Relationship between two dimensional models of personality

Abstract

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.