The Dutch temperament and character inventory (TCI): dimensional structure, reliability and validity in a normal and psychiatric outpatient sample

In this study 170 psychiatric outpatients and 399 community-based adults co mpleted a Dutch translation of the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI ). Factor structure, internal consistency and relationship with age and psy chiatric status were investigated. Also comparisons were made between the T CI scores of the Dutch community sample and Cloninger's US normative data, Confirmatory factor analyses were used to examine the relationship between subscales and their corresponding personality domain. Both the result of ou r patient and normal control group indicated a high similarity with the sev en theoretical dimensions of Cloninger's biosocial model of personality. Th e internal consistencies of the seven scales were remarkably comparable, bo th across patient and normal samples, and across culturally different sampl es of normal volunteers. The most conspicuous difference between the Dutch normal sample and Cloninger's normative sample was a much lower Self-Transc endence score for our sample. As a whole the patient group had lower Self-D irectedness and Cooperativeness and higher Harm-Avoidance scores than the n ormal controls. The findings of this study suggest that the TCI can be appl ied in the investigation of psychiatric and normal populations. (C) 2000 El sevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.