title: Affective temperaments in tango dancers.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Links between affective temperaments and folk culture have been infrequently explored systematically. Creativity and personality and temperament studies, conversely, have reported several associations. Tango is one of the most typical Argentinean folk dance-musical repertoires. The main purpose of this study is to compare affective temperaments between Argentinean professional tango dancers and the general population.
  
  
  METHODS
  TEMPS-A was administered to a sample of 63 professional tango dancers and 63 comparison subjects from the general population who did not practice tango. Subscale median scores and total median scores with non-parametric statistics were analyzed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Median scores on hyperthymic subscale (p ≤ 0.001), irritable subscale (p=0.05) and total median score were significantly higher among tango dancers compared to controls (p ≤ 0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Self-report measures were used. A larger sample size would have provided greater statistical power for data analysis. Besides, the naturalistic study design did not allow controlling for other clinical variables and limited the generalization of results to broader populations.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our data adds new evidence for the hypothesis that artistic performance is related to one's temperament. Tango passionata, which has both melancholic and vigorous (including "upbeat") features, seems to impart tango dancers' hyperthymic and irritable temperament features. Our study supports the increasing literature on the validity of utilizing temperament as a sub-affective traits in relation to artistic creativity and performing arts.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, University of Palermo, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Electronic address: mlolic@palermo.edu.
authors.forename: María
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lolich
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, University of Palermo, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Gustavo H
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Vázquez
authors.affiliation: International Mood Center, La Jolla, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Stephanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zapata
authors.affiliation: International Mood Center, La Jolla, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Kareen K
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Akiskal
authors.affiliation: International Mood Center, La Jolla, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Hagop S
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Akiskal
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D001154:Art; D003405:Creativity; D003615:Dancing / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007508:Irritable Mood; D008297:Male; D010555:Personality Inventory; D013694:Temperament
keywords: Affective Temperaments; Affective spectrum; TEMPS-A; Tango