Temperament and character in adults with Asperger’s Syndrome

Soderstrom, H and Gillberg, C. (2002), Autism, Vol 6(3) 287-297

To study the personality characteristics of adults with Asperger’s Syndrome, and investigate the value of self-rating personality inventories, we administered the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) to 31 outpatients with Asperger’s Syndrome. The TCI is a self-rating personality inventory that has been validated in the Swedish general population. Participants with Asperger’s Syndrome scored significantly higher on harm avoidance and lower on self-discreteness and cooperativeness. Reward dependence and novelty seeking tended to be low. They also had significantly higher rarity scores, reflecting idiosyncratic perspectives. The most common temperament configurations were obsessional, passive-dependant and explosive. Character, reflecting conceptual maturity, was poorly developed in the majority of subjects. The self-ratings of persons with Asperger’s Syndrome thus indicated anxious personalities with coping difficulties in the areas of social interaction and self-directness, a picture corresponding to the clinical descriptions of Asperger’s Syndrome.

Self-ratings on the Temperament and Character Inventory indicated that the participants with Asperger’s Syndrome in the present study clearly differed from the normative population. The vast majority (27/31) obtained scores consistent with an immature character, i.e. a poor sense of integrity, control and direction in relation to themselves and to others, which points to increased risk of having a personality disorder. Particularly frequent in our study population was the obsessional type personality disorder, followed by the passive-dependant, explosive and passive aggression types.

One particularly important finding, however, was that the large variation in scores for each dimension demonstrated a wide range of personality types among participants with Asperger’s Syndrome. Thus, it may be concluded that although individuals with Asperger’s Syndrome have an increased risk of personality problems or disorders, and that certain types are more common (obsessional, passive and explosive types) than others, the neuropsychiatric dysfunctions associated with the disorder permit a considerable variation in personality.