Temperament & Character Profile (IPIP-TCI)IPIP-TCI
~44 min · 289 questions · Free partial report
Two hundred and eighty-nine statements about how you typically react, decide, relate and regulate yourself — mapped to Cloninger's seven-dimension model that separates what you inherited from what you developed. Four dimensions measure temperament: biologically grounded tendencies in novelty seeking (how readily you explore), harm avoidance (how strongly you anticipate danger), reward dependence (how much you need social reinforcement), and persistence (how long you sustain effort despite frustration). Three dimensions measure character: self-directedness (how purposeful and responsible you feel), cooperativeness (how tolerant and empathetic you are in relationships), and self-transcendence (how connected you feel to something beyond yourself). Temperament is largely heritable and stable by adulthood; character develops through experience and self-reflection. The distinction is what makes this model unique among personality instruments — and it is one that the Big Five does not draw. The items come from the International Personality Item Pool, a public-domain resource. They are a validated proxy for Cloninger's proprietary TCI, not the TCI itself: Farmer and Goldberg (2008) evaluated the correspondence in a sample of 727 adults and found mean correlations of .64 with the original scales.
- See which temperamental tendencies dominate your automatic reactions, how your character has developed through experience, and where the two domains diverge — because the gap between what your nervous system does automatically and what you have learned to do on purpose is often the most useful thing to know.
No signup required to start. The Partial Report is free at the end. The Complete costs $19.90, if and when you want it.
What this test measures
Imagination
Satisfaction
Sentimentality
Initiative
Tolerance
Variety-Seeking
Neuroticism
Novelty Seeking
Recklessness
Harm Avoidance
Optimism
Competence
Romanticism
Empathy
Friendliness
Harm Avoidance
Social Discomfort
Reward Dependence
Extravagance
Resourcefulness
Conservatism
Trust
Achievement-Striving
Self-Disclosure
Persistence
Self-Acceptance
Industriousness
Dependence
Low Self-Efficacy
Femininity
Rebelliousness
Compassion
Self-Directedness
Impulse Control
Morality
Cooperativeness
Self-Transcendence
Discover where you stand on each dimension.
Start for free →No prior signup. Free partial result immediately.
From first click to report.
The process is simple: you respond, the system calculates, and the result appears. No prior signup, no form, no waiting.
- 1
Click "Start for free"
No signup required to start. You identify yourself at the end, when you want to save the result. The test opens immediately.
- 2
Answer the questions
Likert 5-point scale (Very Inaccurate to Very Accurate). Visible progress bar. You can pause and resume from any device after identifying yourself.
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Get the Partial Report
Immediate and free. A text summary of each dimension, with indication of high, medium, or low.
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Decide if you want the Complete
The Partial already delivers value. The Complete adds percentiles, norm comparison, charts, applied recommendations, and a verifiable Certificate.
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Explore in the Integrative Chat
Talk to an AI about your results. Ask how your profile applies to your career, what a high score means, or compare with other tests.
The Partial is yours right away. The Complete, when it makes sense.
| Free and paid, side by side | Partial Report (free, always) | Complete Report ($19.90) |
|---|---|---|
| Interpretive text per dimension, generated from your answers | ✓ | ✓ |
| Raw score for each dimension | ✓ | ✓ |
| One-paragraph overview reading | ✓ | ✓ |
| Everything in the Partial, expanded to 3–5 paragraphs per dimension | — | ✓ |
| Percentile per dimension, compared to reference norms | — | ✓ |
| Inter-dimensional chart with accessible data table | — | ✓ |
| Applied recommendations: career, relationships, self-care | — | ✓ |
| Certificate with public verification and PDF download | — | ✓ |
- ✓Everything in the Partial, expanded to 3–5 paragraphs per dimension
- ✓Percentile per dimension, compared to reference norms
- ✓Applied recommendations: career, relationships, self-care
- ✓Certificate with public verification and PDF download
You only pay after completing the test, if you want to go beyond the Partial.
- ✓Interpretive text per dimension, generated from your answers
- ✓Raw score for each dimension
- ✓One-paragraph overview reading
- ✓Free trial of the Integrative Chat, unlocked by your first test
Payment via PIX (instant) or credit card. Access for 1 year. After that, the report stays visible in read-only mode.
