Relating the Concepts of Personality, Temperament and Self-Esteem

Investigating the relationships between personality and temperament was the primary focus of this study. Personality was measured using the NEO-Pl-R, a 240-item measure, based on the five-factor model of personality. The Dimensions of Temperament Survey-Revised (DOTS-R), a 54-item survey exploring temperament across ten dimensions was also administered in this study. A secondary focus of this study was to identify how the concept of self-esteem is related to the differing dimensions of both personality and temperament. The short form of the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory, a 25-item survey, was used to measure this construct. Eighty adults participated in this study and completed each of the three measures used. Pearson r correlations were calculated to identify relationships between the five domains of personality and each of the ten dimensions of temperament. Further Pearson r correlations were conducted to identify how self-esteem was related to each of the factors of both personality and temperament. Results identified multiple significant relationships between temperament and personality, indicating that the two constructs were not mutually exclusive. However, not all relationships were statistically significant, indicating that the two concepts were not interchangeable. Relationships were also identified between self-esteem and specific factors of both personality and temperament