The purpose of this study was to find out whether personality traits that increase symptoms of depression were common or different for men and women. Four temperament and three character traits based on the model by Closinger, Svrakic, & Przybeck (1993) were examined. A two-wave panel design was used to examine changes in the symptoms. Personality traits and symptoms of depression were assessed at Time 1; Negative life events after Time 1 and the symptoms again at Time 2. Hierarchical multiple regression of the data for women showed that the tait of high harm avoidance increased the symptoms, controlling for the number of negative live events. The same analysis for men showed that low self-directedness tended to increase symptoms of depression, though, not significantly. These findings indicated that high harm avoidance was a vulnerability factor of depression for women, but not for men.
Key words:temperament, character, Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI), symptoms of depression, gender difference