What you receive.
Radar chart with percentiles. Illustrative example.
Executive Summary
"You present a profile marked by high intellectual curiosity and above-average conscientiousness, with moderate extraversion and balanced emotional reactivity. This combination suggests someone who seeks novelty in a disciplined way."
Illustrative example.
Scale analysis
The Complete Report details the practical meaning of each score in 3 to 5 paragraphs, personalized by your combined profile. It is not a generic text by range; the analysis crosses all dimensions to generate specific observations about you.
Applied recommendations
Practical recommendations by area (career, relationships, studies, self-care), based on your combined profile. Certificate with verifiable QR and PDF download.
Why trust this instrument.
- Authors:
- Cloninger, Svrakic & Przybeck (model); Farmer & Goldberg (IPIP evaluation)
- Year:
- 2008
- DOI:
- 10.1037/a0012932
- Range
- α 0.65 – 0.92(37 scales)
- Average
- α 0.79(adequate)
Cronbach's alpha. Values above .70 are acceptable; above .80, good.
Percentiles and T-scores shown are provisional, based on synthetic reference data until real norms accumulate.
- Farmer, R. F., & Goldberg, L. R. (2008). A psychometric evaluation of the revised Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI-R) and the TCI-140. Psychological Assessment, 20(3), 281-291.
The theory behind this test.
Psychobiological Model of Temperament and Character
Personality as two distinct domains: temperament (heritable, neurobiologically grounded automatic responses — novelty seeking linked to dopaminergic activity, harm avoidance to serotonergic, reward dependence to noradrenergic, and persistence to partial reinforcement schedules) and character (self-concept maturation shaped by experience — self-directedness, cooperativeness, and self-transcendence). The model is unique in proposing specific neurochemical substrates for temperament dimensions and in distinguishing what is inherited from what is developed.
Learn more about this theory →Target Audience
Adults interested in understanding not just what their personality looks like but why — which tendencies are biologically grounded reactions and which are learned character traits.
Questions the report answers.
What does my Novelty Seeking score mean?
Your Novelty Seeking score reflects how strongly you are drawn to exploration, novelty, and impulsive decision-making. A high score suggests you are curious, quick to act, and easily bored by routine; a low score suggests you prefer the familiar, the deliberate, and the predictable.
What does my Harm Avoidance score mean?
Your Harm Avoidance score reflects how strongly you anticipate and respond to signals of danger, uncertainty, and social threat. A high score suggests you are cautious, anxious, and risk-averse; a low score suggests you are relaxed, confident, and at ease with uncertainty.
What does my Reward Dependence score mean?
Your Reward Dependence score reflects how strongly you need social warmth, approval, and emotional connection. A high score suggests you are sentimental, warm, and eager to please; a low score suggests you are more independent, cool, and self-sufficient in relationships.
What does my Persistence score mean?
Your Persistence score reflects how long you sustain effort despite frustration and fatigue. A high score suggests you are industrious, ambitious, and reluctant to give up; a low score suggests you are more easily discouraged and quicker to change direction when things get hard.
What does my Self-Directedness score mean?
Your Self-Directedness score reflects how purposeful, self-accepting, and self-controlled you feel. A high score suggests a strong sense of personal agency and clarity of goals; a low score often correlates with feelings of aimlessness and difficulty regulating impulses.
What does my Cooperativeness score mean?
Your Cooperativeness score reflects how tolerant, empathetic, and helpful you are in relationships. A high score suggests you are forgiving, principled, and other-oriented; a low score suggests you are more self-focused, critical, and reluctant to compromise.
What does my Self-Transcendence score mean?
Your Self-Transcendence score reflects how connected you feel to something beyond yourself — whether through creativity, spirituality, or a sense of unity with the world. A high score suggests you are imaginative, idealistic, and open to mystical or transpersonal experience; a low score suggests you are more grounded, pragmatic, and concrete in your orientation.
Who benefits most.
Someone who already knows their Big Five and wants the next lens
They have taken the IPIP-NEO, know their Openness is high and their Neuroticism is moderate, and want to understand the same territory from a different angle — the angle that asks what is biological and what is developed.
Someone interested in the neurobiological basis of personality
They have read about dopamine and serotonin in the context of mood and behaviour and want a structured way to see how those systems show up in their own temperament profile, with the understanding that the link is theoretical, not a blood test.
