TY - JOUR
T1 - The genetic and environmental relationship between Cloninger's dimensions of temperament and character
AU - Gillespie, Nathan A.
AU - Cloninger, C. Robert
AU - Heath, Andrew C.
AU - Martin, Nicholas G.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work as supported by NIH grants AA07535, AA07728, AA10249, AA11998, MH-31302 and NHMRC (Australia) grants 941177 and 971232. We thank the staff from QIMR Genetic Epidemiology Unit for administering the mail-out and data management, and the twins from the Australian NHMRC Twin Registry for their cooperation.
PY - 2003/12
Y1 - 2003/12
N2 - The purpose of this study was to determine whether Cloninger's revised 7-factor model of personality showed incremental validity over his four dimensions of temperament. A sample of 2517 Australian twins aged over 50 between 1993 and 1995 returned completed self-reported measures of Self-directedness, Cooperativeness, and Self-transcendence from Cloninger's Temperament and Character Inventory. Many of these twins had participated in a 1988 study containing Cloninger's temperament measures of Harm Avoidance, Novelty Seeking, Reward Dependence and Persistence. Contrary to theoretical expectations, univariate analyses revealed that familial aggregation for the character dimensions could be entirely explained by additive gene action alone. Although temperament explained 26, 37 and 10% of additive genetic variance in Self-directedness, Cooperativeness and Self-transcendence, respectively, seven genetic factors were required to explain the genetic variance among the TPQ dimensions, and almost all of the non-shared environmental variance was unique to each dimension of character. Our results indicate that the inclusion of all seven dimensions in a taxonomy of personality is warranted.
AB - The purpose of this study was to determine whether Cloninger's revised 7-factor model of personality showed incremental validity over his four dimensions of temperament. A sample of 2517 Australian twins aged over 50 between 1993 and 1995 returned completed self-reported measures of Self-directedness, Cooperativeness, and Self-transcendence from Cloninger's Temperament and Character Inventory. Many of these twins had participated in a 1988 study containing Cloninger's temperament measures of Harm Avoidance, Novelty Seeking, Reward Dependence and Persistence. Contrary to theoretical expectations, univariate analyses revealed that familial aggregation for the character dimensions could be entirely explained by additive gene action alone. Although temperament explained 26, 37 and 10% of additive genetic variance in Self-directedness, Cooperativeness and Self-transcendence, respectively, seven genetic factors were required to explain the genetic variance among the TPQ dimensions, and almost all of the non-shared environmental variance was unique to each dimension of character. Our results indicate that the inclusion of all seven dimensions in a taxonomy of personality is warranted.
KW - Character
KW - Cloninger
KW - Genes
KW - Personality
KW - Temperament
KW - Twins
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0142153701&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/S0191-8869(03)00042-4
DO - 10.1016/S0191-8869(03)00042-4
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0142153701
VL - 35
SP - 1931
EP - 1946
JO - Personality and Individual Differences
JF - Personality and Individual Differences
SN - 0191-8869
IS - 8
ER -