Irina Trofimova

McMaster University | McMaster · Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences

Consistent individual preferences for specific reinforcers and adherence to specific regulators could be observed in behaviour from a very early age. The neurochemical framework Functional Ensemble of Temperament (FET) identified neurochemical biomarkers for these consistent patterns in behavioural orientation as specific temperament traits. The FE...

Introduction Temperament and mental illness are considered to be variations along the same continuum of imbalance in the neurophysiological regulation of behaviour. Objectives This presentation presents the benefits of constructivism approach to psychiatric taxonomies. Methods The presentation reviews findings in neurochemistry that link temperam...

This paper reviews the principles identified in analytic neuroscience that could be used in the setup of an international project, “Hippocrates” (H-project), named after the author of the endocrine theory of temperaments. The H-project can aim to summarize the findings in functional neurochemistry of consistent behavioural patterns (CBPs) in health...

This review explores several rarely discussed examples illustrating constructivism principles, generative and selective features of neuronal regulation of behaviour. First, the review highlights Walter Freeman’s experiments and mathematical analysis that uncovered the existence of anticipatory attractors, i.e. non-random dynamical patterns in neuro...

This review highlights the utility of applying concepts of temperament and personality traits in healthy individuals to functional studies of serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT), in an effort to better elucidate the complex roles of 5-HT, and ultimately advance our understanding of psychopathology. We highlight empirical demonstrations of multifa...

This paper represents the outcome of a multidisciplinary discussion on what works, what does not, and what can be improved, in ongoing work on biobehavioral taxonomies and their biomarkers. The authors of this paper, representing a wide spectrum of biobehavioral disciplines (clinical, developmental, differential psychology, neurophysiology, endocri...

This brief opinion paper suggests continuing ongoing efforts to examine existing and potential theoretical paradigms and formalisms. The paper outlines a need for a shift from implicit behaviourism in neuroscience and psychology to the Functional Constructivism (FC) approach. The paper also discusses the limitation of the view that all behaviour is...

There is a disagreement between the factor-analytic (FA) approach in differential psychology and findings in neuroscience in identifying mobility-like temperament traits (i.e. speed of integration of actions that include plasticity, tempo, impulsivity). Due to their entanglement with “energetic” traits, mobility-like traits never emerge as independ...

This review highlights the differential contributions of multiple neurochemical systems to temperament traits related and those that are unrelated to emotionality, even though these systems have a significant overlap. The difference in neurochemical biomarkers of these traits is analysed from the perspective of the neurochemical model, Functional E...

Attempts to revise the existing classifications of psychiatric disorders (DSM and ICD) continue and highlight a crucial need for the identification of biomarkers underlying symptoms of psychopathology. The present review highlights the benefits of using a Functional Constructivism approach in the analysis of the functionality of the main neurotrans...

This review highlights the utility of using concepts of consistent behavioural patterns (CBPs) (temperament in healthy individuals; and psychopathology of mental illness) in conjunction with situational contextuality. We also point to multiple roles of central serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT) as a biomarker of CBPs. We use empirical demonstrat...

Background/aims: Progress in the development of DSM/ICD taxonomies has revealed limitations of both label-based and dimensionality approaches. These approaches fail to address the contingent, nonlinear, context-dependent, and transient nature of those biomarkers linked to specific symptoms of psychopathology or to specific biobehavioural traits of...

Background: Investigations into neurochemical mechanisms of opioid addiction are difficult due to the complexity of behavior and multiplicity of involved neurotransmitter and hormonal systems. The aim of this study was to examine the benefits of structured analysis of these mechanisms using the framework of the neurochemical model Functional Ensem...

Reports an error in "Human status criteria: Sex differences and similarities across 14 nations" by David M. Buss, Patrick K. Durkee, Todd K. Shackelford, Brian F. Bowdle, David P. Schmitt, Gary L. Brase, Jae C. Choe and Irina Trofimova (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Advanced Online Publication, May 28, 2020, np). In the article, the...

Social status is a central and universal feature of our highly social species. Reproductively relevant resources, including food, territory, mating opportunities, powerful coalitional alliances, and group-provided health care, flow to those high in status and trickle only slowly to those low in status. Despite its importance and centrality to human...

