Stability of the harm avoidance personality trait in late-life depression

Abstract

Harm avoidance is one of the four temperament dimensions in Cloninger's psychobiological model of personality (Cloninger et al., 1993). In this model, personality is conceptualized as having four temperament dimensions (novelty seeking, harm avoidance, reward dependence, persistence) and three character dimensions (self-directedness, cooperativeness, self-transcendence). Individuals high in harm avoidance (HA) tend to be described as “worrying and pessimistic; fearful and doubtful; shy; and fatigable.” Those with low HA scores are “relaxed and optimistic; bold and confident; outgoing; and vigorous.” HA was initially proposed as a personality trait that is independent of the state of depression. However, other reports have found HA to be positively correlated with the severity of depression (Hansenne et al., 1999; Hirano et al., 2002). Repeated within-subject measures have been used to explore the stability of HA in major depression. However, conflicting results are reported in the literature and research in HA is largely with adults (Chien and Dunner, 1996; Marijnissen et al., 2002). The aim of this study is to investigate whether the personality trait of HA is stable over a 12-month period in a group of older people with a history of depression. This is a first report on the stability of HA in an exclusive elderly sample.