Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire (TPQ) is a

personality test A personality test is a method of assessing human personality constructs. Most personality assessment instruments (despite being loosely referred to as "personality tests") are in fact introspective (i.e., subjective) self-report questionnaire ( ...

. It was devised by

C. Robert Cloninger Claude Robert Cloninger (born April 4, 1944) is an American psychiatrist and geneticist noted for his research on the biological, psychological, social, and spiritual foundation of both mental health and mental illness.''Highly Cited Researchers ...

. A newer version of the questionnaire is called

Temperament and Character Inventory The Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) is an inventory for personality traits devised by Cloninger et al. It is closely related to and an outgrowth of the Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire (TPQ), and it has also been related to the d ...

. As the name indicates TPQ seeks to measure three dimensions (traits) of the personality. These

personality trait In psychology, trait theory (also called dispositional theory) is an approach to the study of human personality. Trait theorists are primarily interested in the measurement of ''traits'', which can be defined as habitual patterns of behaviour, t ...

s are

novelty seeking In Cloninger's model of psychobiology, novelty seeking (NS) is an inherited, unlearned, temperamental bias toward novel signals from the environment. It can be measured along a spectrum from low to high (as with 3 other temperamental domains) and ...

harm avoidance Harm avoidance (HA) is a personality trait characterized by excessive worrying; pessimism; shyness; and being fearful, doubtful, and easily fatigued. In MRI studies HA was correlated with reduced grey matter volume in the orbito-frontal, occipit ...

and

reward dependence Reward dependence is characterized as a tendency to respond markedly to signals of reward, particularly to verbal signals of social approval, social support, and sentiment. When reward dependence levels deviate from normal we see the rise of several ...

. 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, French and German versions.

Neurobiology

Cloninger suggested that the three dimensions, novelty seeking, harm avoidance, and reward dependence, were correlated with low basal

dopamine Dopamine (DA, a contraction of 3,4-dihydroxyphenethylamine) is a neuromodulatory molecule that plays several important roles in cells. It is an organic chemical of the catecholamine and phenethylamine families. Dopamine constitutes about 8 ...

rgic activity, high

serotonergic Serotonergic () or serotoninergic () means "pertaining to or affecting serotonin". Serotonin is a neurotransmitter. A synapse In the nervous system, a synapse is a structure that permits a neuron (or nerve cell) to pass an electrical or chem ...

activity, and low basal

noradrenergic Norepinephrine (NE), also called noradrenaline (NA) or noradrenalin, is an organic chemical in the catecholamine family that functions in the brain and body as both a hormone and neurotransmitter. The name "noradrenaline" (from Latin '' ad'', ...

activity, respectively. Much research has gone into examining these links, e.g., with

personality genetics Personality psychology is a branch of psychology that examines personality and its variation among individuals. It aims to show how people are individually different due to psychological forces. Its areas of focus include: * construction of a ...

References

Other

* {{Cite journal , author =

C. R. Cloninger Claude Robert Cloninger (born April 4, 1944) is an American psychiatrist and geneticist noted for his research on the biological, psychological, social, and spiritual foundation of both mental health and mental illness.''Highly Cited Researchers ...

, title = A systematic method for clinical description and classification of personality variants. A proposal , journal =

Archives of General Psychiatry ''JAMA Psychiatry'' (until 2013: ''Archives of General Psychiatry'') is a monthly peer-reviewed medical journal published by the American Medical Association. It covers research in psychiatry, mental health, behavioral sciences, and related fields. ...

, volume = 44 , issue = 6 , pages = 573–578 , date=June 1987 , pmid = 3579504 , doi = 10.1001/archpsyc.1987.01800180093014 Personality tests