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PubMed2006

Differences in temperament, character and psychopathology among subjects with different patterns of cannabis use.

BACKGROUND: Patients who use illicit drugs and suffer from comorbid psychiatric illnesses have worse outcomes than drug users without a dual diagnosis. For this reason we aimed at identifying predictors of cannabis use severity using a multivariate model in which different clinical and socio-demographic variables were included. SAMPLING AND METHODS: We administered the Temperament and Character Inventory, SCID-P, SCID-II, the Beck Depression Inventory and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. Of the 84 subjects included, 25 were occasional users, 37 were abusers, and 22 were dependent on cannabis. RESULTS: A stepwise multiple regression analysis identified increased self-transcendence scores and state anxiety severity as the only predictors of a increased cannabis use severity (F = 6.635; d.f. = 2, 81; p = 0.0021). In particular, in a further multivariate analysis of variance, the transpersonal identification issue of self-transcendence was associated significantly (F = 4.267; d.f. = 2, 81; p = 0.017) with greater severity of cannabis use. CONCLUSIONS: Character dimension of self-transcendence and symptoms of state anxiety should be taken into consideration during the assessment procedure of patients with cannabis use as they may be helpful in the discrimination of cannabis use severity.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Taxonomic aspects of clinical character typology.

Whereas clinical character typology is based upon one typological idealized personality description of the same illness model, empirical character typology is concerned with the identification of the different personality structures for the same illness model. We have been able to prove that in a taxonomical analysis (Q-factor analysis) of patients and healthy persons subgroups can be identified whose mean-value profiles justify designation as depressive, compulsive, and hysterical personality. This classification was replicated from a second sample. Through this personality classification it becomes possible to determine the distribution of the three personality structures from a clinical group. The distribution of the personality structure in neurotic depression was 59% for the depressive, 19% for the compulsive, and 22% for the hysterical personality. We were able to prove that they can be characterized by various coping strategies which presumably require different psychotherapeutic interventions.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Temperament and character profiles and the dopamine D4 receptor gene in ADHD.

OBJECTIVE: This study was designed to investigate the link among attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in adults, novelty-seeking temperament, and the 48-base pair (bp) dopamine D4 receptor (DRD4) gene variant. METHOD: This study drew from a larger molecular genetic study of ADHD in which the ascertainment criterion was having an affected sibling pair with ADHD. Parents (N=171) from 96 families provided data. Of the 171 parents, 56 (33%) had a lifetime history of ADHD, with 28 (50%) continuing to meet DSM-IV criteria (i.e., "persistent" ADHD). Latent variable modeling was used to test whether the DRD4 gene variant or Temperament and Character Inventory factors could predict ADHD. RESULTS: Using latent variable modeling, the authors were able to confirm the first-order factor structure of the Temperament and Character Inventory. Furthermore, novelty seeking predicted ADHD lifetime diagnosis (R(2)=26%), while the DRD4 gene variant independently predicted ADHD (R(2)=5%) but not novelty seeking. CONCLUSIONS: In this unique sample of parents from multiply affected ADHD families, novelty seeking and the 48-bp DRD4 variant were associated with a lifetime history of ADHD. However, the association between novelty seeking and ADHD does not appear to be due to variation in the 48-bp DRD4 variant.

Adult↗
PubMed1979

Piaget's stages of cognitive development and adult character structure.

Psychonalytic and Piagetian findings are bridged by understanding character structure. Social cognition of the three character types corresponds to three phase of cognitive development: Symbolic, Intuitive, and (Concrete) Operational. A child constructs his supergo by coordinating his perceptions of his caretaking as he coordinates other perceptions in the Operational Period.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

Temperament and character in adults with Asperger syndrome.

To study the personality characteristics of adults with Asperger syndrome, and investigate the value of self-rating personality inventories, we administered the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) to 31 outpatients with Asperger syndrome. The TCI is a self-rating personality inventory that has been validated in the Swedish general population. The results were compared with age- and sex-matched norm groups. Participants with Asperger syndrome scored significantly higher on harm avoidance and lower on self-directedness and cooperativeness. Reward dependence and novelty seeking tended to be low. They also had significantly higher rarity scores, reflecting idiosyncratic perspectives. The most common temperament configurations were 'obsessional', 'passive-dependent' and'explosive'. Character, reflecting conceptual maturity, was poorly developed in the majority of our subjects. The self-ratings of persons with Asperger syndrome thus indicated anxious personalities with coping difficulties in the areas of social interaction and self-directedness, a picture corresponding to the clinical descriptions of Asperger syndrome.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1993

Between man and woman: the character of the lesbian.

Homosexuality, or inversion, is defined by medical discourses since the middle of the XIXth century, as a condition which radically marks individuals so labelled. Through those discourses, a figure, a character, is built. It is no longer precise sexual acts which are at stake, but the totality of the person, who has salient features, biological, psychological as well as behavioral. Those salient features are built on gender mixing, even on sexual characteristics mixing. The inverts, in such a definition, stress the bipolarity of sexes because they embody an intermediate state, the 'third sex'. But this conceptualisation implies also a reinforcement of the two poles of categorisation. Homosexuals do not follow 'the natural law' which defines men and women. Third part excluded from bicategorisation, indifferentiate freaks, those characters are analysers for social definitions of sexes, genders and their evolution.

