Relationship between temperament and anxiety disorders: a systematic review

Authors

  • Marco Liotta Uniiversity of Messina, Department of human and social sciences

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.6092/2282-1619/2013.1.897

Keywords:

TCI, personality, anxiety disorders, anxiety symptoms

Abstract

The relationship between anxiety disorders and personality traits, in their temperamental and character dimensions, has been the subject of numerous studies using the dimensional approach of the psychobiological personality. The aim of this review was to identify temperament and character traits linked both to anxiety symptoms and to specific anxious disorders comparing the data obtained from studies using the two forms of Cloninger temperament and character inventory (TCI and TCI-R). Besides the study aimed to identify, through the comparison of data, the most appropriate model to represent the relationship between personality traits and anxiety disorders. Results showed a high direct correlation between the temperamental dimension of Harm Avoidance and anxiety symptoms and an high inverse correlation between the character dimension of Self-Directedness and anxiety symptoms. Moreover specific anxiety disorders has showed typical correlation with specific temperamental and character traits. The comparison between the longitudinal studies argues in favor of a “precursor model” of explanation of these correlations whereby personality can be used to individuate early manifestations of anxiety disorder.

Downloads

Published

27-05-2013

Issue

Vol. 1 No. 1 (2013)

Section

Clinical Psychology

License

Creative Commons License Articles and conference papers published in Mediterranean Journal of Clinical Psychology are distributed under the terms and conditions of a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. Correspondingly, authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

    1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.

    1. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.

  1. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).