PSYCHOMETRIC PROPERTIES OF THE FRENCH VERSION OF THE TRIDIMENSIONAL PERSONALITY QUESTIONNAIRE (TPQ)

The Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire (TPQ) is a 100-item true-false self-questionnaire proposed by R. Cloninger and based on a three independent dimensions model of personality. These three dimensions, each with four sub-scales, are Novelty Seeking (NS), Harm Avoidance (HA) and Reward Dependence (Rd). Recently, several groups have used the TPQ to study clinical samples, and other have reported normative data in the general population but, up to data, no result has been published on the French TPQ version. The aims of this study were therefore to assess the psychometric properties of this questionnaire and also to research an eventual relationship between dimensions of personality and anxiety and depression mood, measured by mood and anxiety scales in out-patients. A population of 165 subjects was included in this study and assessed with the TPQ. In this sample, 119 patients completed also the Hospital Anxiety and Depression (HAD) scale. The factor analysis with a Varimax rotation suggests three possible solutions with 3, 4 or 5 factors for the TPQ. These all three analysis indicate that the dimensions NS and HA load consistently unto the first two factors, and seem therefore two robust and independent dimensions. Contrastly, the RD dimension seems definitely heterogeneous, even if the RD2 sub-scale (persistence) is treated separately from the other as proposed by Cloninger. Analysis of correlations between TPQ dimensions and HAD sub-score show that only the HA dimension is related to anxiety sub-score (r = 0,34), depression subscore (r = 0,52) and total HAD score (r = 0,47). These data suggest that, even if NS and RD are independent from current psychopathological states, HA reflects mood and anxiety variations in our sample.