Character↗
PubMed2000

Adolescent girls with idiopathic central precocious puberty: typical character traits.

It has been reported that girls at onset of idiopathic central precocious puberty (ICPP) and during treatment have symbiotic character traits. The aim of this study was to investigate the development of character in a group of adolescents. Ten adolescent girls aged 14 years treated for ICPP were evaluated. All the adolescents in the study had a negative body image compared with age-matched controls and expressed a strong inhibition of their femininity. Their poor body image is reflected by their limited self-esteem. These adolescents have not been able to operate a reorganization of their affective life and therefore go through the necessarily slow and painful separation from their family. Symbiotic traits are "hard-wired" into their lives. These results suggest that at ICPP onset, in addition to setting up an educational program for the parents, it is equally important to supply psychological support for the patients in order to gain a better interaction between biological, psychological and cultural influences.

Brain Diseases↗
PubMed2001

Temperament, character, and attachment patterns in borderline personality disorder.

The aim of this study was to assess the specificity of the association between temperamental vulnerability, character deficits, and Borderline personality disorder (BPD), controlling for the effects of attachment patterns. A total of 44 BPD patients were compared with 98 non-BPD patients with other cluster B Personality Disorder (PD) diagnoses, 39 patients with any cluster A or cluster C PD diagnoses, 70 patients with no PD diagnosis, and 206 nonclinical patients. All patients were administered the Temperament and Character Inventory, the Parental Bonding Instrument, and the Attachment Style Questionnaire. Multivariate and univariate tests showed that BPD patients differed significantly from all control groups on Novelty Seeking and Cooperativeness. These differences remained significant when controlling for the effect of attachment.

Adult↗
PubMed2002

Measuring the core features of personality disorders in substance abusers using the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI).

Personality disorders (PDs) are still classified through categorical taxonomies that are at odds with current research findings. Dimensional models provide a suitable alternative for measuring individual differences. However, as they have traditionally lacked a clear definition of the "disorder" construct, the clinical utility of these models has been limited. This study tests whether Cloninger's dimensional model is able to capture two domains: the features that differentiate PD subtypes from each other and the common core features underlying all PDs. Seventy-four drug dependent patients were independently assessed using the SCID-II and Cloninger's TCI. There was a slight relationship between TCI temperament dimensions and the DSM personality disorder subtypes, but the association was not specific enough to allow differential diagnosis. The character dimension Self-Directedness was strongly associated with the presence and severity of all PDs, irrespective of subtype, correctly classifying 77% of subjects. Character dimensions are a reliable, valid and low-cost tool for detecting PDs in drug abusers and may help to provide an operational definition of the common core features underlying all PDs.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

Temperament, character, and personality disorders.

This study compares two self-report instruments--the Dutch version of Cloninger's Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) and the Questionnaire on Personality Traits (VKP)--in a Dutch sample of 148 people in a healthy population. The aims of this study are to create a norm group for the Dutch TCI, to investigate the psychometric properties of the TCI, and to examine the relationship between temperament, character (as measured by the TCI), and personality disorders (as measured by the VKP). The Dutch TCI has a good internal consistency. Some scales do intercorrelate. Seven factors can be identified with principal components analysis. T-tests show differences between the mean score of this Dutch population and Cloninger's community sample. According to the results of correlations and multiple regression of the TCI and the VKP, the self-directedness scale can predict the presence or absence of a personality disorder. Other scales might predict the type of personality disorder. It is concluded that the TCI can be a useful aid in the assessment of personality disorders.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

Social character of materialism.

Scores for 170 undergraduates on Richins and Dawson's Materialism scale were correlated with scores on Kassarjian's Social Preference Scale, designed to measure individuals' character structure. A correlation of .26 between materialism and other-directed social character suggested that an externally oriented reference system guides materialists' perceptions, judgments, acquisitions, and possessions.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

[Are employees who have retired due to occupational maladjustment adaptable to new workplaces?--Character traits as the individual factors].

Determining factors for adaptation to a new workplace in light of 3 cases that have taken early retirement due to occupational maladjustment are discussed. The character traits of these 3 cases are regarded as individual factors because of their conspicuousness. In regard to adaptation to new workplaces, two of my cases were unable to adapt in their previous workplaces because of their avoidant personality. They were also unable to adjust to their present workplaces. When the worker's character traits tend to cause occupational maladjustment, appropriate approaches including counseling and occupational adjustment should be recommended to the worker.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1999

A convergent validity study of Cloninger's Temperament and Character Inventory with the Coolidge Axis II Inventory.

