Exploration of the Benefits of an Activity-Specific Test of Temperament

Abstract

The Structure of Temperament Questionnaire (STQ) was proposed by Rusalov in 1989 and subsequently tested in five languages. The questionnaire assesses four temperamental traits (Ergonicity, Plasticity, Tempo, and Emotionality) in three separate areas of activity: physical, verbal-social, and intellectual. The scales are all activity-specific. In 775 Canadian subjects, two temperament tests were compared, both developed on the basis of Pavlovian studies of the nervous system: the activity-specific approach (STQ) and the nonspecific Pavlovian Temperamental Survey (PTS). More significant sex differences were found on activity-specific scales of the STQ than on the nonspecific PTS scales. The pattern of correlations between the STQ scales and the time taken on an experimental task requiring a prolonged and intense word-assessment activity showed stronger correlations with the specific scales of the STQ measuring the dynamic aspects of social-verbal activity, and not with the PTS Strength of Excitation scale, which is based on a “general arousal” concept. The results supported the separation of temperament traits related to three different types of activities and opposed to “general arousal” theories of temperament.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Beere

, & Pica

(1995) The predisposition to dissociate: the temperamental traits of flexibility/rigidity, daily rhythm, emotionality, and interactional speed. Dissociation, 8, 236–240.

Bishop

, & Hertenstein

(2004) A confirmatory factor analysis of the Structure of Temperament Questionnaire. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 64, 1019–1029.

Bishop

Jacks

, & Tandy

S. B.

(1993) Structure of Temperament Questionnaire (STQ): results from a U.S. sample. Personality and Individual Differences, 14, 485–487.

Bodunov

M. V.

Bezdenezhnykh

B. N.

, & Alexandrov

Y. I.

(1996) Charakteristika otvetov na testovie zadania psihologicheskih metodik i structura individual'nogo opita [Peculiarities of psychodiagnostic test item responses and the structure of individual experience]. Psikhologicheskiy Zhurnal [Psychological Journal], 17, 87–96. [in Russian]

Brebner

, & Stough

(1993) The relationship between the Structure of Temperament and extraversion and neuroticism. Personality and Individual Differences. 14, 623–626.

Buss

, & Plomin

(1984) Temperament: early developing personality trait. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Byzova

V. M.

(1997) Samoactualizacia predstaviteley Komi i Russkogo etnosov [Self-actualization in representatives of Komi and Russian ethnic groups]. Psikhologicheskiy Zhurnal [Psychological Journal], 18, 61–69. [in Russian]

Carver

C. S.

, & White

T. L.

(1994) Behavioral inhibition, behavioral activation, and affective responses to impending reward and punishment: the BIS/BAS Scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 319–333.

Cattell

R. B.

(1965) The scientific analysis of personality. London: Penguin.

10.

Cloninger

C. R.

Przybeck

T. R.

Svrakic

D. M.

, & Wetzel

R. D.

(1994) The temperament and character inventory (TCI): a guide to its development and use. St Louis, MO: Center for Psychobiology of Personality.

11.

Costa

P. T.

Jr. , & McCrae

R. R.

(1992) Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI–R) and NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO–FFI): professional manual. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.

12.

Dumenci

(1995) The relation between the Structure of Temperament Questionnaire and other personality domains. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 55, 850–857.

13.

Dumenci

(1996) Factorial validity of scores on the Structure of Temperament Questionnaire. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 56, 487–493.

14.

Eaton

, & Enns

(1986) Gender differences in human motor activity level. Psychological Bulletin, 100, 19–28.

15.

Eputaev

E. Y.

Ikonnikova

M. E.

Agarkov

B. A.

, & Tarabrina

N. V.

(2003) Dissociative states and formal-dynamical properties of individual: materials of the 7th Multidisciplinary Conference “Stress and Behavior.” Moscow: IPRAN Press. Pp. 121–123.

16.

Eysenck

H. J.

, & Eysenck

S. B. G.

(1968) Manual for the Eysenck Personality Inventory. San Diego, CA: Educational and Industrial Testing Service.

17.

Fischer

A. H.

(1993) Gender differences in emotionality: fact or stereotype? Feminism and Psychology, 3, 303–318.

18.

Gray

J. A.

(1964) Pavlov's typology: recent theoretical and experimental developments from the laboratory of B. M. Teplov. New York: Macmillan.

19.

Gray

J. A.

(1982) The neuropsychology of anxiety: an enquiry into the functions of the septo…hippocampal system. New York: Oxford Univer. Press.

20.

Halpern

D. F.

(2000) Gender differences in cognitive abilities. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

21.

Heymans

(1929) Inleiding tot de speciale psychologie [Introduction to differential psychology]. Haarlem, The Netherlands: De Erven F. Bohn.

22.

Hyde

J. S.

, & Linn

M. C.

(1988) Gender differences in verbal ability: a meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 104, 53–69.

23.

Kant

(1798/1974) Anthropology from a pragmatic point of view ( Gregor

Mary

, Transl.). The Hague, The Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff (Ak. VII).

24.

LaFrance

, & Banaji

(1992) Towards reconsideration of the gender-emotion relationship. In Clark

(Ed.), Emotion and social behavior: review of personality and social psychology. Vol. 14. Newbury Park. CA: Sage. Pp. 178–201.

