Development of a Culture-Common Formal Characteristics of Behavior – Temperament Markers Inventory (FCB-TMI-CC)

Abstract

The goal was to create a brief temperament inventory grounded in the Regulative Theory of Temperament (FCB-TMI-CC), with a user-friendly, online applicability for studies in different cultures. As the regulative role of temperament is strongly revealed under meaningful stress, the study was planned within the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. To ensure high diversity in terms of culture, economic and environmental conditions, data from nine countries (Poland, United States of America, Italy, Japan, Argentina, South Korea, Ireland, United Kingdom and Kazakhstan) were utilized (min. N = 200 per country). Validation data were gathered on the level of COVID-19 stressors, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety and stress symptoms, and Big Five personality traits. Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis served as the basis for the inventory’s construction. The final culture-common version includes 37 items (5–6 in each of the 7 scales) and covers the core aspects of temperament dimensions. Temperament structure was confirmed to be equivalent across measured cultures. The measurement is invariant at the level of factor loadings and the reliability (internal consistency) and theoretical validity of the scales were at least acceptable. Therefore, the FCB-TMI-CC may serve as a valuable tool for studying temperament across diverse cultures and facilitate cross-cultural comparisons.

Acknowledgments

Maria Cyniak-Cieciura would like to thank all the contributors to the COVID-TEMPS project for their engagement at any project stage, support, and patience.

Patryk Bielak would like to thank Prof. Bogdan Zawadzki, Prof. Atsushi Oshio, Prof. Masaki Yuki, Dr. Masaya Ito, and Dr. Omar Karlin for their advice and permission to use their questionnaires, as well as ITO Foundation for their support.

Authors’ contribution

Except for the first four Authors, all other Colleagues’ names are listed in alphabetical order.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Data (apart from data from Japan, for ethical reasons) and analysis codes are available at DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/E43XT. This study’s design and its analysis were not pre-registered.

Notes

1 The formal characteristic of behavior refers to how an individual’s behavior unfolds; it does not refer to the content of those behaviors (what they do; see Strelau, 1996).

2 The performed function defines activity; activity stimulating in itself is a direct source of stimulation (e.g. risk-taking or leadership behaviors), while indirect source of stimulation provides stimulation as the consequence of taken activity (e.g. higher sociability). It does not refer simply to the duration or intensity of the behavior, but it does refer to the behavior’s stimulative value (see Strelau & Zawadzki, 2012).

2 Initially, data collection was planned in other countries as well; however, the teams from Turkey, Pakistan, and South Africa were unable to gather a sufficient amount of data within the agreed timeframe; as for Russia, the political factors related to the outbreak of the war in Ukraine made data transmission impossible

Additional information

Funding

The Italian sample was gathered thanks to the grant No 2020 PPN/BEK/2020/1/00049/U/00001), Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange (NAWA), Bekker’s Programme, granted to Małgorzata Fajkowska and Narodowa Agencja Wymiany Akademickiej.