Abstract:
A hypothesised association between personality and emotional processing was
investigated within the framework of Cloninger’s psychobiological theory. According
to this model, personality development is based on the interaction between two
domains: temperament and character. A non-experimental, correlational design was
applied, using existing data from a sample of 630 South African first year psychology
students who completed the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) and the
University of Pennsylvania Computerised Neuropsychological Test Battery
(PennCNP). Canonical correlation analysis yielded significant associations between
character variables Self-Directedness, Cooperativeness, and Self-Transcendence as
measured and defined by the TCI and items from Penn Facial Memory Test (CPF)
and Penn Emotion Discrimination Task (ED40), respectively. In this exploratory
study participants lower in Self-Directedness and Cooperativeness were more
efficient in facial recognition compared to participants higher in these dimensions.
Conversely, individuals higher in Self-Directedness and Cooperativeness were more
accurate in the discrimination of happy and sad emotions, respectively. Participants
with higher Self-Transcendence performed better in facial recognition but were less
accurate in discriminating between happy and sad faces. These results affirm the
importance of further research into the association between temperament and
character and emotional processing.
