- Novelty seeking (NS)
- Exploratory excitability (NS1)
- Impulsiveness (NS2)
- Extravagance (NS3)
- Disorderliness (NS4)
- Harm avoidance (HA)
- Anticipatory worry (HA1)
- Fear of uncertainty (HA2)
- Shyness (HA3)
- Fatigability (HA4)
- Reward dependence (RD)
- Sentimentality (RD1)
- Openness to warm communication (RD2)
- Attachment (RD3)
- Dependence (RD4)
- Persistence (PS)
- Eagerness of effort (PS1)
- Work hardened (PS2)
- Ambitious (PS3)
- Perfectionist (PS4)
- Self-directedness (SD)
- Responsibility (SD1)
- Purposeful (SD2)
- Resourcefulness (SD3)
- Self-acceptance (SD4)
- Enlightened second nature (SD5)
- Cooperativeness (C)
- Social acceptance (C1)
- Empathy (C2)
- Helpfulness (C3)
- Compassion (C4)
- Pure-hearted conscience (C5)
- Self-transcendence (ST)
- Self-forgetful (ST1)
- Transpersonal identification (ST2)
- Spiritual acceptance (ST3)
Neurobiological foundation
TCI has been used for investigating the neurobiological foundation for personality, together with other research modalities, e.g., with molecular neuroimaging, structural neuroimaging and genetics.
Temperament | Neurotransmitter system |
---|---|
Novelty seeking | Low dopaminergic activity |
Harm avoidance | High serotonergic activity |
Reward dependence | Low noradrenergic activity |
Cloninger suggested that the three original temperaments from TPQ, novelty seeking, harm avoidance, and reward dependence, was correlated with low basal dopaminergic activity, high serotonergic activity, and low basal noradrenergic activity, respectively.
Many studies have used TCI for examining whether genetic variants in individual genes have an association with personality traits. Studies suggest that novelty seeking is associated with dopaminergic pathways. Dopamine transporter DAT1 and dopamine receptor DRD4 are associated with novelty seeking.[citation needed] Parkinson's patients, who are intrinsically low in dopamine, are found to have low novelty seeking scores.[citation needed] Gene variants that have been investigated are, e.g., 5-HTTLPR in the serotonin transporter gene and gene variants in XBP1.
Relationship to other personality models
Cloninger argued that the Five Factor model does not assess domains of personality relevant to personality disorders such as autonomy, moral values, and aspects of maturity and self-actualization considered in humanistic and transpersonal psychology. Cloninger argued that these domains are captured by self-directedness, cooperativeness, and self-transcendence respectively. He also argued that personality factors defined as independent by factor analysis, such as neuroticism and introversion, may actually share underlying etiological factors.
Research has found that all of the TCI dimensions are each related substantially to at least one of the dimensions in the Five Factor Model,Eysenck's model, Zuckerman's alternative five:
- Harm avoidance is strongly positively associated with neuroticism and inversely associated with extraversion.
- Novelty seeking is most strongly associated with extraversion, although it also has a moderate positive association with openness to experience and a moderate negative association with conscientiousness.
- Persistence has a positive association with conscientiousness.
- Reward dependence is most strongly associated with extraversion, although it also has a moderate positive association with openness to experience.
- Cooperativeness is most strongly associated with agreeableness.
- Self-directedness has a strong negative association with neuroticism and a positive association with conscientiousness.
- Self-transcendence had a positive association with openness to experience and to a lesser extent extraversion.
- Relationships have also been found between the TCI dimensions and traits specific to the models of Zuckerman and Eysenck respectively.
- Novelty seeking is related to Impulsive sensation seeking in Zuckerman's alternative five model and to psychoticism in Eysenck's model.
- Zuckerman and Cloninger have contended that Harm Avoidance is a composite dimension comprising neurotic introversion at one end and stable extraversion at the other end.
- Persistence is related to Zuckerman's Activity scale and inversely to psychoticism.
- Cooperativeness is inversely related to Zuckerman's Aggression-hostility scale and to psychoticism.
- Self-transcendence has no equivalent in either Zuckerman or Eysenck's model as neither model recognises openness to experience.
