Temperament, Character, and Personality Disorders in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder: a Systematic Literature Review and Meta-Analysis
Vuijk, Richard, Mathijs Deen, Bram Sizoo, and Arnoud Arntz. (2018)
doi:10.1007/s40489-018-0131-y.

Abstract

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is associated with an introvert, rigid, passive-dependent temperament with low novelty seeking, high harm avoidance, low reward dependence and high persistence. It Is associated with an immature and poorly developed character with low self-directedness, low cooperativeness, and high self-transcendence.

There is a positive correlation between ASD severity and neuroticism. There is a negative correlation between ASD severity and extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness and conscientiousness.

There is a positive correlation between ASD and paranoid, schizoid, schizotypal, avoidant, and obsessive-compulsive PDs.

Autism spectrum disorder

ASD is an impairing neurodevelopmental disorder with social problems as a key symptom. People with ASD show persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction and restricted, repetitive patterns of behaviour, interests and activities.

ASD is associated with cognitive limitations and deficits in social cognition and social perception, executive functions, and bottom-up and top down information processing.

Personality

Personality is a complex pattern of deeply embedded psychological characteristics that are largely unconscious, cannot be eradicated easily, and express themselves automatically in almost every facet of functioning. These traits emerge from a complicated matrix of biological dispositions and experiential learnings.

Temperament is close to biological substrates. Character is influenced by social-cultural factors.

Temperament

Temperament is those aspects of an individual’s personality that are often regarded as the result of biological evolution, initially constitutionally based rather than learned. It is a combination of 1)  a certain level of activity 2) a tolerance for feelings 3) a certain degree of vitality 4) a certain degree of extraversion/introversion.

A baby shapes his environment with his temperament and this temperament is influenced by the environment.

The interaction between temperament and social environment influences the formation of character.

Character

Character is theorized as less heritable, later developing, influenced by processes of maturation, and representing individual differences in self-object relationships.

Character includes the following: self-directedness, cooperativeness and self-transcendence.

Personality disorder

Personality disorders are associated with ways of thinking and feelings about oneself and others, interpersonal functioning, and controlling impulses that significantly and adversely affect how a person functions in many aspects of life. A PD is an enduring pervasive, inflexible, and time-stable pattern of inner experience and behaviour that deviates markedly form the expectations of the individual’s culture, resulting in distress and/or impairment.

Discussion

Childhood-onset neuropsychiatric disorders like ASD are reflected as difficult temperaments, deficits in character maturation, and PDs. High harm avoidance and low reward dependence is described as a typical autism temperament.

The pervasive developmental problems in psychosocial functioning in ASD seem to inhibit the maturation of character.

Temperament and character may interact with symptoms of ASD leading to individual differences and a variety of both internalizing and externalizing problems along individuals with ASD.

There is considerable variation in personality and personality pathology in people with ASD.

ASD and personality pathology may present the same clinical picture with lifelong impairments and pervasive problems in interpersonal social behaviour and affective areas.