The chapter provides a comparison of the concepts of "temperament" and "abilities". It describes the temperament features of two traits: mental endurance (sustained attention) and probabilistic processing, commonly studied in research of mental abilities.

Background: Temperament and mental illness are thought to represent varying degrees along the same continuum of neurotransmitter imbalances. A taxonomy of temperament could provide the basis for a new taxonomy of mental illness. Most popular models of temperament, being based heavily on emotionality traits, show very poor ability to discriminate b...

Throughout the last 2500 years, the classification of individual differences in healthy people and their extreme expressions in mental disorders has remained one of the most difficult challenges in science that affects our ability to explore individuals' functioning, underlying psychobiological processes and pathways of development. To facilitate a...

This Editorial highlights a unique focus of this theme issue on the biological perspectives in deriving psychological taxonomies coming from neurochemistry, neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, genetics, psychiatry, developmental and comparative psychology—as contrasted to more common discussions of socio-cultural concepts (personality) and methods (lexi...

This paper applies evolutionary and functional constructivism approaches to the discussion of psychological taxonomies, as implemented in the neurochemical model Functional Ensemble of Temperament (FET). FET asserts that neurochemical systems developed in evolution to regulate functional-dynamical aspects of construction of actions: orientation, se...

This Editorial highlights a unique focus of this theme issue on the biological perspectives in deriving psychological taxonomies coming from neurochemistry, neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, genetics, psychiatry, developmental and comparative psychology—as contrasted to more common discussions of socio-cultural concepts (personality) and methods (lexi...

Throughout the last 2500 years, the classification of individual differences in healthy people and their extreme expressions in mental disorders has remained one of the most difficult challenges in science that affects our ability to explore individuals' functioning, underlying psychobiological processes and pathways of development. To facilitate a...

The Functional Constructivism (FC) paradigm is an alternative to behaviorism and considers behavior as being generated every time anew, based on an individual's capacities, environmental resources and demands. Walter Freeman's work provided us with evidence supporting the FC principles. In this paper we make parallels between gradual construction p...

Introduction An integration between psychiatry, neurochemistry and differential psychology gives an evidence-based framework for the diagnosis of mental illness rooted both in modern neurophysiology and clinical observations. Objectives To investigate whether, a neurochemical model of temperament might (FET) provide a better discrimination between...

Introduction Temperament and mental illnesses are considered to be varying degrees along the same continuum of imbalance in the neurophysiological regulation of behavior. Mental disorders are linked to specific patterns in the relationships between neurotransmitters and between brain structures. Similar links were found for temperament traits. Deve...

Temperament traits and anxiety have been linked to varying degrees of neurotransmitter imbalances in neurophysiological systems of regulating behaviour. The diversity of neurotransmitters implicated in anxiety symptoms raises questions as to whether the multiple neurotransmitter systems secondarily express dysfunction in a higher-level system, whic...

A diversity of neurochemical hypotheses related to major depression (MD) suggests that further investigation is needed for uncovering the neurophysiological nature of MD. Since both temperament and mental illness have been linked to varying degrees of the same neurotransmitter imbalances in neurophysiological systems of behavioral regulation, the a...

Objective: Temperament and mental illness have been linked to the same systems of behavioral regulation. A temperament model, carefully structured to respond to subtle differences within systems of behavior regulation, should exhibit distinct temperament patterns in the presence of mental illness. Previous comparisons of temperament profiles in men...

The phenomena of vertical and horizontal emergence are analysed in terms of functional differentiation (FD), the concept of fractal functionality (FF), the concept of the zone of proximate development and an application to iterative map techniques. These theoretical components are used to trace an evolution of structures at various levels of organi...

Studies of temperament profiles in patients with mental disorders mostly focus on emotionality-related traits, although mental illness symptoms include emotional and nonemotional aspects of behavioral regulation. This study investigates relationships between 12 temperament traits (9 nonemotionality and 3 emotionality related) measured by the Struct...

