16PF Questionnaire


The Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire is a self-reported personality test developed over several decades of empirical research by Raymond B. Cattell, Maurice Tatsuoka and Herbert Eber. The 16PF provides a measure of personality and can also be used by psychologists, and other mental health professionals, as a clinical instrument to help diagnose psychiatric disorders, and help with prognosis and therapy planning. The 16PF can also provide information relevant to the clinical and counseling process, such as an individual's capacity for insight, self-esteem, cognitive style, internalization of standards, openness to change, capacity for empathy, level of interpersonal trust, quality of attachments, interpersonal needs, attitude toward authority, reaction toward dynamics of power, frustration tolerance, and coping style. Thus, the 16PF instrument provides clinicians with a normal-range measurement of anxiety, adjustment, emotional stability and behavioral problems. Clinicians can use 16PF results to identify effective strategies for establishing a working alliance, to develop a therapeutic plan, and to select effective therapeutic interventions or modes of treatment. It can also be used within other contexts such as career assessment and occupational selection.
Beginning in the 1940s, Cattell used several techniques including the new statistical technique of common factor analysis applied to the English-language trait lexicon to elucidate the major underlying dimensions within the normal personality sphere. This method takes as its starting point the matrix of inter-correlations between these variables in an attempt to uncover the underlying source traits of human personality. Cattell found that personality structure was hierarchical, with both primary and secondary stratum level traits. At the primary level, the 16PF measures 16 primary trait constructs, with a version of the Big Five secondary traits at the secondary level. These higher-level factors emerged from factor-analyzing the 16 x 16 intercorrelation matrix for the sixteen primary factors themselves. The 16PF yields scores on primary and second-order "global" traits, thereby allowing a multilevel description of each individual's unique personality profile. A listing of these trait dimensions and their description can be found [|below]. Cattell also found a third-stratum of personality organization that comprised just two overarching factors.
The measurement of normal personality trait constructs is an integral part of Cattell's comprehensive theory of intrapersonal psychological variables covering individual differences in cognitive abilities, normal personality traits, abnormal personality traits, dynamic motivational traits, mood states, and transitory emotional states which are all taken into account in his behavioral specification/prediction equation. The 16PF has also been translated into over 30 languages and dialects and is widely used internationally.
Cattell and his co-workers also constructed downward extensions of the 16PF – parallel personality questionnaires designed to measure corresponding trait constructs in younger age ranges, such as the High School Personality Questionnaire – now the Adolescent Personality Questionnaire for ages 12 to 18 years, the Children's Personality Questionnaire, the Early School Personality Questionnaire, as well as the Preschool Personality Questionnaire.
Cattell also constructed tests of cognitive abilities such as the Comprehensive Ability Battery – a multidimensional measure of 20 primary cognitive abilities, as well as measures of non-verbal visuo-spatial abilities, such as the three scales of the Culture-Fair Intelligence Test, In addition, Cattell and his colleagues constructed objective measures of dynamic motivational traits including the Motivation Analysis Test, the School Motivation Analysis Test, as well as the Children's Motivation Analysis Test. As for the mood state domain, Cattell and his colleagues constructed the Eight State Questionnaire, a self-report measure of eight clinically important emotional/mood states, labeled Anxiety, Stress, Depression, Regression, Fatigue, Guilt, Extraversion, and Arousal.

Outline

The most recent edition of the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire, released in 1993, is the fifth edition of the original instrument. The self-report instrument was first published in 1949; the second and third editions were published in 1956 and 1962, respectively; and the five alternative forms of the fourth edition were released between 1967 and 1969.
The goal of the fifth edition revision in 1993 was to:
  • update, improve, and simplify the language used in the test items;
  • simplify the answer format;
  • develop new validity scales;
  • improve the psychometric properties of the test, including new reliability and validity data; and
  • develop a new standardization sample to reflect the current U.S. Census population.
The 16PF Fifth Edition contains 185 multiple-choice items which are written at a fifth-grade reading level. Of these items, 76% were from the four previous 16PF editions, although many of them were re-written to simplify or update the language. The item content typically sounds non-threatening and asks simple questions about daily behavior, interests, and opinions.

Item format

A characteristic of the 16PF items is that, rather than asking respondents to self-assess their personality as some instruments do, they tend instead to ask about daily, concrete situations, e.g.:
  • When I find myself in a boring situation, I usually "tune out" and daydream about other things. True/False.
  • When a bit of tact and convincing is needed to get people moving, I'm usually the one who does it. True/False.
Cattell argued that self-ratings relate to self-image, and are affected by self-awareness, and defensiveness about one's actual traits. The 16PF provides scores on 16 primary personality scales and five global personality scales, all of which are bi-polar. The instrument also includes three validity scales:
The Impression Management scale is a bipolar scale with high scores reflecting a preponderance of socially desirable responses and low scores reflecting a preponderance of socially undesirable responses. Possible reasons for an extremely high Impression Management score include: the examinee may actually behave in highly socially desirable ways, and responses are accurate self-descriptions; responses reflect an unconscious distortion consistent with the examinee's self-image but not with their behavior; or deliberate self-presentation as behaving in a highly socially desirable manner. A low impression management score suggests an unusual willingness to admit undesirable attributes or behaviors and can occur when an examinee is unusually self-critical, discouraged, or under stress.
The Acquiescence scale's purpose is to index the degree to which the examinee agreed with items regardless of what was being asked. A high score might indicate that the examinee misunderstood the item content, responded randomly, has an unclear self-image, or had a "yea-saying" response style.
The Infrequency scale comprises the most statistically infrequent responses on the test, which are all middle responses and appear in the test booklet with a question mark. A score above the 95th percentile may indicate that the examinee had trouble reading or comprehending the questions, responded randomly, experienced consistent indecisiveness about the a or c response choice, or tried to avoid making the wrong impression by choosing the middle answer rather than one of the more definitive answers.

Administration

Administration of the test takes about 35–50 minutes for the paper-and-pencil version and about 30 minutes by computer. The test instructions are simple and straightforward and the test is un-timed; thus, the test is generally self-administrable and can be used in either an individual or a group setting. The 16PF test was designed for adults at least age 16 and older, but there are also parallel tests for various younger age ranges.
The 16PF Questionnaire has been translated into more than 30 languages and dialects. Thus the test can be administered in different languages, scored based on either local, national, or international normative samples, and computerized interpretive reports provided in about 23 different languages. The test has generally been culturally adapted in these countries, with local standardization samples plus reliability and validity information collected locally and presented in individual manuals.

Scoring

The test can be hand-scored using a set of scoring keys, or computer-scored by mailing-in or faxing-in the answer sheet to the publisher IPAT. There is also a software system that can be used to administer, score, and provide reports on the test results directly in the professional's office; and an Internet-based system that can also provide administration, scoring, and reports in a range of different languages.
After the test has been administered there is a total score computed from each of the 16 personality factors. These totals have been created in a way to correlate to the sten scale. Scores on the 16PF are presented on a 10-point scale, or standard-ten scale. The sten scale has a mean of 5.5 and a standard deviation of 2, with scores below 4 considered low and scores above 7 considered high. The sten scales are bipolar, meaning that each end of the scale has a distinct definition and meaning. Because bipolar scales are designated with "high" or "low" for each factor, a high score should not be considered to reflect a positive personality characteristic and a low score should not be considered to reflect a negative personality characteristic.