Validation of the tridimensional personality questionnaire in a sample of male drug users

One hundred seventy-three male drug using volunteers for drug-related studies completed the Cloninger Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire (TPQ), with most of these Ss also completing the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, the Eysenck I.7, the Buss-Durkee Hostility Inventory, the Symptom Check List 90, the Elliott-Huizinga Lifetime Criminality Measure, the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for DSM-III, and the Personality Disorders Questionnaire. TPQ novelty seeking was correlated with impulsivity, aggression, and criminality, TPQ harm avoidance was correlated with introversion, neuroticism, low venturesomeness, and high psychological distress, while TPQ reward dependence was correlated with extraversion, low psychoticism, and empathy. With the possible exception of novelty seeking, the TPQ scales did not, as predicted by Cloninger, correlate with specific personality disorders or alcohol and drug abuse. The rationale for the construction of the TPQ scales was generally not supported in the present sample.