

Personality Factors Measured by the 16PF Questionnaire Factor A high score on this index signifies you are supportive and comforting.

If you score low on this index, you tend to be more distant and cold. For example, your level of warmth describes how warm, caring, and nice to others you are. Instead of a trait being present or absent, each dimension is scored over a continuum, from high to low. He developed a personality assessment based on these 16 factors, called the 16PF. Cattell (1957) identified 16 factors or dimensions of personality: warmth, reasoning, emotional stability, dominance, liveliness, rule-consciousness, social boldness, sensitivity, vigilance, abstractedness, privateness, apprehension, openness to change, self-reliance, perfectionism, and tension ( ). However, saying that a trait is either present or absent does not accurately reflect a person’s uniqueness, because all of our personalities are actually made up of the same traits we differ only in the degree to which each trait is expressed. In an effort to make the list of traits more manageable, Raymond Cattell (1946, 1957) narrowed down the list to about 171 traits. And you-although not normally an anxious person-feel nervous before making a speech in front of your English class. For example, one person gets angry when people try to tickle him another can only sleep on the left side of the bed and yet another always orders her salad dressing on the side. They are present under specific circumstances and include preferences and attitudes. Secondary traits are those that are not quite as obvious or as consistent as central traits. Central traits are those that make up our personalities (such as loyal, kind, agreeable, friendly, sneaky, wild, and grouchy). Instead, our personalities typically are composed of multiple traits. Cardinal traits are not very common: Few people have personalities dominated by a single trait. A cardinal trait is one that dominates your entire personality, and hence your life-such as Ebenezer Scrooge’s greed and Mother Theresa’s altruism. He organized these personality traits into three categories: cardinal traits, central traits, and secondary traits.

For example, one trait theorist, Gordon Allport (Allport & Odbert, 1936), found 4,500 words in the English language that could describe people.

Do you tend to be sociable or shy? Passive or aggressive? Optimistic or pessimistic? Moody or even-tempered? Early trait theorists tried to describe all human personality traits. Trait theorists believe personality can be understood via the approach that all people have certain traits, or characteristic ways of behaving.