This study examined the convergent validity of the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI), a measure of four biosocial temperaments and three character dimensions with the Coolidge Axis II Inventory (CATI), a measure of 14 personality disorders. A nonclinical sample of 163 college students was given both measures, and the data were analyzed with bivariate and multivariate statistics. Hypotheses generated from the findings of Svrakic, Whitehead, Przybeck, and Cloninger (1993, Archives of General Psychiatry, 50, 991-999) were confirmed for a majority of the relationships between the two measures. The preliminary results provide qualified support for the TCI and Cloninger's biosocial theory in the assessment of personality disorders.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2001

Susceptibility to maladaptive responses to stress in basic military training based on variants of temperament and character.

The purpose of this study was to compare the relationship of Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) scores of three groups of U.S. Air Force basic trainees. The following groups were used: those who were psychiatrically hospitalized, a control group, and a group identified as being at risk for early separation from basic training because of psychological reasons. The instrument used was the TCI. The data were analyzed with analysis of variance, Tukey post hoc comparisons, and stepwise backward discriminant analysis. The controls were found to have healthier temperament and character profiles than both the at-risk (p < 0.01) and hospitalized (p < 0.01) groups. No difference was found between the at-risk and hospitalized groups on TCI scores. The TCI was found to successfully predict 82% of controls, 25% of at-risk, and 64% of hospitalized recruits. Risk factors for maladaptive responses to stress and possible ways of primary prevention are presented.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

[Temperament and character profile of patients with chronic tension-type headache].

OBJECTIVE: To examine the personality profiles of patients with chronic tension-type headache (CTTH) and controls using the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI), and to determine whether the data acquired were related to the depressive status of patients. METHOD: Forty-eight patients with CTTH and 50 age, gender and education level matched, healthy, headache-free control subjects were selected for the study. The Turkish versions of TCI and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) were applied to all participants. In the TCI, novelty seeking (NS), harm avoidance (HA), reward dependence (RD) and persistence (P) are the 4 dimensions of temperament; self-directedness (SD), cooperativeness (C) and self-transcendence (ST) are 3 dimensions of character. RESULTS: The BDI scores were positively correlated with HA scores (r=0.486, p<0.001) and negatively correlated with SD (r=-0.412, p<0.001) and C scores (r=-0.212, p=0.016). Higher HA scores and lower SD scores were found in CTTH patients when compared to the controls. After using the adjusted TCI scores (after being partialled out for the effect of BDI scores), while similar results of higher HA scores relative to healthy controls were found, SD scores did not differ statistically between the two groups. NS, RD, P, C and ST scores did not differ significantly between the two groups, using either adjusted or unadjusted TCI scores. CONCLUSION: The study of personality suggests strong effect of depressive status on SD scores in CTTH patients. Higher HA scores in CTTH patients support the role of serotonergic involvement in the pathophysiology of CTTH.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

Identification in healthy and pathological character formation.

The character of the ego is built up via a series of identifications carried out in the course of development. As infants are forced by experience to give up the 'internal illusion' of primal identification with the powerful mother, the sense of helplessness that ensues leads to secondary identification to create an 'external illusion' of oneness with the mother during heightened stress or tension. Adequate experiences, leading to increasing trust and tolerance of frustration and tension, promote ego structuralization, self-object differentiation, and oedipal, triadic object relations. Inadequate experiences lead to pathological identifications that interfere with ego development. Oedipal conflicts produce new problems, which are dealt with in part by complex identifications that contribute extensively to the child's personality structure. Superego crystallization derives largely from these later identifications. In optimal circumstances, the identifications out of which the child's character is built become reworked and modified so that it becomes increasingly unique and independent of its sources in others. Stability is never absolute, however. Under stress, reversion is possible to dependence on powerful, charismatic leaders that offers return to the illusion of identificatory union with a powerful, protective, parental 'other'. This can be exploited by potentially dangerous, destructive leaders.

Character↗
PubMed1981

Character traits and object relationships.

Character traits have in the past been viewed as "discharge" phenomena and compromise formations. Many traits can be better understood, however, as devices for evoking particular types of response in others in order to actualize the wished-for relationships existing in unconscious fantasy. Moreover, some "evocative" character traits create the unconscious illusion of the presence of the love objects. The concept of unconscious illusion can also be used to clarify the notion of "introject," which may be understood as an illusory object perceived outside normal consciousness.

Character↗
PubMed1998

Gender stereotyping for sociability, dominance, character, and mental health: a meta-analysis of findings from the bogus stranger paradigm.

A meta-analysis was conducted of target gender effects on trait attributions from 18 bogus stranger studies that had manipulated target gender and target physical attractiveness. Collapsed over sex of perceivers, female targets were seen as more sociable, happier, and possessing greater character than male targets. However, these effects were small and were often moderated by the perceivers' sex. Male perceivers viewed female targets as more sociable and happier than male targets, whereas female perceivers viewed male targets as more dominant than female targets. There was no moderation of the gender effect on attributions of character, as both sexes viewed females more favorably than males and the effect size was very small for perceivers of both sexes.

Adult↗