Temperament and Character Profiles of Sasang Typology in an Adult Clinical Sample

Soo Hyun Park,Jong Yeol Kim,Soo Jin Lee,Han Chae,Myoung-Geun Kim

doi:10.1093/ecam/nep034

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the biopsychological personality profiles of traditional Korean Sasang typology based on the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) in a Korean adult clinical sample. A total of 97 adults completed the Korean version of the TCI. The participants were classified as one of three traditional Korean Sasang types (31 So-Yang, 41 Tae-Eum, 25 So-Eum) by three specialists in Sasang typology. The seven dimensions of TCI were compared between the different Sasang types using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and profile analysis. There were no significant differences in age, gender and education across the Sasang types. The TCI profile for each of the Sasang types was significantly different (profile analysis, df = 5.038, F = 3.546, P = .004). There were significant differences in the temperament dimensions of Novelty Seeking (F = 3.43, P = .036) and Harm Avoidance (F = 5.43, P = .006) among the Sasang types. The Novelty Seeking score of the So-Yang type (31.90 ± 9.87) was higher than that of the So-Eum type (25.24 ± 9.21; P = .019) while the So-Eum type (44.64 ± 8.47) scored higher on the Harm Avoidance score compared to the So-Yang type (35.16 ± 11.50; P = .003). There were no significant differences in the temperament dimension of Reward Dependence and Persistence, and the three character dimensions of Self-Directedness, Cooperativeness and Self-Transcendence. Results demonstrated distinct temperament traits associated with traditional Korean Sasang types using an objective biopsychological personality inventory. With further study, the Sasang typology may lead to enhanced clinical safety and efficacy as part of personalized medicine with traditional medicine.

Highlights

Current changes in medicine have led researchers to focus on preventive, predictive and personalized medicine
1156 individuals who met all of the following inclusion criteria composed the initial sample pool: (i) made a minimum of five outpatient visits, (ii) underwent pharmacological management prescribed for the particular Sasang type for 50 days or more, (iii) did not manifest significant medication adverse events as indicated in the medical records, (iv) demonstrated clear improvement in their chief complaints and pre-existing symptoms and/or exhibited a unique improvement pattern and (v) for whom there existed clear documentation of medication treatment response in the medical chart (Figure 1)
There were no significant differences in age, gender composition and level of education between the three Sasang types, F(2,94) = 1.94, P = .149, χ2 = 0.871, P = .647 and χ2 = 0.764, P = .682, respectively

Summary

Introduction

Current changes in medicine have led researchers to focus on preventive, predictive and personalized medicine. As a traditional Korean medical typology, epitomizes personalized medicine based on both physical and psychological characteristics and features, and shares much similarity with the Western academic tradition [2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]. Just as Kretschmer [10] and Sheldon [11] identified different human personality types based on body type and psychological characteristics, Sasang typology encompasses such a similar constitutional classification system, and shares a similar conceptual basis with Eysenck’s description of introversion-extroversion and neuroticism [2, 3, 12]. Sasang typology appears to be related to Hippocrates’ concept of the four humors [3, 13, 14]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion