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16 Personality Factors Questionnaire
TITLE
16 PF Questionnaires AIM To assess various primary personality traits and thus provide feedback about an individualās disposition using 16 Personality Factors Questionnaire. INTRODUCTION Definitions of Personality P ersonality refers to individual differences in characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving. The study of personality focuses on two broad areas: One understands individual differences in particular personality characteristics, such as sociability or irritability. The term personality has been defined in many ways, but as a psychological concept two main meanings have evolved. The first pertains to the consistent differences that exist between people: in this sense, the study of personality focuses on classifying and explaining relatively stable human psychological characteristics. The second meaning emphasizes those qualities that make all people alike and that distinguish psychological man from other species; it directs the personality theorist to search for those regularities among all people that define the nature of man as well as the factors that influence the course of lives. This duality may help explain the two directions that personality studies have taken: on the one hand, the study of ever more specific qualities in people, and, on the other, the search for the organized totality of psychological functions that emphasizes the interplay between organic and psychological events within people and those social and biological events that surround them. The dual definition of personality is interwoven in most of the topics discussed below. It should be emphasized, however, that no definition of personality has found universal acceptance within the field. personality. The systematic psychological study of personality has emerged from a number of different sources, including psychiatric case studies that focused on lives in distress, from philosophy, which explores the nature of man, and from physiology, anthropology, and social psychology.
HISTORY
Raymond B. Cattell entered the field of psychology almost against his own better judgment. After working in a hospital during World War I, he decided that understanding human behaviour and interaction is the only way to get beyond the irrationality of the times. While a graduate student at London University, he was hired as a research assistant to Charles Spearman, a mathematician studying the quantification of intelligence. Spearman, a well-known name in the field of intellectual assessment, developed a mathematical formula known as factor analysis. This statistical technique allows one to take raw data and determine groupings of data. In other words, if you and many others took a general test that had both math and English questions, a factor analysis would likely determine that there were two factors or groupings on this test. Imagine the power of this technique for lesser understood concepts such as intelligence and personality. By developing questionnaires and tests consisting of personality characteristics, and analysing data from report cards of students, evaluations from employees, etc., Cattell applied this new statistical technique. In 1949, he published his findings in an assessment device known as the 16PF. According to Cattellās research, human personality traits could be summarized by 16 personality factors (PF) or main traits. He described these 16 traits on a continuum. In other words, everybody has some degree of every trait, according to Cattell. The key to assessment is determining where on the continuum an individual falls. The 16 traits are shown in the chart below. Trait Theory Approach to Personality Allport's Trait Theory Allport's theory of personality emphasizes the uniqueness of the individual and the internal cognitive and motivational processes that influence behaviour. Example, intelligence, temperament, habits, skills, attitudes, and traits. Allport (1937) believes that personality is biologically determined at birth, and shaped by a person's environmental experience. This approach assumes behaviour is determined by relatively stable traits which are the fundamental units of oneās personality. Traits predispose one to act in a certain way, regardless of the situation. This means that traits should remain consistent across situations and over time, but
level of psychoticism, with low levels related to more normal balanced behaviour. According to Eysenck, the two dimensions of neuroticism (stable vs. unstable) and introversion-extroversion combine to form a variety of personality characteristics. Cattell's 16PF Trait Theory Cattell (1965) disagreed with Eysenckās view that personality can be understood by looking at only two or three dimensions of behavior. Instead, he argued that that is was necessary to look at a much larger number of traits in order to get a complete picture of someoneās personality. Whereas Eysenck based his theory based on the responses of hospitalized servicemen, Cattell collected data from a range of people through three different sources of data. ļ· L-data - this is life record data such as school grades, absence from work, etc. ļ· Q-data - this was a questionnaire designed to rate an individual's personality (known as the 16PF). ļ· T-data - this is data from objective tests designed to 'tap' into a personality construct. Cattell analyzed the T-data and Q-data using a mathematical technique called factor analysis to look at which types of behavior tended to be grouped together in the same people. He identified 16 personality traits / factors common to all people. Cattell made a distinction between source and surface traits. Surface traits are very obvious and can be easily identified by other people, whereas source traits are less visible to other people and appear to underlie several different aspects of behavior. Cattell regarded source traits are more important in describing personality than surface traits. Cattell analysed the T-data and Q-data to discover the number and nature of the variables that comprised personality and the meaning of each. Using a mathematical technique called factor analysis, he identified what he referred to as surface and source traits.
Surface traits are obvious behaviour characteristics that seem to be āconnectedā representing clusters of correlated variables and can be easily identified by other people. Source traits are less visible to other people and appear to underlie several different aspects of behaviour. Cattell regarded source traits are more important in describing personality than surface traits. He identified 16 source traits common to all people -
- Warmth : Indicates friendliness towards others and willingness to participate.
- Reasoning : Indicates cognitive ability and intellect;
- Emotional Stability : Ability to adapt while under stress and whether they are easily upset.
- Dominance : Ascertains levels of aggression, assertiveness and co- operation.
- Liveliness : Indicates general disposition - cheerful or expressive versus introverted or serious.
- Rule-Consciousness : Conveys attitudes towards authority and likelihood of obedience.
- Social Boldness : Indicates social personality - timid or shy versus uninhibited or out-going.
- Sensitivity : Considers whether the subject is compassionate and sympathetic to others or if he/she tends to be more objective.
- Vigilance : Specifies how trusting, accepting or suspicious the subject may be around others.
- Abstractedness : Indicates the extent of visualisation and imagination.
- Privateness : Indicates how forthright or non-disclosing a subject may be.
- Apprehension: Describes whether the subject may be self-assured or insecure.
- Openness to Change : Indicates flexibility and a liberal attitude as opposed to being attached to the familiar.
- Self-Reliance: Identifies how self-sufficient or group orientated the subject may be.
- Perfectionism : Indicates self-discipline and precision as opposed to impulsiveness.
- Tension: Conveys the likelihood of being time driven or impatient versus being relaxed and patient.
and creativity ā openness to feelings, imagination, aesthetics, and new ideas (global Receptivity/openness versus Tough-Mindedness). E.g. Higher levels of Self-control/conscientiousness are related to lower levels of openness/Receptivity; thus, highly conscientiousness, self-controlled people also tend to be tough-minded and less open to emotions and new ideas. Conversely, those who are more impulsive and undisciplined also tend to be more creative and open to feelings and ideas (and to experience life more vividly).
- Anxiety/neuroticism , then loads on both of these third-order factors suggesting that the distress described by Anxiety could arise either in the inward/outward engagement domain or in the more internalized unrestrained creativity/ self-disciplined practicality domain making it consistent with the wide range of outward and inward human capacities that can potentially become unbalanced, or can be affected by stress. These results are consistent with Cattellās original belief that these third-order factors may not represent personality traits in the usual sense, but might reflect some broad, abstract level of sociological or biological influences on human temperament. Validity & Reliability Reliability
- Test-retest Reliability is reported as strong in the 16PF Fifth Edition Technical Manual when estimated on a sample of 204 people for two-week interval and 159 people for two-month interval with Two-week test-retest estimates for the 16PF primary scales ranged from .69 to .87, with a mean of .80, while two-month test-retest reliabilities ranged from .56 to .79, with a mean of .69. Two-week test-retest estimates for the global scales ranged from .84 to .91 with a mean of .87, and two-month test-retest estimates ranged from .70 to .82 with a mean of .78.
- Internal Consistency is also reported as good in the test manual. When estimated on a stratified random sample of 10,261 people, Cronbach's alpha ranged from .66 to .86, with a mean of .76.
Validity The three response style indices are used to measure validity.
- Factorial validity of 16PF scales (content-related evidence) is particularly important as the 16PF Questionnaire is developed through factor analysis. Several factor-analytic studies have established strong support for the structure of the primary and global traits across diverse sample groups. E.g. Hofer, Horn, and Eber (1997) found the factor structure to be robust across six diverse samples of a total of 30,732 individuals. Dancer and Woods (2007) found strong support for the global traits through factor analysis of the primary traits based on a sample of 4,414 business employees.
- Convergent validity (construct-related evidence) is established by the strong correlations between the 16PF scales and scales on other instruments like the NEO-PI-R (Costa and McCrae, 1992a), the California Psychological Inventory (Gough, 1987), the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (Myers and McCaulley, 1985), and the Personality Research Form (Jackson, 1989) thus helping to validate the meanings of the 16PF scales.
- Predictive validity (criterion-related evidence) of the 16PF scales has been established by its usefulness in in understanding and predicting in a range of settings - employee selection, career development, creativity, clinical and counselling, educational and research settings Applications:
- Because of its strong scientific background, the 16PF Questionnaire is used in a wide range of settings, including industrial/organizational, counselling and clinical, basic research, educational, and medical settings.
- The instrumentās ability to provide comprehensive, objective information in an efficient manner makes it a particularly powerful tool for industrial /organization applications, such as employee selection, promotion, development, coaching, or outplacement and career counselling.
- Although the 16PF Questionnaire is a measure of normal-range personality, it can be used in counselling/clinical settings to provide an in-depth, integrated picture of a person (including strengths and weaknesses), facilitating rapport and empathy, helping subjects to develop greater self- awareness, identifying relevant adjustment issues.
- Stationery for writing the profile of the subject and the answers to the post-task questions C. PROCEDURE The test administrator gave the following instructions to the test takers - i. Read the cover page of the booklet containing the questionnaire. This contains simple and clear instructions for administration. ii. Please answer the sample questions first to get an idea about the test. iii. There are 187 items on this questionnaire on your attitudes and interests with three possible answers. iv. Please select only one answer and fill the corresponding box in the answer sheet. Try not to select the middle ground or āuncertainā answer except when there is no other choice that is apt for you. v. There are no 'right' or 'wrong' answers except in the case of reasoning questions in which only one answer is right. Please answer honestly as per your beliefs so that the results may be interpreted correctly. vi. Please use a pencil to mark your answers. You may erase if you feel that you have made a mistake. vii. Please verify that all 187 questions have one box filled per question. viii. There is no time limit for answering this questionnaire but do not think or dwell too much while answering. If you do so, the test may be completed in under 30 minutes. ix. Fill in your profile details on the top right-hand side of your Answer Sheet. The test administrator asked the test takers to check whether they had answered all the questions after the test was completed. The scoring was done based on the scoring key and the score for each of the 16 primary factors and 5 global traits were computed based on the Scoring Key. D. POST-TASK QUESTIONS ( LHS)
- How was your experience of giving the test?
- What were your thoughts and feelings during this experiment?
- How easy/ difficult has been for you to carry out this task?
- Have you already taken the test before (practice, fatigue effect, bias etc)?
- Have you heard anything about this experiment or other experiments from anyone else? (probe if the reply is positive).
- Do you have any comments or questions about this test?
- What do you think the experiment was all about? What was the purpose of the experiment?
- In your opinion was there anything unusual or peculiar about the experiment? (probe further if the reply is positive)
- Did you notice any changes in your response over the course of the experiment? (probe further if positive) 10.What were some of the factors that influenced your response? 11.Did you feel uncomfortable at any point during the course of the experiment? If so, please explain. 12.Did you notice anything about the type of questions asked? E. SCORING The 16PF can be scored either by computer, or by hand with a set of scoring stencils. Each answer sheet should be checked to make sure that there are no odd, unscorable responses, e.g., marking more than one alternative, making incomplete erasures, or entirely omitting a response to an item. Each answer scores 0, 1, or 2 points, except Factor B (conceptual ability) answers, which score 0 (incorrect) or 1 (correct). Detailed instructions for obtaining raw scores are provided on the Scoring Key. Scoring begins by fitting and aligning the first stencil key over the answer sheet and counting the marks visible through the holes for Factor A, allowing either 2 or 1, as indicated by the number adjacent to the hole. Sum these scores and enter the total in the space indicated by the arrow on the stencil for Factor A (raw score). Factor B (intelligence) is peculiar in that each correct mark visible in a hole gives a score of 1 only. Continue scoring each factor on each scoring key until all raw scores have been entered in the column on the extreme right of the answer sheet.
REFERENCES
ļ· Cattell, H. E. P. & Mead, A. D. (2008). The Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF). In G.J. Boyle, G. Matthews, & D.H. Saklofske. ļ· Cattell, R.B. (1946). The description and measurement of personality. New York: World Book. ļ· Cattell, R.B. (1957). Personality and motivation structure and measurement. New York: World Book. ļ· Cattell, H.B. (1989) the 16PF: Personality in Depth. Champaign, IL: Institute for Personality and Ability Testing. ļ· Karson, M., Karson, S., & O'Dell, J.W. (1997). 16PF Interpretation in Clinical Practice: A guide to the Fifth Edition. Champaign, IL: Institute for Personality and Ability Testing.
