Temperament and character correlates of emotional processing

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.