Research report Validation and normative studies of the Brazilian Portuguese and American versions of the Temperament and Character Inventory — Revised (TCI-R) Daniel Maffasioli Goncalves a, ⁎, C. Robert Cloninger b a Department of Epidemiology, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil b Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, 660 South Euclid, St. Louis, MO 63110, United States article info abstract Article history: Received 4 October 2009 Received in revised form 3 November 2009 Accepted 12 November 2009 Available online 25 November 2009 Background: The Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) was first described in 1993. It was designed to measure the character and temperament dimensions of Cloninger's model of personality using a true–false response format. The revised TCI (TCI-R) uses a five-point-Likert format and has multiple subscales for persistence to improve its reliability. We tested the clinical validity of an original Brazilian–Portuguese translation of the TCI-R. Methods: The 595 volunteers completed the BrP version of TCI-R, Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), and Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS). Results: The internal consistency was satisfactory for all dimensions (Cronbach alpha coefficients above 0.7). The cumulative variances for temperament and character were 58% and 60%. BAI was positively correlated with harm avoidance and negatively with persistence, self-directedness and cooperativeness. SWLS was correlated negatively with harm avoidance and positively with self-directedness and cooperativeness. The congruence coefficients between each facet of BrP TCI-R and the US TCI-R original data were 95% or higher (except NS1). Limitations: The main limitation of this study is the convenience sampling. Conclusions: The BrP version of the TCI-R had good psychometric properties regardless of the cultural and educational backgrounds of subjects. The present study supported the validity of the BrP translation of the TCI-R, which encourages its use in both clinical and general community samples. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Temperament Character Personality inventory Personality tests Validation studies 1. Introduction In 1986 Dr C. Robert Cloninger began his studies to deconstruct mental disorders into quantifiable components of personality that are natural building blocks of well-being and psychopathology. He identified the temperamental characteristics that distinguish healthy subjects from subjects with generalized anxiety disorder, somatoform disorders and substance abuse (Cloninger, 1987; Cloninger et al., 1991). Three temperament traits related to the immediate respon- ses of human beings to basic stimuli (punishment, novelty and reward) were proposed: harm avoidance (HA), novelty seeking (NS) and reward dependence (RD). Reward dependence initially included persistence (PS) as a facet. However several studies showed that persistence is actually an independently heritable trait. As a result, persistence is now considered as the fourth temperament dimension (Stallings et al., 1996; Clonin- ger et al., 1993, 1994). Twin studies confirmed the genetic homogeneity and independence of the four temperament dimensions (Cloninger et al., 1994). The four temperament dimensions represent heritable biases that influence individual differences in procedural learning of habits. Harm avoidance measures anxiety-prone- ness, which is hypothesized to depend on individual differ- ences in behavioral inhibition (the inhibition of behavior by Journal of Affective Disorders 124 (2010) 126–133 ⁎ Corresponding author. Av Princesa Isabel 500 ap 341, Porto Alegre — RS — CEP 90620-000, Brazil. Tel.: +55 51 93085183. E-mail addresses: danielmgpoa@gmail.com (D.M. Goncalves), crcloninger44@gmail.com (C.R. Cloninger). 0165-0327/$ – see front matter © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jad.2009.11.007 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Affective Disorders journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jad