The development of a short version of TEMPS-A in Hungarian non-clinical samples.

Background: The Temperament Evaluation of Memphis, Pisa and San Diego Autoquestionnaire (TEMPS-A) is a widely used measure of affective temperaments. Affective temperaments refer to people's prevailing moods and are important precursors of affective disorders. With the two studies presented in this paper, we aimed to develop a short version of the Hungarian TEMPS-A.

Methods: A total number of 1857 university students participated in two studies. The original 110-item version and the newly developed short version of TEMPS-A, the anger, depression, and anxiety scales of the PROMIS Emotional Distress item bank, the Altman Self-Rating Mania Scale, the Satisfaction With Life Scale, and the Well-Being Index were administered to participants.

Results: Out of the original 110 items, 40 items of TEMPS-A loaded on five factors that represented the five affective temperaments. Factors of the short version showed moderate to strong correlations with their original counterparts. All factors had good to excellent internal reliability. Factors of the newly developed short version of TEMPSA showed meaningful correlations with measures of emotional distress, mania, and indices of psychological well-being.

Conclusions: The short version of the Hungarian TEMPS-A is a promising instrument both in clinical fields and for academic research. The newly developed short version proved to be a valid and reliable measure of affective temperaments.