Temperament traits and mental illness have been linked to varying degrees of imbalances in neurotransmitter systems of behavior regulation. If a temperament model has been carefully structured to reflect weak imbalances within systems of behavior regulation, then in the presence of mental illness, these profiles should exhibit distinct patterns con...

The taxonomy of the most consistent, biologically based individual differences continues to be a topic of hot debates in behavioral sciences for more than a century. Applications of such taxonomy extend from the structure of classification of mental disorders to a structured assessment within various fields of psychology and psychiatry. This chapte...

The taxonomy of the most consistent, biologically based individual differences continues to be a topic of hot debates in behavioral sciences for more than a century. Applications of such taxonomy extend from the structure of classification of mental disorders to a structured assessment within various fields of psychology and psychiatry. This chapte...

This article analyzes sex differences in communicative and exploratory abilities and mental disabilities from the rarely discussed perspective of sex differences in the shape of phenotypic distributions. The article reviews the most consistent findings related to such differences and compares them with the evolutionary theory of sex (ETS). The ETS...

Studies of temperament profiles in patients with mental disorders mostly focus on emotionality-related traits, although mental illness symptoms include emotional and non-emotional aspects of behavioral regulation. This study investigates relationships between 12 temperament traits (9 non-emotionality and 3 emotionality-related) measured by the Stru...

Introduction Trofimova's Functional Ensemble of Temperament model proposes linkages between temperament traits and various neurophysiological systems, particularly those involving biogenic amines, acetylcholine, GABA, Glutamate, neuropeptides and hormones as well as opioid receptor systems. Temperament is expressed through complex interactions betw...

Introduction Temperament is viewed here as biologically based individual differences. These differences are consistent through situations and are observable not only in humans, but also in animals and very young children, i.e. in pre-cultural individuals. Temperament therefore cannot be called 'personality”, contrary to common beliefs since 'person...

This presentation discusses links between mood disorders and temperament traits. The assessment of temperament utilized the Compact version of STQ (STQ-77) based on Trofimova's Functional Ensemble of Temperament model. The 12 temperament scales of the STQ-77 include 3 emotionality scales (Neuroticism, Impulsivity, Self-Confidence) and 9 scales meas...

The lexical approach is a method in differential psychology that uses people's estimations of verbal descriptors of human behavior in order to derive the structure of human individuality. The validity of the assumptions of this method about the objectivity of people's estimations is rarely questioned. Meanwhile the social nature of language and the...

Studies of gender differences using primarily young individuals show that males, on average, perform better than females in physical activities but worse than females on tests of verbal abilities. There is however a controversy about the existence of these sex differences in adulthood. Our study used 1271 participants from four cultural backgrounds...

We examined nine dynamical and three emotional aspects of behavior in depression and anxiety, singly and comorbidly. The study used the Structure of Temperament Questionnaire Compact (STQ 77), whose 12 scales assess the energetic, lability and sensitivity aspects of behavior in the physical, social, mental and emotional domains. The STQ 77 was admi...

There are biologically based sex differences in verbal abilities and in neuropsychological systems of verbal processing. Measurement of observable behaviour, however, does not say much about sex differences in the internal, semantic processing of verbal material. The present study, which was conducted in Canada, China and Russia, investigated sex d...

There is a controversy about the factors underlying male predominance in mathematics, natural and engineering sciences. Our study of meaning attribution, conducted in Canada, China and Russia showed that men had a consistent tendency to estimate natural phenomena (even time-related) as more fixed and limited, less real (even “Reality”) and less com...

Acknowledgements: We would like to acknowledge the hard work of our student Ms. Jennifer Bossio in organization of participants and administration of the tests, and also Ann Hollingshead for making this study possible.. AbstrAct The paper presents benefits of activity-specific model of temperament, and a study of concurrent and discriminant validit...

The relationships between the activity-specific scales of the Structure of Temperament Questionnaire, Compact (STQ-77, V. Rusalov, I. Trofimova) and the non-specific scales of Pavlovian Temperament Survey (PTS, J. Strelau) on the one hand and the measures of the efficiency of different types of psychological activities (intellectual, socio-verbal a...