A coach or therapist mapping a client's temperament-character split
They want to separate what a client does automatically from what the client has learned to do, because the two call for different interventions — temperament you adapt around, character you develop.
Frequently asked questions
What is temperament, and how is it different from personality?
In Cloninger's model, temperament refers to automatic emotional reactions that are largely heritable and stable from childhood — how strongly you respond to novelty, danger, social reward, and frustration. Personality is the broader package: temperament plus character, where character covers the self-concept you develop through experience. The Big Five and most personality tests do not draw this line; the TCI model does, and it is the reason this test exists alongside the IPIP-NEO in the same catalogue.
How is this different from the IPIP-NEO or IPIP-HEXACO?
The IPIP-NEO measures the Big Five personality traits; the IPIP-HEXACO measures six. This test measures Cloninger's seven dimensions, which are organised around a different theoretical question: not 'what are your traits?' but 'which of your tendencies are biological and which are developed?' The constructs overlap — Harm Avoidance correlates with Neuroticism, Persistence with Conscientiousness — but the framing and the clinical tradition are different, and genetic studies show the temperament dimensions are independently heritable from the Big Five.
Is this the actual TCI by Cloninger?
No. The TCI is proprietary and requires a licence from the Anthropedia Foundation. This test uses items from the International Personality Item Pool (IPIP) that were written independently to measure the same constructs. Farmer and Goldberg (2008) evaluated the correspondence between the IPIP scales and the TCI-R in a sample of 727 adults and found moderate to strong correlations (mean r = .64, corrected r up to .94). It is a validated proxy, not the original instrument, and the report says so plainly.
Why does it have so many items?
Because the model has thirty subscales across seven dimensions, and each subscale needs enough items to be internally reliable. Two hundred and eighty-nine items is comparable to the IPIP-NEO-300 in this catalogue. If you prefer a shorter personality profile, the Mini-IPIP (20 items) or the IPIP-NEO-120 cover the Big Five more briefly — though they measure a different model.
What do the temperament dimensions mean in practical terms?
Novelty Seeking reflects how readily you explore and take risks — high scorers are curious, impulsive, and easily bored. Harm Avoidance reflects how strongly you anticipate and avoid danger — high scorers are cautious, anxious, and shy. Reward Dependence reflects how much you need social warmth and approval — high scorers are sentimental and open. Persistence reflects how long you sustain effort despite frustration and fatigue. Cloninger linked each to a neurochemical system: dopamine for novelty seeking, serotonin for harm avoidance, norepinephrine for reward dependence.
What do the character dimensions mean?
Self-Directedness reflects purpose, self-acceptance, and impulse control — low scorers often feel aimless or victimised. Cooperativeness reflects tolerance, empathy, and helpfulness in relationships. Self-Transcendence reflects the sense of connection to something beyond the self — spirituality, creativity, or transpersonal awareness. Character dimensions are more influenced by learning and life experience than temperament, and they tend to change more across the lifespan.
Are there norms for this test?
No published population norms exist for the IPIP-TCI. Your scores are reported on the raw item metric (1 to 5 per item, averaged per scale) rather than against a comparison group. This means a high score tells you that you endorsed those statements strongly, not that you scored above a certain percentage of other people. It is a smaller claim than a percentile, and it is the one the data supports.
Can this test be used for hiring or clinical diagnosis?
No. The items have not been validated for selection or diagnostic use and carry no published predictive validity for job performance. This is a self-knowledge instrument: it tells you something about how your temperament and character are currently configured, not how suitable you are for a role. The original TCI has been used in clinical research (substance use, personality disorders), but those applications use proprietary scales with clinical norms that this proxy does not carry.
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No signup, no time limit. The Partial is free at the end.
The Complete costs $19.90, if and when you want it.
This test is a self-knowledge tool for informational purposes. It does not constitute a psychological or clinical diagnosis and does not replace evaluation by a qualified professional. The report indicates the AI model used in text generation.
This test uses items from the International Personality Item Pool (ipip.ori.org), which is in the public domain. The items measure constructs corresponding to Cloninger's Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI). The scales and their psychometric evaluation were published by Farmer and Goldberg (2008).