Psihološka Obzorja (Aug 2011)
Psychometric characteristics of the long version of Slovenian temperament autoquestionnaire TEMPS-A
Abstract
Temperament Evaluation of Memphis, Pisa, Paris and San Diego – Autoquestionnaire (TEMPSA) is a self-rated questionnaire that measures five dimensions of affective temperaments. It is designed for assessing affective temperaments in general and clinical population. Estimation of the affective temperaments proved to play an important role in prediction and assessment of early signs of mood disorders. The aim of our study was to translate, adapt and analyse the long version of the TEMPS-A instrument. 1167 students from different Slovenian universities participated. We analysed the results with classical test theory and Rasch model. The results showed good reliability of all five scales with alpha coefficients between .76 and .84, only the reliability of the depressive temperament was lower in comparison with other subscales (α=.66). With the principal component analysis we extracted five components. Hyperthymic temperament proved to be the most homogenous, yet less sensitive to discriminate between those with adaptive personality structure on one hand and possibility to develop mood disorder in the future on the other. The structure of anxious temperament is not very clear, since two different types of anxious temperament emerged. The first one relates to somatic items, whereas the other links more to the items of general anxiousness. Nevertheless, our results are in agreement with several previous studies in Europe, Asia and North and South America.
