The Formal Characteristics of Behaviour‐Temperament Inventory (FCB‐TI): theoretical assumptions and scale construction

Abstract

A psychometric study has been conducted with the aims of revising the structure of temperament as postulated by the Regulative Theory of Temperament ( R T T ) and of constructing an inventory which corresponds to the RTT. A starting point for the study was the assumption that temperament refers to formal attributes of behaviour expressed in energetic and temporal characteristics. About 600 items covering 12 characteristics were generated. A study based on linguistic and itemmetric analysis allowed us to reduce the number of items representing the 12 characteristics to a 381-item pool. This set of items served as the basis for distinguishing the temperamental traits and for constructing the inventory: the Formal Characteristics of Behaviour-Temperament Inventory (FCB-TI). A thorough psychometric study and factor analysis of data obtained from over 2000 subjects (both genders, aged from 15 to 80 years) allowed us to distinguish six temperamental traits which have the status of Jirst-order factors. Among them, four-Sensory Sensitivity, Endurance, Emotional Reactivity, and Activity-refer to the energetic aspect of behaviour and two-Briskness and Perseverance-refer to the temporal characteristics. The FCB-TI has satisfactory psychometric characteristics, including Cronbach alpha and stability measures. Studies have shown that the six FCB-TI scales are replica across samples and refer to robust temperament dimensions. psychometric techniques) which allow us to operationalize and to measure the basic concepts comprised by the theory.The Regulative Theory of Temperament (RTT), presented for the first time by Strelau (1974) almost two decades ago, and most systematically developed in his 1983 monograph, may serve as an example of a theory which was lacking, maybe not in operationalizations but certainly in assessment techniques. The RTT did not provide methods by means of which the basic assumptions regarding the structure of temperament and the hypothesized temperamental traits could be examinedsupported or falsified. Because the roots of the RTT can be found, among other theories, in the Pavlovian approach, the main inventory by means of which data referring to the RTT were collected was the Strelau Temperament Inventory (STI; Strelau, 1972Strelau, , 1983; see also the revised STI, by Strelau, Angleitner, Bantelmann and Ruch, 1990). However, the STI (and the STI-R as well), measuring the Pavlovian constructs of strength of excitation, strength of inhibition, and mobility of nervous processes, does not grasp all the traits postulated by the RTT. This is especially true with respect to activity as postulated by the RTT (see Strelau, 1983Strelau, , 1989 and with reference to temporal characteristics, except mobility. For assessing the temporal traits, the Temporal Traits Inventory (TTI) was developed (see Gorynska and Strelau, 1979;Strelau, 1983); however, it was rarely applied in further studies.Such a state of affairs regarding the status of the RTT has forced us to develop an inventory which corresponds fully to the the...

Self-reported symptoms of depressed mood, trait anxiety and aggressive behavior in post-pubertal adolescents: Associations with diurnal cortisol profiles

“…001. This subscale, taken from a questionnaire of Strelau and Zawadzki (1993), measures the tendency to react intensively to emotiongenerating stimuli and can in fact be seen as a measure of neuroticism. This is in accordance with the observation of Van Praag et al (2004) that individuals with anxiety/aggression-driven depression show a high prevalence of character-neurotic traits.…”

The Bielefeld Longitudinal Study of Adult Twins (BiLSAT)

“…This multiple-rater strategy allowed addressing several methodological problems with single-rater assessments (e.g., response styles, social desirability, self-deception, and contrast effects). As shown in the list of inventories used as first-person and thirdperson versions (see Table 2), the initial two waves of the study provided a rich, genetically informative multiple-rater data set based on different measures of temperament and RECEIVED Years of data collection 1993-1996 1994-1997 1999-2002 2005-2008 2006 (Strelau & Zawadski, 1993, 1995; NEO-FFI and NEO-PI-R: Neuroticism-Extraversion-Openness Five-Factor Inventory and Personality Inventory Revised (Borkenau & Ostendorf, 1993;Costa & McCrae, 1992;Ostendorf & Angleitner, 2004); EAS: Emotionality-ActivitySociability temperament survey for adults (Buss & Plomin, 1984); EPQ-RS: Eysenck's Personality Questionnaire Revised Short form (Eysenck & Eysenck, 1991;Ruch, 1999); DOTS-R: Revised Dimensions of Temperament Survey (Windle & Lerner, 1986); BIPOL and UNIPOL: bipolar and unipolar adjective scales (Ostendorf, 1990); MPQ: Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (Tellegen & Waller, 2008); ZKPQ-III-R: Revised Zuckerman-Kuhlman-Personality-Questionnaire (Ostendorf & Angleitner, 1994;Zuckerman, 2002); ANPS: Affective Neuroscience Personality Scales (Davis et al, 2003;Reuter et al, 2005); DAPP-BQ: Dimensional Assessment of Personality Pathology Basic Questionnaire (Livesley & Jackson, 2009); PANAS: Positive Affect Negative Affect Scale (Krohne et al, 1996;Watson et al, 1988); GIS: General Interest Scale (Brickenkamp, 1990); GOALS: major life goals (Pöhlmann & Brunstein, 1997); RVS: Rokeach Values Survey (Johnston, 1995;Rokeach, 1973); AVQ: Austrian Value Questionnaire (Renner, 2003); SWLS: Satisfaction With Life Scale (Diener et al, 1985;Sölva et al, 1995). a NEO-FFI items of waves 2, 3, and 4 were included in the NEO-PI-R. b Only the items capturing the importance of major life go...…”

Effort-reward imbalance at work is predicted by temporal and energetic characteristics of behavior: A population-based study

“…Temperament Temperament was assessed with the self-reported Formal Characteristics of Behavior Temperament Inventory (FCB-TI) by Strelau and Zawadzki [19,20], which includes 120 items (each trait comprising 20 items) rated in a yes = 1, no = 0 format comprised of temperament traits of briskness (e.g. "I am generally slower than others in carrying out my professional and domestic duties" reversed, "It's difficult for me to retain former proficiency if I have not practiced for a long time" reversed); perseveration (e.g.…”

“…Temperament is postulated to consist of six formal characteristics of behaviour that represent individual differences in temporal and energetic aspects of behaviour [19,20]. The temporal and energetic characteristics of behavior participate in the regu lation of stimulation and the level of arousal which is disrupted in stressful situations [18].…”