The Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF)
9781412946520-Ch07 5/7/08 7:03 PM Page 135 7 The Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF) Heather E.P. Cattell and Alan D. Mead INTRODUCTION research and is embedded in a well-established theory of individual differences. This ques- The Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire tionnaire’s extensive body of research (16PF) is a comprehensive measure of normal- stretches back over half a century, providing range personality found to be effective in a evidence of its utility in clinical, counseling, variety of settings where an in-depth assess- industrial-organizational, educational, and ment of the whole person is needed. The 16PF research settings (Cattell, R.B. et al., 1970; traits, presented in Table 7.1, are the result of H.E.P. Cattell and Schuerger, 2003; Conn and years of factor-analytic research focused on Rieke, 1994; Krug and Johns, 1990; Russell discovering the basic structural elements of and Karol, 2002). A conservative estimate of personality (Cattell, R.B., 1957, 1973). 16PF research since 1974 includes more than In addition to discovering the sixteen 2,000 publications (Hofer and Eber, 2002). normal-range personality traits for which the Most studies have found the 16PF to be instrument is named, these researchers iden- among the top five most commonly used tified the five broad dimensions – a variant of normal-range instruments in both research the ‘Big Five’ factors (Cattell, R.B., 1957, and practice (Butcher and Rouse, 1996; 1970). From the beginning, Cattell proposed Piotrowski and Zalewski, 1993; Watkins et al., a multi-level, hierarchical structure of per- 1995). The measure is also widely used inter- sonality: the second-order global measures nationally, and since its inception has been describe personality at a broader, conceptual adapted into over 35 languages worldwide.
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