Health and well-being
Cloninger has argued that "psychological well-being" depends on the development of facets of the three character dimensions, such as autonomy and life purpose from self-directedness, positive relations with others from cooperativeness, and personal growth and self-actualization from self-transcendence. He has also argued that the temperament dimensions are associated with subjective well-being and to some extent with physical health. A study examining relationships between character dimensions and aspects of health and happiness found that self-directedness was strongly associated with happiness, satisfaction with life, general health, and perceived social support. Cooperativeness was associated most strongly with perceived social support and only weakly with the other well-being measures. Self-transcendence was associated with positive emotions when taking the other character traits into account, but was largely unrelated to negative emotions or the other well-being measures.
See also
- Karolinska Scales of Personality
- NEO PI-R
References
- C. Robert Cloninger (1994). The temperament and character inventory (TCI): A guide to its development and use. St. Louis, MO: Center for Psychobiology of Personality, Washington University. ISBN 978-0-9642917-1-3.
- Marvin Zuckerman and C. Robert Cloninger (August 1996). "Relationships between Cloninger's, Zuckerman's, and Eysenck's dimensions of personality". Personality and Individual Differences. 21 (2): 283–285. doi:10.1016/0191-8869(96)00042-6. PMC 4486314. PMID 26146428.
- De Fruyt, F.; Van De Wiele, L.; Van Heeringen, C. (2000). "Cloninger's Psychobiological Model of Temperament and Character and the Five-Factor Model of Personality". Personality and Individual Differences. 29 (3): 441–452. doi:10.1016/S0191-8869(99)00204-4.
- "Temperament & Character Inventory". Center for Well-being, Washington University in St. Louis. Archived from the original on 2009-07-17. Retrieved 2008-07-07.
- Cloninger, C.R.; Svrakic, DM; Przybeck, TR (December 1993). "A psychobiological model of temperament and character". Archives of General Psychiatry. 50 (12): 975–90. doi:10.1001/archpsyc.1993.01820240059008. PMID 8250684.
- Brändström, Sven; Schlette, Paul; Przybeck, Thomas R; Lundberg, Mattias; Forsgren, Thomas; Sigvardsson, Sören; Nylander, Per-Olof; Nilsson, Lars-Göran; Cloninger, Robert C (May–June 1998). "Swedish normative data on personality using the Temperament and Character Inventory". Comprehensive Psychiatry. 39 (3): 122–128. doi:10.1016/S0010-440X(98)90070-0. PMID 9606577.
- Lyoo, In Kyoon; Han, Chang Hwan; Lee, Soo Jin; Yune, Sook Kyeong; Ha, Ji Hyun; Chung, Sun Joo; Choi, Hyunsoo; Seo, Cheon Seok; Hong, Kang-E.M (March–April 2004). "The reliability and validity of the junior temperament and character inventory". Comprehensive Psychiatry. 45 (2): 121–128. doi:10.1016/j.comppsych.2003.12.002. PMID 14999663.
- Gutiérrez-Zotes, JA; Bayón, C; Montserrat, C; Valero, J; Labad, A; Cloninger, CR; Fernández-Aranda, F (January–February 2004). "[Temperament and Character Inventory Revised (TCI-R). Standardization and normative data in a general population sample]". Actas Españolas de Psiquiatría. 32 (1): 8–15. PMID 14963776.
- A. Pelissolo; L. Mallet; J.-M. Baleyte; G. Michel; C. R. Cloninger; J.-F. Allilaire; R. Jouvent (2005). "The Temperament and Character Inventory-Revised (TCI-R): psychometric characteristics of the French version". Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica. 112 (2): 126–133. doi:10.1111/j.1600-0447.2005.00551.x. PMID 15992394. S2CID 25445104.
- Preiss, M; Kucharová, J; Novák, T; Stepánková, H (June 2007). "The temperament and character inventory-revised (TCI-R): a psychometric characteristics of the Czech version". . 19 (1–2): 27–34. PMID 17603413.
- Fossati, Andrea; Cloninger, C. Robert; Villa, Daniele; Borroni, Serena; Grazioli, Federica; Giarolli, Laura; Battaglia, Marco; Maffei, Cesare (July–August 2007). "Reliability and validity of the Italian version of the Temperament and Character Inventory-Revised in an outpatient sample". Comprehensive Psychiatry. 48 (4): 380–387. doi:10.1016/j.comppsych.2007.02.003. PMID 17560961.
