Cattell's 16 Personality Factors
Cattell (1905 - present) viewed language is a useful source of
information about personality. A quality described by many words, he
figured, was likely to be a more important part of personality. Cattell
used this lexical criterion in determining his original list of trait
names.
Cattell narrowed Allport and Odbert’s (1936) listing of 17,000+ words
down to 4,500 words and then narrowed these down further to 171 trait
names. Cattell then collected self-ratings on these words and then
conducted factor analysis. He used both observer and behavioural data.
The result was his 16 personality factors (16
PF):
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reserved v warm
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concrete reasoning v abstract reasoning
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reactive v emotionally stable
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deferential v dominant
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serious v lively
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expedient v rule-conscious
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shy v socially bold
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utilitarian v sensitive
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trusting v vigilant
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practical v imaginative
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forthright v private
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self-assured v apprehensive
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traditional v open-to-change
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group-oriented v self-reliant
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tolerates disorder v perfectionist
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relaxed v tense
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