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Temperament and character personality dimensions in patients with dental anxiety
Author(s) -
Bergdahl Maud,
Bergdahl Jan
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
european journal of oral sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.802
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1600-0722
pISSN - 0909-8836
DOI - 10.1034/j.1600-0722.2003.00028.x
Subject(s) - cooperativeness , novelty seeking , temperament and character inventory , reward dependence , temperament , harm avoidance , psychology , personality , novelty , anxiety , clinical psychology , self transcendence , character (mathematics) , developmental psychology , psychiatry , big five personality traits , social psychology , big five personality traits and culture , geometry , mathematics
The aim of the present study was to investigate character and temperament dimensions of personality in six men and 31 women (aged 20–57 yr) with severe dental anxiety, and to evaluate whether these dimensions were associated with the level of dental anxiety. The Dental Anxiety Scale (DAS) and the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) were used. High ratings in novelty seeking and female gender predicted high DAS scores. Compared with controls, the patients scored significantly higher on the temperament dimension, novelty seeking. For character dimensions, the patients scored lower on cooperativeness and higher on self‐transcendence than controls. Our results indicated that patients with dental anxiety are neurotic extravert (i.e. novelty seekers who experience brief dissociative periods and magical thinking). Furthermore, the combination of the inherited temperament dimension novelty seeking and the social learned character dimension cooperativeness and self‐transcendence seem to form a vulnerable personality to develop dental anxiety.