Cloninger's Temperament and Character Model suggests that personality is shaped by temperament (genetically determined traits such as harm avoidance, novelty seeking, reward dependence, and persistence) and character (learned traits such as self-directedness, cooperativeness, and self-transcendence).
Model
Cloninger’s psychobiological model of personality is a
seven-factor model that includes four dimensions of temperament and three
dimensions of character.
The temperament dimensions include:
·
harm avoidance (sensitivity to, and avoidance
of, punishing stimuli),
·
novelty seeking (a tendency toward exhilaration
or excitement in response to cues of potential reward or relief of punishment),
·
reward dependence (a tendency to respond to
positive signals such as social approval and to maintain rewarded behavior),
and
·
persistence (a tendency to continue a task or
activity regardless of frustration, dissatisfaction, or fatigue).
The character dimensions include:
·
self-directedness (the extent to which
individuals are goal-oriented and resourceful),
·
cooperativeness (the extent to which individuals
relate to others), and
·
self-transcendence (the extent to which individuals
are transpersonal, spiritual, and idealistic).
The model suggests that dimensions of temperament are
heritable and that novelty seeking and harm avoidance are closely related to
the behavioral approach system and behavioral inhibition system, respectively,
described by British psychologist Jeffrey Alan Gray (1934–2004). In addition,
the model proposes a link between certain temperaments and specific
neurotransmitters: that is, between novelty seeking and dopamine, between harm
avoidance and serotonin, and between reward dependence and norepinephrine.
Major character traits, however, are said to be related to insight learning and
shaped both by temperament and environmental factors. The model has been
influential in framing research questions in both psychiatry and psychology,
although empirical support for its theoretical assumptions and predictions has
been mixed.
Measures that assess central concepts of the model
include the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI), also developed by C.
Robert Cloninger. TCI (Temperament and Character Inventory) is a 226-item self-questionnaire
to assess the 7 dimensions of personality.
Relationship to other personality models
Cloninger argued that the Five Factor model does not
assess domains of personality relevant to personality disorders such as
autonomy, moral values, and aspects of maturity and self-actualization
considered in humanistic and transpersonal psychology. Cloninger argued that
these domains are captured by self-directedness, cooperativeness, and
self-transcendence respectively. He also argued that personality factors
defined as independent by factor analysis, such as neuroticism and
introversion, may actually share underlying etiological factors.
Sources and Additional Information:
https://dictionary.apa.org/cloningers-psychobiological-model-of-personality
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0191886999002044
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temperament_and_Character_Inventory
