The Adult Temperament Questionnaire (ATQ)

The Adult Temperament Questionnaire (ATQ) was adapted from the Physiological Reactions Questionnaire developed by Derryberry and Rothbart (1988) and includes general constructs of effortful control, negative affect, extraversion/surgency, and orienting sensitivity.

The general constructs are referred to as factor scales (i.e., they have resulted in superfactors) and the sub-constructs are referred to as scales.
The ATQ standard form includes 177 items and the short form 77 items. Both forms include the same constructs. In addition to including general constructs and sub-constructs, the standard form also sub-divides many of the sub-constructs into homogeneous item clusters (see long form scoring instructions). Also available is the original, unrefined 249-item version used in the article “Developing a model for Adult Temperament” by Evans and Rothbart (2007).

The following non-English versions of the ATQ are available for download:

• An Arabic version of the ATQ Standard Form, translated by Abdelrahman Sharaf
• A Chinese version of the ATQ Standard Form, translated by Kung-Yu Hsu
• A Czech version of the ATQ Standard Form, translated by Miloň Potměšil and Petra Potměšilová of the Palacky of University in Olomouc
• A Dutch version of the ATQ Short Form, translated by Catharina Hartman and Mirjana Majdandzic
• A Finnish version of the ATQ Short Form, translated by Katri Raikkonen-Talvitie and the Developmental Psychology Research Group of University of Helsinki
• A French (Quebec) version of the ATQ Short Form, translated by Olivier Laverdiere
• A German version of the ATQ Standard Form, translated by Manfred Beutel
• A Greek version of the ATQ Short Form, translated by Olga Theodoropoulou at the School of Psychology at University of Central Lancashire
• A Hebrew version of the ATQ Standard Form, translated by Andrea Berger and Chananel Buchman
• An Italian version of the ATQ Short Form, translated by Laura Caminiti and Gianluigi Cosi
• A Japanese version of the ATQ Short Form, translated by Nobuko Hoshi and Emiko Kusanagi
• A Korean version of the ATQ Short Form, translated by Mina Lee, JongHoon Kim, and Minjeong Kim
• A Persian version of the ATQ Short Form, translated by Ali Nouri and Fattaneh Smaeili
• A Polish version of the ATQ Standard Form, translated by Jan Cieciuch
• A Portuguese (Brazilian) version of the ATQ Standard Form, translated by Maria Beatriz Martins Linhares, Sofia Gracioli, Vivian Caroline Klein, and Graziela Nogueira de Almeida
• A Portuguese (European) version of the ATQ Standard Form, translated by Angelica Mesquita
• A Romanian version of the ATQ Standard Form, translated by Ioana Tincas, Oana Benga, and Eva Kallay
• Spanish versions of the ATQ Standard and Short Form, translated by Vicky Krieger and Juan Antonio Amador Campos
• A Swedish version of the ATQ Standard Form, translated by M.G. Carelli, J. Anderson, and M. Rönnlund
• A Turkish version of the ATQ Short Form, translated by Merve Golcuk and Prof. Sibel Kazak Berument
• An Urdu version of the ATQ Standard Form, translated by Masood Nadeem, Raheela Shahid, Abida Perveen and Nabeela Suleman

The Questionnaire

Hierarchical Listing of Scales:

Factor scales are listed in capital, letters, bold print.

NEGATIVE AFFECT

Fear : Negative affect related to anticipation of distress.

Sadness : Negative affect and lowered mood and energy related to exposure to suffering, disappointment, and object loss.

Discomfort : Negative affect related to sensory qualities of stimulation, including intensity, rate or complexity or visual, auditory, smell/taste, and tactile stimulation.

Frustration : Negative affect related to interruption of ongoing tasks or goal blocking.

EXTRAVERSION/SURGENCY

Sociability : Enjoyment derived from social interaction and being in the presence of others.

Positive Affect : Latency, threshold, intensity, duration, and frequency of experiencing pleasure.

High Intensity Pleasure : Pleasure related to situation involving high stimulus intensity, rate, complexity, novelty, and incongruity.

EFFORTFUL CONTROL

Attentional Control : Capacity to focus attention as well as to shift attention when desired.

Inhibitory Control : Capacity to suppress inappropriate approach behavior.

Activation Control : Capacity to perform an action when there is a strong tendency to avoid it.

ORIENTING SENSITIVITY

Neutral Perceptual Sensitivity : Detection of slight, low intensity stimuli from both with the body and the external environment.

Affective Perceptual Sensitivity : Spontaneous emotionally valenced, conscious cognition associated with low intensity stimuli.

Associative Sensitivity : Spontaneous cognitive content that is not related to standard associations with the environment.

For questions regarding the ATQ, contact David Evans at [email protected].

Please note that these questionnaires are to be used for research purposes only. If you are interested in acquiring current versions of these instruments, we request that you first complete our request form, providing us with a brief description of your plans for use of the measures. Following the completion of your research, we request that you contact us to inform us of the results of your project as they relate to the temperament scales.In this way, we hope to coordinate attempts at validation of the scales.