25.

Lamiell

J. T.

(2003) Beyond individual and group differences: human individuality, scientific psychology, and William Stern's critical personalism. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

26.

Mehrabian

, & Bank

(1978) A questionnaire measure of individual differences in achieving tendency. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 38, 475–478.

27.

Nebylitsyn

V. D.

(1972) Fundamental properties of the human nervous system. New York: Plenum.

28.

Pavlov

I. P.

(1941) Lectures on conditioned reflexes, v. IIi: types of the higher nervous activity, their interdependence with neuroses and psychoses, and the physiological mechanism of neurotic and psychotic symptoms. New York: International Publishers.

29.

Popov

Y. A.

(2006) Trevojnost' v psycho-pedagogocheskom portrete studenta kolledga [Anxiety in psycho-pedagogical portrait of a college student]. Professional'noye Obuchenie [Professional Education], 8, 24–25. [in Russian]

30.

Rathee

, & Singh

(2001) Mobility or/and lability of the nervous processes as temperamental trait(s). Personality and Individual Differences, 31, 1091–1104.

31.

Rothbart

M. K.

(1988) Temperament and the development of inhibited approach. Child Development, 59, 1241–1250.

32.

Ruch

Angleitner

, & Strelau

(1991) The Strelau Temperament Inventory–Revised (STI–R): validity studies. European Journal of Personality, 5, 287–308.

33.

Rusalov

V. M.

(1979) Biologicheskiye osnovi individual'no-psichologicheskih razlichiy [Biological basis of individual psychological differences]. Moscow: Nauka. [in Russian]

34.

Rusalov

V. M.

(1989) Motor and communicative aspects of human temperament: a new questionnaire of the structure of temperament. Personality and Individual Differences, 10, 817–827.

35.

Rusalov

V. M.

(1997) Oprosnik formal'no-dynamicheskih svoystv individual'nosti: rukovodstvo [Questionnaire of formal-dynamical properties of individuality: manual]. Moscow: IPAN Press. [in Russian]

36.

Rusalov

V. M.

(2004) Formal'no-dynamicheskiye svoystva individual'nosti (temperament) [Formal-dynamical properties of individual (temperament)]. Moscow: IPAN Press. [in Russian]

37.

Rusalov

V. M.

, & Dudin

C. I.

(1995) Temperament i intellect: obchie b specificheskiye factori rasvitiya [Temperament and intelligence: general and specific factors of development]. Psikhologicheskiy Zhurnal [Psychological Journal], 16, 12–23. [in Russian]

38.

Rusalov

V. M.

, & Naumova

E. R.

(1999) On the relationship between general abilities and “intellectual” scales of temperament. Psikhologicheskiy Zhurnal [Psychological Journal], 20, 70–77.

39.

Rusalov

V. M.

, & Poltavtzeva

L. I.

(1997) Temperament as a prerequisite of creative abilities. Pavlov Journal of Higher Nervous Activity, 47, 451–460.

40.

Rusalov

V. M.

Rusalova

M. N.

, & Strel'nikova

E. V.

(2000) Temperament cheloveka i osobennosti vibora mejdu veroyatnostyu dostijeniya tseli i ee tzennostyu [Temperament of man and peculiarities of choice between the probability of goal achievement and its value]. Zhurnal Vysshey Nervnoy Deyatel'nosti [Journal of Higher Nervous Activity], 50, 388. [in Russian]

41.

Rusalov

V. M.

, & Trofimova

I. N.

(2007) Structure of temperament and its measurement. Toronto: Psychological Services Press.

42.

Stough

Brebner

, & Cooper

(1991) The Rusalov Structure of Temperament Questionnaire (STQ): results from an Australian sample. Personality and Individual Differences, 12, 1355–1357.

43.

Strelau

(1999) The Pavlovian Temperament Survey (PTS): an international handbook. Stuttgart, Germany: Hogrefe & Huber.

44.

Strelau

, & Angleitner

(Eds.) (1991) Explorations in temperament: international perspectives on theory and measurement. New York: Plenum.

45.

Thomas

J. R.

, & French

K. E.

(1985) Gender differences across age in motor performance: a meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 98, 260–282.

46.

Trofimova

, & Sulis

(2009) An investigation of temperament in adults with comorbid depression and anxiety. Unpublished manuscript, McMaster Univer.

47.

Trofimova

I. N.

(1999) How people of different age, gender, and temperament estimate the world. Psychological Reports, 85, 533–552.

48.

Vasyura

S. A.

(2008) Psychology of male and female communicative activity. The Spanish Journal of Psychology, 11, 289–300.

49.

Vorobieva

E. V.

(2004) Modern psychogenetic studies of intelligence and theory of motivation for achievements. Journal of Applied Psychology, 3, 53–59.

50.

Windle

, & Lerner

R. M.

(1986) Reassessing the dimensions of temperament individually across the life span: the Revised Dimensions of Temperament Survey (DOTS–R). Journal of Adolescent Research, 1, 213–229.

51.

Zin'ko

E. V.

(2006) Kharakteristiki samootcenki i urovnya dostijeniy i ih sopolojenie [Characteristics of self-image and level of aspiration and its relationships]. Psikhologicheskiy Zhurnal [Psychological Journal], 3, 18–30; 4, 15–25. [in Russian]