Elsevier

Journal of Affective Disorders

Volume 188, 1 December 2015, Pages 43-46
Journal of Affective Disorders

Short Communication
The brief TEMPS-M temperament questionnaire: A psychometric evaluation in an Austrian sample

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2015.08.016Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Temperament traits are considered as dispositions to mood states and other psychopathological conditions.

  • The brief TEMPS-M with 35 self-rating items can be used to assess the 5 temperament traits conveniently.

  • The construct validity of the brief TEMPS-M instrument is now well documented in two independent samples.

Introduction

Temperament is defined as an enduring constitutional core of behavior and affectivity (Erfurth et al., 2005b). Akiskal and co-workers have been working on measurements to assess personality traits with impact on affective disorders. Based on concepts of the German psychiatric tradition they adapted Schneider (1958) classic description of “psychopathic” personalities and combined it with Kraepelin (1899/1921) “personal dispositions”. Furthermore, they took their own clinical experience into consideration and developed the TEMPS-I (The Temperament Evaluation of Memphis, Pisa, Paris and San Diego), a semi-structured interview to assess temperament traits. This assessment was made using Akiskal and Mallya (1987) semistructured format for hyperthymic, depressive, cyclothymic and irritable temperaments (Akiskal et al., 1998, Placidi et al., 1998). They considered temperament traits as dispositions to mood states and conceptualized them as trait affective expressions of mood disorders. These traits were supposed to precede and follow episodes of affective disorders (Akiskal et al., 2005a, Akiskal et al., 2005b). The measurement is based on this concept of a continuum between affective disorder and temperament and allows to describe individuals by traits which reflect an affective disposition rather than a maladaptive interpersonal framework.

Out of the TEMPS-Interview Akiskal et al., 2005a, Akiskal et al., 2005b developed a self-report version, the TEMPS-A (Temperament Evaluation of Memphis, Pisa, Paris and San Diego Auto-questionnaire). The first version contained 84 items, assessing dysthymic, cyclothymic, hyperthymic and irritable temperaments. Later, 26 new items describing an anxious temperament were added, resulting in the 110-item long version which consists of 5 temperament types: depressive, cyclothymic, hyperthymic, irritable and anxious temperaments. Subsequently, this 110 item version was translated into German (Akiskal et al., 2002, Blöink et al., 2005, Erfurth et al., 2005a). Furthermore TEMPS-A has been translated and validated in 25 different languages and is used, e.g., in Italy (Pompili et al., 2008, Preti et al., 2012), Serbia (Hinic et al., 2013), Brasilia (Woodruff et al., 2011), China (Lin et al., 2013), Slovenia (Dolenc et al., 2013), Poland (Borkowska et al., 2010), Portugal (Figueira et al., 2008), France (Krebs et al., 2006), Japan (Matsumoto et al., 2005), Hungary (Rózsa et al., 2008).

A more convenient and shorter version of the TEMPS-A, the TEMPS-M, has been developed by Erfurth et al. (2005a), which consists of 35 items.

The brief German version has been used in several studies (Unseld et al., 2012, Skala et al., 2012, Vyssoki et al., 2011, Özgürdal et al., 2009, Erfurth et al., 2005b), but it has until now only been validated in one study sample (Erfurth et al., 2005a). Therefore, it was the aim of this study to examine the psychometric properties of the 35-item TEMPS-M in an independent German sample.

Section snippets

Sample

Residents of 20 residential homes for students and youth operated by a non-profit and non-governmental organization across Austria were asked to complete an anonymous paper-and-pencil questionnaire. The questionnaires were handed out to 3000 residents between October and November 2009. A total of 1381 (46.03%) questionnaires were returned anonymous in prepared closed boxes at the residential homes. Due to incomplete data, 153 questionnaires had to be excluded from further analyses, resulting in

Statistics

The factorial structure of the brief TEMPS-M was investigated by principal components analysis (PCA) with varimax rotation. The reliability of the subscales was assessed with Cronbachs alpha. All computations were done with IBM SPSS 21. The goodness of fit-measures for a confirmatory factor analysis which was added to evaluate the fit of the expected model was estimated with Mplus v7 (Muthén and Muthén, 1998-2012). The models were evaluated using the comparative fit index (CFI), the

Results

The age range of the participants was between 18 and 25 years, 58.6% of the subjects were females, 37.7% were males and 3.8% did not report their sex.

The participants were mostly well educated, 65.5% (N=905) had completed a high-school diploma, 23.0% (N=318) had completed a diploma at university and just 6.4% (N=88) did not have a high-school diploma. 5.1% did not report their education status. Most of the subjects came from families with a self-rated good (40.2%) or sufficient (34.0%)

Discussion

The purpose of this paper was to test whether the factorial structure of the brief TEMPS-M could be replicated in a sample of Austrian students. This sample comes from a different socialization than the sample in the prior study by Erfurth et al. (2005a).

Exploratory factor analysis was employed to assess construct validity and the 5-factor solution reported by Erfurth et al. (2005a). As hypothesized, the factorial structure in five dimensions was confirmed in our study. The goodness of fit for

Role of funding source

Nothing declared.

Conflict of interest

No conflict declared.

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