Ensembles with Variable Structures (EVS) were introduced in mid-1990s as stochastic milti-agent models in which agents possessed either formal diversity (described in a multi-dimensional vector space of abstract characteristics) or resource-oriented diversity (Trofimova, 2000). The process of functional differentiation (i.e. appearance of functiona...

Men's drive for group control and power appears to be an evolutionary inheritance, but it is females, and not males, who developed better abilities for prolonged control and group interaction while males have higher rates of ADHD and autism. This contradictory allocation of sex-related abilities describes the observable behavior, but not the intern...

This article analyzes the differences between an activity-specific temperament model and the Big Five personality model using the Structure of Temperament Questionnaire--Compact (STQ-77). The STQ-77 has 3 emotionality scales and 9 scales assessing 3 dynamic aspects (arousal, lability, and sensory sensitivity) in 3 areas of activity (physical, verba...

The Structure of Temperament Questionnaire (STQ) proposed by Rusalov (1989) measures four dynamical properties of activity -Ergonicity (energetic aspect), Plasticity, Tempo of Activity, and Emotionality-in three different areas: physical, social, and intellectual. The paper presents an investigation of the relationships between temperament scales i...

The paper argues that the concept of "general arousal", or Extraversion, which is used to present energetic aspects of behaviour is an oversimplification of the energetic components of temperament. Two reported studies were conducted on Russian and Canadian samples using the Structure of Temperament Questionnaire -Compact (STQ-77), which has 12 act...

This study examines nine dynamical and three emo-tional aspects of behavior in depression and anxiety, singly and comorbidly. The study employs the Struc-ture of Temperament Questionnaire Compact (STQ 77), whose 12 scales assess the energetic, lability and sensitivity aspects of behavior in the physical, social, mental and emotional domains. The ST...

The Structure of Temperament Questionnaire (STQ) was proposed by Rusalov in 1989 and subsequently tested in five languages. The questionnaire assesses four temperamental traits (Ergonicity, Plasticity, Tempo, and Emotionality) in three separate areas of activity: physical, verbal-social, and intellectual. The scales are all activity-specific. In 77...

The identification of cardiac progenitor cells in mammals raises the possibility that the human heart contains a population of stem cells capable of generating cardiomyocytes and coronary vessels. The characterization of human cardiac stem cells (hCSCs) would have important clinical implications for the management of the failing heart. We have esta...

This is the manual for the Structure of Temperament Questionnaire (STQ). It contains mostly psychometric information about the STQ and not the information about the neurochemical model that corresponds to the STQ (Functional Ensemble of Temperament, FET). For FET information please see review papers.

There is something about being a women and thinking about cooking, even in spite of feminist protests. Suppose we would like “to cook a natural system”, or at least to model it as realistically as possible. What tools do we need, and what should we do? Well, we need several elements, so let us take P elements and put them on the table. Are they a s...

A cutting-edge survey of formal methods directed specifically at dealing with the deep mathematical problems engendered by the study of developing systems, in particular dealing with developing phase spaces, changing components, structures and functionalities, and the problem of emergence. Several papers deal with the modelling of particular experi...

Two versions of a model, named Resource, were developed within the Ensembles with Variable Structure (EVS) approach. The EVS-approach represents interacting groups (populations) with a flexible structure of connections and a diversity of elements (agents), where agents possess an abstract set of characteristics, and seek to form connections with ot...

Four concepts in the modeling of the behavior of a multi-agent system are discussed: diversity, «compatibility» of agents, sociability, and the flow of resource. These concepts and their corresponding parameters were used in a set of models termed «Ensembles with Variable Structure» (EVS). EVS-approach represents interacting groups (populations) wi...

The chapter discusses challenges of computer modelling in psychology and highlights main features of psychological phenomena that had not been yet reflected in current models.

Measures of the importance of and self-satisfaction with the independent and interdependent self were used to test age, gender, and culture differences in the nature of self-conception. The participants were 903 first or second-year college undergraduates and 936 middle-class adults from four countries differing markedly in religious, political, an...

Results of a study on 167 subjects demonstrated that the basic semantic structure of consciousness is associated with a person's temperament, age, and sex. Concrete particularities of estimations and structure of the semantic space depend upon these biologically based characteristics. The results suggest the presence of a phenomenon of "projection...