- Borg, J.; Andrée, B; Soderstrom, H; Farde, L (November 2003). "The Serotonin System and Spiritual Experiences". American Journal of Psychiatry. 160 (11): 1965–1969. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.160.11.1965. PMID 14594742. S2CID 5911066.
- Yamasue, H.; Abe, O.; Suga, M.; Yamada, H.; Inoue, H.; Tochigi, M.; Rogers, M.; Aoki, S.; Kato, N. (January 2008). "Gender-common and -specific neuroanatomical basis of human anxiety-related personality traits". Cerebral Cortex. 18 (1): 46–52. doi:10.1093/cercor/bhm030. hdl:10536/DRO/DU:30047633. PMID 17412719.
- C. R. Cloninger (Autumn 1986). "A unified biosocial theory of personality and its role in the development of anxiety states". . 4 (3): 167–226. PMID 3809156.
- Bódi, Nikoletta; Kéri, Szabolcs; Nagy, Helga; Moustafa, Ahmed; Myers, Catherine E (September 2009). "Reward-learning and the novelty-seeking personality: a between- and within-subjects study of the effects of dopamine agonists on young Parkinson's patients". Brain. 132 (9): 2385–2395. doi:10.1093/brain/awp094. PMC 2766178. PMID 19416950.
- Kusumi, Ichiro; Masui, Takuya; Kakiuchi, Chihiro; Suzuki, Katsuji; Akimoto, Tatsuyuki; Hashimoto, Ryota; Kunugi, Hiroshi; Kato, Tadafumi; Koyama, Tsukasa (December 2005). "Relationship between XBP1 genotype and personality traits assessed by TCI and NEO-FFI". Neuroscience Letters. 391 (1–2): 7–10. doi:10.1016/j.neulet.2005.08.023. hdl:2115/8420. PMID 16154272. S2CID 505223.
- Cloninger, CR; Zohar, AH (2011). "Personality and the perception of health and happiness". Journal of Affective Disorders. 128 (1–2): 24–32. doi:10.1016/j.jad.2010.06.012. PMID 20580435.
External links
- Cloninger, C. R.; Svrakic, D. M.; Przybeck, T. R. (December 1993). "A psychobiological model of temperament and character". Archives of General Psychiatry. 50 (12): 975–90. doi:10.1001/archpsyc.1993.01820240059008. PMID 8250684.
The Temperament and Character Inventory TCI is an inventory for personality traits devised by Cloninger et al It is closely related to and an outgrowth of the Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire TPQ and it has also been related to the dimensions of personality in Zuckerman s alternative five and Eysenck s models and those of the five factor model TCI operates with seven dimensions of personality traits four so called temperaments Novelty seeking NS Harm avoidance HA Reward dependence RD Persistence PS and three so called characters Self directedness SD Cooperativeness CO Self transcendence ST Each of these traits has a varying number of subscales The dimensions are determined from a 240 item questionnaire The TCI is based on a psychobiological model that attempts to explain the underlying causes of individual differences in personality traits VersionsOriginally developed in English TCI has been translated to other languages e g Swedish Japanese Dutch German Polish Korean Finnish Chinese and French There is also a revised version TCI R Whereas the original TCI had statements for which the subject should indicate true or false the TCI R has a five point rating for each statement The two versions hold 189 of the 240 statements in common The revised version has been translated into Spanish French Czech and Italian The number of subscales on the different top level traits differ between TCI and TCI R The subscales of the TCI R are Novelty seeking NS Exploratory excitability NS1 Impulsiveness NS2 Extravagance NS3 Disorderliness NS4 Harm avoidance HA Anticipatory worry HA1 Fear of uncertainty HA2 Shyness HA3 Fatigability HA4 Reward dependence RD Sentimentality RD1 Openness to warm communication RD2 Attachment RD3 Dependence RD4 Persistence PS Eagerness of effort PS1 Work hardened PS2 Ambitious PS3 Perfectionist PS4 Self directedness SD Responsibility SD1 Purposeful SD2 Resourcefulness SD3 Self acceptance SD4 Enlightened second nature SD5 Cooperativeness C Social acceptance C1 Empathy C2 Helpfulness C3 Compassion C4 Pure hearted conscience C5 Self transcendence ST Self forgetful ST1 Transpersonal identification ST2 Spiritual acceptance ST3 Neurobiological foundationTCI has been used for investigating the neurobiological foundation for personality together with other research modalities e g with molecular neuroimaging structural neuroimaging and genetics Temperament Neurotransmitter systemNovelty seeking Low dopaminergic activityHarm