Auke Tellegen is a foundational figure in modern personality psychology, known for his development of dimensional models of temperament and his focus on psychological measurement. As a Dutch-born American psychologist, he spent decades as a professor at the University of Minnesota. His research emphasized the need for robust, empirically derived constructs that capture the biological and affective underpinnings of individual differences. Tellegen’s contributions continue to shape how researchers understand and quantify personality traits.
Defining and Measuring Psychological Absorption
One of Tellegen’s unique contributions was the conceptualization and measurement of Psychological Absorption. This construct describes an individual’s tendency toward deeply engaging and immersive experiences, where attention is intensely focused on internal or external stimuli. Absorption reflects a distinct openness to engaging sensory, imaginative, and altered states of awareness.
To quantify this trait, Tellegen developed the Tellegen Absorption Scale (TAS) with Gilbert Atkinson. The TAS is a self-report measure assessing the frequency and ease with which a person experiences profound involvement in perceptual or imaginal events. High scorers often report vivid daydreams or an ability to become completely engrossed in music or nature.
The scale helped connect this personality dimension to hypnotizability. Absorption is the most reliable non-hypnotic predictor of a person’s capacity to respond to hypnotic suggestions. This demonstrated that the ability to experience alterations in perception during hypnosis is rooted in a stable, measurable personality characteristic.
The Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ)
Tellegen is most widely recognized for creating the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ), a comprehensive psychometric tool for assessing normal-range personality. Developed in the 1980s, the MPQ was designed to capture fundamental dimensions of temperament and affective style. Its structure is hierarchical, beginning with a set of specific, lower-order trait scales.
The full MPQ is a self-report inventory utilizing 11 distinct primary trait scales to map a person’s profile. These scales include Well-Being, Social Potency, Achievement, Social Closeness, Stress Reaction, Alienation, Aggression, Control, Harm Avoidance, and Traditionalism. The instrument provides a detailed psychological blueprint by measuring these granular, first-order traits.
The MPQ moved beyond simple lexical models by ensuring the questionnaire items reflected temperament and biologically-based individual differences. Tellegen included validity scales to detect issues like careless responding or attempts to present oneself in an overly positive light. Focusing on these specific components, the MPQ provides a finely tuned assessment platform.
The Higher-Order Dimensions of Personality
The theoretical power of the MPQ emerges when the 11 primary traits are subjected to factor analysis, yielding Tellegen’s three-factor model. This model distills personality into three broad, independent dimensions: Positive Emotionality (PE), Negative Emotionality (NE), and Constraint (C).
Positive Emotionality reflects an individual’s propensity to experience positive affective states and actively engage with their environment. High scorers are sociable, cheerful, and energetic, defined by primary MPQ scales like Well-Being and Social Potency. This dimension captures the motivational system driving rewarding social and work interactions.
Conversely, Negative Emotionality represents the tendency to experience aversive affective states, such as anxiety, stress, and anger. Individuals scoring high in NE are prone to distress, defined by primary scales like Stress Reaction and Alienation. This factor reflects a temperamental vulnerability to emotional turbulence.
The third dimension, Constraint, relates to an individual’s capacity for behavioral control and the inhibition of impulsive acts. High Constraint indicates a person who is cautious, deliberate, and conventional, reflecting scales such as Control and Traditionalism. Low Constraint is characterized by impulsivity, risk-taking, and unconventional behavior.
Integrating Personality and Behavioral Genetics
Tellegen extended his structural model by applying it to behavioral genetics, primarily through his involvement in the Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart (MISTRA). This landmark project, which began in 1979, provided a unique opportunity to estimate the genetic and environmental influences on psychological traits. The MPQ was a standard instrument used to assess the personalities of the separated twin pairs.
Analyzing the results from identical twins reared apart allowed researchers to determine the heritability of the MPQ’s dimensions without the confounding effects of a shared family environment. The findings showed that identical twins separated early in life were nearly as similar in personality profiles as those raised together. This suggested that a significant portion of personality variance is attributable to genetic factors.
Tellegen’s work with MISTRA provided empirical validation for the biological basis of his personality model. The high heritability estimates for the Positive Emotionality, Negative Emotionality, and Constraint dimensions solidified their status as core temperamental traits. This integration of measurement with genetic methodology became a defining moment for personality psychology.