Abstract
BackgroundRobert Cloninger’s psychobiological model of temperament and character is a dimensional approach to personality assessment and gave birth to the temperament and character inventory (TCI). The aim of the present report is to examine the psychometric properties of the Greek version of the TCI, and to replicate its postulated structure and provide preliminary normative data for the Greek population.MethodsThe study sample included 734 subjects from the general Greek population (436 females; 59.4 % and 298 males; 40.6 %). Their mean age was 40.80 ± 11.48 years (range 25–67 years). The mean age for females was 39.43 ± 10.87 years (range 25–65 years), while the mean age for males was 42.82 ± 12.06 years (range 25–67 years). Descriptive statistics tables concerning age, gender and occupational status distribution in the sample were created. The analysis included the calculation of Cronbach’s alpha, factor analysis with promax rotation and the calculation of Pearson correlation coefficients between the subscales scores. Analysis of Covariance with age as covariate and t test and Cohen’s d as post hoc tests was used to search for differences in subscales scores between males and females.ResultsThe overall psychometric properties of the Greek version of the TCI proved to be satisfactory, with acceptable consistencies of the subscales. The factor analysis of temperament identified four factors which together explained 58.56 % of total variance, while the factor analysis of the three-factor solution of the character explained 52.24 % of total variance. The TCI scales correlate significantly but weakly between each other and with age.DiscussionThe Greek version of the TCI exhibits psychometric properties similar to its original English counterpart and to other national translations and it is suitable for use in research and clinical practice.
Highlights
Robert Cloninger’s psychobiological model of temperament and character is a dimensional approach to personality assessment and gave birth to the temperament and character inventory (TCI)
It seems that the study sample, though convenient and not epidemiologically derived, is representative of the country’s active population with some overrepresentation of younger ages
The means and standard deviations of individual subscales and the difference between males and females are shown in Table 3 along with Cronbach’s alpha values
Summary
Robert Cloninger’s psychobiological model of temperament and character is a dimensional approach to personality assessment and gave birth to the temperament and character inventory (TCI). The temperament theory originated probably from ancient Egypt or Mesopotamia, but a similar theory was definitely formulated by the school of Cos and by Polybus, a pupil and son-in-law to Hippocrates (fourth century B.C.) in his book ‘Peri physeos anthropou’ (‘On the Nature of Man’) This was further elaborated by Eristratos, Asclepiades (first century B.C.) and eventually by Galen (second century A.D.) with his treatise ‘Peri crasaion’ (‘De temperamentis’). Ernst Kretschmer (1888– 1964) described the body types (asthenic/leptosomic, athletic and pyknic) and the related temperaments, with the pyknic-body type being extrovert and related to manic depression. He divided personality into two constitutional groups (temperaments): the ‘schizothymic’ (with the hyperesthetic–sensitive and the anesthetic-cold characters) and the ‘cyclothymic’ (with the depressive–melancholic and the hypomanic characters). Hans Eysenck [2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11], Jeffrey Gray [12], Jerome Kagan [13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21] and Hagop Akiskal [22,23,24,25,26,27,28] all developed theories of temperament and character traits and dimensions
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