Factor validity of the temperament and character inventory in patients with major depression

Cloninger has proposed a seven-factor psychobiological model of personality and has developed the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) to measure four temperament dimensions and three character dimensions. This theory of personality may be of great importance in developing an integrated understanding of psychosocial and biological processes underlying the etiology and course of depression, and a large number of studies are being carried out using the TCI to determine the pathology of depression. The present study investigated the factor validity of the TCI in 156 mildly to moderately depressed patients with major depression. The results indicate that the TCI is an internally consistent and factor-analytically valid instrument in patients. Although there was some evidence that a state of depression strengthened correlation between harm avoidance and cooperativeness, the proposed factor structure of the TCI appeared, in general, robust against the state effect of depression, when the state was mild to moderate. These results suggested that the TCI has considerable promise as an instrument for characterizing the underlying personality structure of mildly to moderately depressed patients with major depression.