avoidance High serotonergic activityReward dependence Low noradrenergic activity Cloninger suggested that the three original temperaments from TPQ novelty seeking harm avoidance and reward dependence was correlated with low basal dopaminergic activity high serotonergic activity and low basal noradrenergic activity respectively Many studies have used TCI for examining whether genetic variants in individual genes have an association with personality traits Studies suggest that novelty seeking is associated with dopaminergic pathways Dopamine transporter DAT1 and dopamine receptor DRD4 are associated with novelty seeking citation needed Parkinson s patients who are intrinsically low in dopamine are found to have low novelty seeking scores citation needed Gene variants that have been investigated are e g 5 HTTLPR in the serotonin transporter gene and gene variants in XBP1 Relationship to other personality modelsCloninger argued that the Five Factor model does not assess domains of personality relevant to personality disorders such as autonomy moral values and aspects of maturity and self actualization considered in humanistic and transpersonal psychology Cloninger argued that these domains are captured by self directedness cooperativeness and self transcendence respectively He also argued that personality factors defined as independent by factor analysis such as neuroticism and introversion may actually share underlying etiological factors Research has found that all of the TCI dimensions are each related substantially to at least one of the dimensions in the Five Factor Model Eysenck s model Zuckerman s alternative five Harm avoidance is strongly positively associated with neuroticism and inversely associated with extraversion Novelty seeking is most strongly associated with extraversion although it also has a moderate positive association with openness to experience and a moderate negative association with conscientiousness Persistence has a positive association with conscientiousness Reward dependence is most strongly associated with extraversion although it also has a moderate positive association with openness to experience Cooperativeness is most strongly associated with agreeableness Self directedness has a strong negative association with neuroticism and a positive association with conscientiousness Self transcendence had a positive association with openness to experience and to a lesser extent extraversion Relationships have also been found between the TCI dimensions and traits specific to the models of Zuckerman and Eysenck respectively Novelty seeking is related to Impulsive sensation seeking in Zuckerman s alternative five model and to psychoticism in Eysenck s model Zuckerman and Cloninger have contended that Harm Avoidance is a composite dimension comprising neurotic introversion at one end and stable extraversion at the other end Persistence is related to Zuckerman s Activity scale and inversely to psychoticism Cooperativeness is inversely related to Zuckerman s Aggression hostility scale and to psychoticism Self transcendence has no equivalent in either Zuckerman or Eysenck s model as neither model recognises openness to experience Health and well beingCloninger has argued that psychological well being depends on the development of facets of the three character dimensions such as autonomy and life purpose from self directedness positive relations with others from cooperativeness and personal growth and self actualization from self transcendence He has also argued that the temperament dimensions are associated with subjective well being and to some extent with physical health A study examining relationships between character dimensions and aspects of health and happiness found that self directedness was strongly associated with happiness satisfaction with life general health and perceived social support Cooperativeness was associated most strongly with perceived social support and only weakly with the other well being measures Self transcendence was associated with positive emotions when taking the other character traits into account but was largely unrelated to negative emotions or the other well being measures See alsoKarolinska Scales of Personality NEO PI RReferencesC Robert Cloninger 1994 The temperament and character inventory TCI A guide to its development and use St Louis MO Center