Reward dependence

In psychology, reward dependence (RD) is a personality trait. It can be assessed within the Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire (TPQ) personality test where it is one of the resulting dimensions alongside "harm avoidance" and "novelty seeking".It is also found in the newer version of the personality test called Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) and its revised version (TCI-R).

The so-called subscales of reward dependence in TCI-R are
# Sentimentality (RD1)
# Openness to warm communication (RD2)
# Attachment (RD3)
# Dependence (RD4)

C. Robert Cloninger, that devised the TPQ and TCI questionnaires, suggested that RD is correlated with low noradrenergic activity. [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] This suggestion has led to research that, e.g., investigates whether genes of the noradrenaline system are associationed with variation in reward dependence.As an example: One study looked for the effect from a genetic variant, C-182T (rs2242446), in the norepinephrine transporter gene. [Cite journal
author = Byung-Joo Ham, Myoung-Jin Choi, Heon-Jeong Lee, Rhee-Hun Kang & Min-Soo Lee
title = Reward dependence is related to norepinephrine transporter T-182C gene polymorphism in a Korean population
journal = Psychiatric Genetics
volume = 15
issue = 2
pages = 145–147
year = 2005
month = June
pmid = 15900230]

Reference