An Iranian (Farsi) Version of the Temperament and Character Inventory: A Cross-Cultural Comparison

The Temperament and Character Inventory is a widely used personality questionnaire. It was developed to measure the four temperament dimensions of Novelty Seeking, Harm Avoidance, Reward Dependence, and Persistence, as well as three character dimensions, such as Self-directedness, Cooperativeness, and Self-transcendence, described in Cloninger's unified biosocial theory of personality. In a sample of 300 Germans, 300 Swedes, and 316 Iranian subjects, a factorial structure analysis using the Procrustes rotation method showed the structure of personality to be generally equivalent across cultures. Noteworthy cultural differences between the overall Asian and European subjects reflected by the data were observed in various Temperament and Character dimensions. Seemingly, there are cultural differences in the expression of the various personality facets that require a replacement of many items in the Iranian version. The Temperament and Character Inventory is sensitive to age, sex, and cultural differences in personality.