Distribution and gender effects of the subscales of a German version of the temperament autoquestionnaire briefTEMPS-M in a university student population.
BACKGROUND
This paper examines the distribution of the temperamental characteristics and gender effects of a new autoquestionnaire developed by Akiskal et al. (TEMPS-A) in its German briefTEMPS-M version.


METHODS
As described in a companion article [J. Affect. Disord. 85 (2005), 53, this issue], based on a study population of 1056 students of the Westfälische-Wilhelms-Universität in Münster, Germany, we constructed the briefTEMPS-M. In the present paper we report on the basic descriptive statistics of the five subscales of the briefTEMPS (depressive, cyclothymic, hyperthymic, irritable, and anxious), as well as gender differences.


RESULTS
Except for the hyperthymic, these subscales are capable of representing the full range of temperament in a sample of German students. Characteristics of the distribution (skewness, kurtosis) of the subscales are well in acceptable limits. We found higher depressive, cyclothymic, and anxious, as well as lower hyperthymic, temperament values in women as compared to men. Cut-off scores to determine extreme groups are provided. To render our results comparable to a similar study using the interview version of the TEMPS-I in an Italian student population [J. Affect. Disord. 47 (1998) 1; J. Affect. Disord. 51 (1998) 7], we computed the rates for dominant temperaments based on the z scores +2 S.D., and obtained the following: depressive, 4.7%; cyclothymic, 4.7%; hyperthymic, 2.1%; irritable, 4.0%; and anxious, 4.2%.


CONCLUSIONS
The briefTEMPS-M is a potentially valuable scale to quickly assess temperament in research, clinical and normal samples.
Erfurth
Andreas
A
Department of Psychiatry, Münster University Hospital, Albert-Schweitzer-Str. 11, 48129 Münster, Germany. andreas.erfurth@bkh-augsburg.de
Gerlach
Alexander L
AL
Michael
Nikolaus
N
Boenigk
Ines
I
Hellweg
Inga
I
Signoretta
Salvatore
S
Akiskal
Kareen
K
Akiskal
Hagop S
HS
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D003196:Computer Graphics; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D010552:Personality Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012016:Reference Values; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012737:Sex Factors; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology; D013694:Temperament; D014495:Universities