Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire

Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire (TPQ) is a personality test. [Cite journal
author = C. R. Cloninger, T. R. Przybeck & D. M. Svrakic
title = The Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire: U.S. normative data
journal = Psychological Reports
volume = 69
issue = 3 Pt 1
pages = 1047–1047
year = 1991
month = December
pmid = 1784653] It was devised by C. Robert Cloninger.A newer version of the questionnaire is called Temperament and Character Inventory.

As the name indicates TPQ seeks to measure three dimensions (traits) of the personality.These personality traits are novelty seeking, harm avoidance and reward dependence.Each have four subscales.There are 100 true-false questions which form the basis for the computation of the traits.

The personality test also exists in Chinese, [Cite journal
author = Wei J. Chen, Hsing-Me Chen, Chwen-Cheng Chen, Chiao-Chicy Chen, Wu-Yang Yu & Andrew T. A. Cheng
title = Cloninger's Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire: psychometric properties and construct validity in Taiwanese adults
journal = Comprehensive Psychiatry
volume = 43
issue = 2
pages = 158–156
year = 2002
month = March-April
pmid = 11893995
doi = 10.1053/comp.2002.30797 ] French [Cite journal
author = J. P. Lepine, A. Pelissolo, R. Teodorescu & M. Teherani
title = Evaluation of the psychometric properties of the French version of the Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire (TPQ)
journal = L'Encephale
volume = 20
issue = 6
pages = 747–743
year = 1994
month = November-December
pmid = 7875109] and German [Weyers P et al. Pers. Ind. Diff 1995 19:853:861.] versions

Neurobiology

Temperament	Neurotransmitter system
Novelty seeking	Low dopaminergic activity
Harm avoidance	High serotonergic activity
Reward dependence	Low noradrenergic activity

Cloninger suggested that the three dimensions, novel seeking, harm avoidance and reward dependance, was correlated with low basal dopaminergic activity, high serotonergic activity, and low basal noradrenergic activity, respectively. [Cite journal
author = C. R. Cloninger
title = A unified biosocial theory of personality and its role in the development of anxiety states
journal = Psychiatric Developments
volume = 4
issue = 3
pages = 167–166
year = 1986
month = Autumn
pmid = 3809156] Much research has gone into examining these links, e.g., with personality genetics.

References

Other

* Cite journal
author = C. R. Cloninger
title = A systematic method for clinical description and classification of personality variants. A proposal
journal = Archives of General Psychiatry
volume = 44
issue = 6
pages = 573–578
year = 1987
month = June
pmid = 3579504
url = http://archpsyc.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/44/6/573