for Psychobiology of Personality Washington University ISBN 978 0 9642917 1 3 Marvin Zuckerman and C Robert Cloninger August 1996 Relationships between Cloninger s Zuckerman s and Eysenck s dimensions of personality Personality and Individual Differences 21 2 283 285 doi 10 1016 0191 8869 96 00042 6 PMC 4486314 PMID 26146428 De Fruyt F Van De Wiele L Van Heeringen C 2000 Cloninger s Psychobiological Model of Temperament and Character and the Five Factor Model of Personality Personality and Individual Differences 29 3 441 452 doi 10 1016 S0191 8869 99 00204 4 Temperament amp Character Inventory Center for Well being Washington University in St Louis Archived from the original on 2009 07 17 Retrieved 2008 07 07 Cloninger C R Svrakic DM Przybeck TR December 1993 A psychobiological model of temperament and character Archives of General Psychiatry 50 12 975 90 doi 10 1001 archpsyc 1993 01820240059008 PMID 8250684 Brandstrom Sven Schlette Paul Przybeck Thomas R Lundberg Mattias Forsgren Thomas Sigvardsson Soren Nylander Per Olof Nilsson Lars Goran Cloninger Robert C May June 1998 Swedish normative data on personality using the Temperament and Character Inventory Comprehensive Psychiatry 39 3 122 128 doi 10 1016 S0010 440X 98 90070 0 PMID 9606577 Lyoo In Kyoon Han Chang Hwan Lee Soo Jin Yune Sook Kyeong Ha Ji Hyun Chung Sun Joo Choi Hyunsoo Seo Cheon Seok Hong Kang E M March April 2004 The reliability and validity of the junior temperament and character inventory Comprehensive Psychiatry 45 2 121 128 doi 10 1016 j comppsych 2003 12 002 PMID 14999663 Gutierrez Zotes JA Bayon C Montserrat C Valero J Labad A Cloninger CR Fernandez Aranda F January February 2004 Temperament and Character Inventory Revised TCI R Standardization and normative data in a general population sample Actas Espanolas de Psiquiatria 32 1 8 15 PMID 14963776 A Pelissolo L Mallet J M Baleyte G Michel C R Cloninger J F Allilaire R Jouvent 2005 The Temperament and Character Inventory Revised TCI R psychometric characteristics of the French version Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 112 2 126 133 doi 10 1111 j 1600 0447 2005 00551 x PMID 15992394 S2CID 25445104 Preiss M Kucharova J Novak T Stepankova H June 2007 The temperament and character inventory revised TCI R a psychometric characteristics of the Czech version 19 1 2 27 34 PMID 17603413 Fossati Andrea Cloninger C Robert Villa Daniele Borroni Serena Grazioli Federica Giarolli Laura Battaglia Marco Maffei Cesare July August 2007 Reliability and validity of the Italian version of the Temperament and Character Inventory Revised in an outpatient sample Comprehensive Psychiatry 48 4 380 387 doi 10 1016 j comppsych 2007 02 003 PMID 17560961 Borg J Andree B Soderstrom H Farde L November 2003 The Serotonin System and Spiritual Experiences American Journal of Psychiatry 160 11 1965 1969 doi 10 1176 appi ajp 160 11 1965 PMID 14594742 S2CID 5911066 Yamasue H Abe O Suga M Yamada H Inoue H Tochigi M Rogers M Aoki S Kato N January 2008 Gender common and specific neuroanatomical basis of human anxiety related personality traits Cerebral Cortex 18 1 46 52 doi 10 1093 cercor bhm030 hdl 10536 DRO DU 30047633 PMID 17412719 C R Cloninger Autumn 1986 A unified biosocial theory of personality and its role in the development of anxiety states 4 3 167 226 PMID 3809156 Bodi Nikoletta Keri Szabolcs Nagy Helga Moustafa Ahmed Myers Catherine E September 2009 Reward learning and the novelty seeking personality a between and within subjects study of the effects of dopamine agonists on young Parkinson s patients Brain 132 9 2385 2395 doi 10 1093 brain awp094 PMC 2766178 PMID 19416950 Kusumi Ichiro Masui Takuya Kakiuchi Chihiro Suzuki Katsuji Akimoto Tatsuyuki Hashimoto Ryota Kunugi Hiroshi Kato Tadafumi Koyama Tsukasa December 2005 Relationship between XBP1 genotype and personality traits assessed by TCI and NEO FFI Neuroscience Letters 391 1 2 7 10 doi 10 1016 j neulet 2005 08 023 hdl 2115 8420 PMID 16154272 S2CID 505223 Cloninger CR Zohar AH 2011 Personality and the perception of health and happiness Journal of Affective Disorders 128 1 2 24 32 doi 10 1016 j jad 2010 06 012 PMID 20580435 External linksCloninger C R Svrakic D M Przybeck T R December 1993 A psychobiological model of temperament and character Archives of General Psychiatry 50 12 975 90 doi 10 1001 archpsyc 1993 01820240059008 PMID 8250684