An American English version of the Pavlovian Temperament Survey

Abstract

This paper reports the development and initial evaluation of a version of the Pavlovian Temperament Survey (PTS) based upon a translation of the original German into American English idiom. A total of 452 subjects from student and community subsamples responded to the entire American English PTS item pool. Using the protocol employed in the development of other language versions, 66 items were selected for the inventory. The resulting scales—Strength of Excitation (SE), Strength of Inhibition (SI), and Mobility of Nervous Processes (MO)—had acceptable psychometric characteristics. Scale intercorrelations were similar to those of other language version of the PTS, with the most salient feature being a relatively high SE-MO correlation. Item principal components analyses indicated that each scale contained situation- and/or response-specific factors. General factors were also present for SE and MO. SE was higher for males than females, and SI increased with age. Internal consistency and scale intercorrelations were similar for males and females and for the community and student subsamples. The application of Australian, Polish, and German scorekeys to the responses of the American subjects resulted in the expected moderate correlations among the four versions of the SE and SI scales, and unexpectedly high correlations among the MO scales. Overall, the findings suggest that the American English PTS will be useful in assessing the Pavlovian nervous system properties.