Harm avoidance (HA) is a

personality trait In psychology, trait theory (also called dispositional theory) is an approach to the study of human personality. Trait theorists are primarily interested in the measurement of ''traits'', which can be defined as habitual patterns of behaviour, tho ...

characterized by excessive worrying; pessimism; shyness; and being fearful, doubtful, and easily fatigued. In

MRI Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a medical imaging technique used in radiology to form pictures of the anatomy and the physiological processes of the body. MRI scanners use strong magnetic fields, magnetic field gradients, and radio waves ...

studies HA was correlated with reduced grey matter volume in the orbito-frontal, occipital and parietal regions. Harm avoidance is a temperament assessed in the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI), its revised version (TCI-R) and the

Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire (TPQ) is a personality test. It was devised by C. Robert Cloninger. A newer version of the questionnaire is called Temperament and Character Inventory. As the name indicates TPQ seeks to measure three dimen ...

(TPQ) and is positively related to the trait

neuroticism In the study of psychology, neuroticism has been considered a fundamental personality trait. For example, in the Big Five approach to personality trait theory, individuals with high scores for neuroticism are more likely than average to be moody ...

and inversely to

extraversion The traits of extraversion (also spelled extroversion Retrieved 2018-02-21.) and introversion are a central dimension in some human personality theories. The terms ''introversion'' and ''extraversion'' were introduced into psychology by Carl J ...

in the

Revised NEO Personality Inventory The Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO PI-R) is a personality inventory that assesses an individual on five dimensions of personality, the so-called Big Five personality traits. These traits are openness to experience, conscientiousness, ext ...

and the

Eysenck Personality Questionnaire In psychology, the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) is a questionnaire to assess the personality traits of a person. It was devised by psychologists Hans Jürgen Eysenck and Sybil B. G. Eysenck. Hans Eysenck's theory is based primarily on ...

. Researchers have contended that harm avoidance represents a composite personality dimension with neurotic introversion at one end of the spectrum and stable extraversion at the other end. Harm avoidance has also been found to have moderate inverse relationships with

conscientiousness Conscientiousness is the personality trait of being careful, or diligent. Conscientiousness implies a desire to do a task well, and to take obligations to others seriously. Conscientious people tend to be efficient and organized as opposed to ...

and

openness to experience Openness to experience is one of the domains which are used to describe human personality in the Five Factor Model. Openness involves six facets, or dimensions: active imagination (fantasy), aesthetic sensitivity, attentiveness to inner feelings ...

in the

five factor model The Big Five personality traits is a suggested taxonomy, or grouping, for personality traits, developed from the 1980s onward in psychological trait theory. Starting in the 1990s, the theory identified five factors by labels, for the US English ...

. The HA of TPQ and TCI-R has four subscales: # Anticipatory worry (HA1) # Fear of uncertainty (HA2) # Shyness/Shyness with strangers (HA3) # Fatigability/Fatigability and

asthenia Weakness is a symptom of a number of different conditions. The causes are many and can be divided into conditions that have true or perceived muscle weakness. True muscle weakness is a primary symptom of a variety of skeletal muscle diseases, i ...

(weakness) (HA4) It has been suggested that HA is related to high

serotonergic Serotonergic () or serotoninergic () means "pertaining to or affecting serotonin". Serotonin is a neurotransmitter. A synapse is serotonergic if it uses serotonin as its neurotransmitter. A serotonergic neuron ''produces'' serotonin. A substance is ...

activity, and much research has gone into investigating the link between HA and components of the serotonin system, e.g. genetic variation in

5-HTTLPR 5-HTTLPR (serotonin-transporter-linked promoter region) is a degenerate repeat polymorphism (biology), polymorphic region in ''SLC6A4'', the gene that codes for the serotonin transporter. Since the polymorphism was identified in the middle of the 1 ...

in the

serotonin transporter The serotonin transporter (SERT or 5-HTT) also known as the sodium-dependent serotonin transporter and solute carrier family 6 member 4 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the SLC6A4 gene. SERT is a type of monoamine transporter protein tha ...

gene.

References

External links

{{Medical resources , DiseasesDB = , ICD10 = {{ICD10, F, 60, 6, f, 60 , ICD9 = , ICDO = , OMIM = , MedlinePlus = , eMedicine_mult = , MeshID = Personality traits