Development and validation of a personality assessment instrument for traditional korean medicine: sasang personality questionnaire

Abstract

Objective. Sasang typology is a traditional Korean medicine based on the biopsychosocial perspectives of Neo-Confucianism and utilizes medical herbs and acupuncture for type-specific treatment. This study was designed to develop and validate the Sasang Personality Questionnaire (SPQ) for future use in the assessment of personality based on Sasang typology. Design and Methods. We selected questionnaire items using internal consistency analysis and examined construct validity with explorative factor analysis using 245 healthy participants. Test-retest reliability as well as convergent validity were examined. Results. The 14-item SPQ showed acceptable internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = .817) and test-retest reliability (r = .837). Three extracted subscales, SPQ-behavior, SPQ-emotionality, and SPQ-cognition, were found, explaining 55.77% of the total variance. The SPQ significantly correlated with Temperament and Character Inventory novelty seeking (r = .462), harm avoidance (r = -.390), and NEO Personality Inventory extraversion (r = .629). The SPQ score of the So-Eum (24.43 ± 4.93), Tae-Eum (27.33 ± 5.88), and So-Yang (30.90 ± 5.23) types were significantly different from each other (P < .01). Conclusion. Current results demonstrated the reliability and validity of the SPQ and its subscales that can be utilized as an objective instrument for conducting personalized medicine research incorporating the biopsychosocial perspective.

Figure 1

SPQ subscale, TCI and NEO-PI dimension profile of each Sasang type. (a) SPQ subscale score of each Sasang type. The SPQ subscale profile of the So-Yang, Tae-Eum, and So-Eum types was significantly different (flatness with Wilks Lambda test, df = 2,F = 47.789, and P < 0.001; parallelism with Wilks Lambda test, df = 4,F = 4.920, and P = 0.001). The So-Eum type (8.90 ± 2.44, 7.23 ± 1.97, 8.30 ± 2.45) scored significantly (P < 0.001) lower on the SPQ-B, SPQ-E, and SPQ-C scales than So-Yang types (11.62 ± 2.27, 8.67 ± 2.5, 10.62 ± 2.32), respectively. (b) TCI score of each Sasang type. The profile of TCI temperament dimension, such as NS, HA, RD, and P was significantly different (flatness with Greenhouse-Geisser test, df = 2.542,F = 48.867, and P < 0.001; parallelism with Greenhouse-Geisser test, df = 5.083,F = 5.694, and P < 0.001). So-Eum type (32.03 ± 9.28, 41.57 ± 11.86) scored significantly lower on NA and higher on HA than So-Yang type (37.92 ± 9.59, and 34.92 ± 10.06) (P = 0.001, and P < 0.002), respectively. (c) NEO-PI score of each Sasang type. The profile of NEO-PI was not significantly different. So-Eum type (54.58 ± 7.63) scored significantly higher on conscientiousness scale than So-Yang type (48.39 ± 7.49) (P = 0.006). *P < 0.01; **P < 0.001. Whisker represents standard errors. SPQ: Sasang Personality Questionnaire, SPQ-B: SPQ-behavior, SPQ-E: SPQ-emotionality, SPQ-C: SPQ-cognition, TCI: temperament and character inventory, NS: novelty seeking, HA: harm avoidance, RD: reward dependence, P: persistence, SD: self directness, C: cooperativeness, ST: self transcendence, NEO-PI: NEO-personality inventory, N: neuroticism, E: extraversion, O: openness to experience, A: agreeableness, Co: conscientiousness.