Psychometric properties of the Danish 16PF and EPQ

A Danish translation of the Cattell's 16PF has been used in studies evaluating the effects of prenatal drug exposure. This paper reports a psychometric analysis of the 16PF and Eysenck's EPQ based on a sample of 558 young Danes. Many 16PF scales had unacceptable psychometric properties (as indicated by coefficient alpha and item–total score correlations), but more satisfactory results were obtained with the EPQ N and E scales. A factor analysis of all 16PF and EPQ scales suggested a six factor solution that roughly corresponds to the second-order factor structure obtained by Krug and Johns (1986). It is concluded that the second-order factor structure should be the basis of interpretation of the 16PF in both practical and research contexts.     

Comparison of MCMI-II and 16PF Validity Scales

We administered the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-II (MCMI-II; Millon, 1987) and the Sixteen Personality Factors Inventory (16PF; Cattell, Eber, & Tatsuoka, 1970) to 131 outpatients in marital therapy and tested the correlation between the validity scales of the two instruments. The results indicated that MCMI-II Disclosure and Debasement scales were positively correlated with the 16PF Fake-Bad scale and negatively correlated with the 16PF Fake-Good scale. The MCMI-II Desirability scale was significantly correlated with the 16PF Fake-Good scale.     

The evaluation of truthfulness in alleged sex offenders' self-reports: 16PF and MMPI validity scales.

The evaluation of response bias (i.e., minimization or exaggeration) is central to forensic psychological evaluations. Yet few studies have assessed forensic samples to investigate the ability of psychological tests to detect response bias. We studied the relationship between the Sixteen Personality Factors Questionnaire (16PF) and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) validity scales for 65 alleged sex offenders and assessed the effects of different cutoff scores for the 16PF validity scales. Results indicate consistent significant correlations between the validity scales of the 16PF and the MMPI for measures of minimization and exaggeration. use of a priori cutoff scores resulted in the classification of our sample in proportions parallel to those found in previous research for the 16PF Fake-Good scale but not the Fake-Bad scale. Our results indicate that 16PF validity scales are useful, but interpretations must take into account different base rates of response bias between sex offenders and the general population.     

Personality of male Anglican clergy in England: Revisited using the 16PF5

Cattell's latest version of the 16PF (16PF5) was completed by a random sample of 580 male Anglican clergy whose names and addresses were provided by the Church Commissioners' payroll. These data demonstrate a distinctive profile for clergy that differs significantly from that of the general male population on 12 personality factors. In addition, these data indicate agreement on seven scales, and disagreement on eight scales, between the profiles of male clergy as measured on the old study using the 16PF4 and this study using the new version.     

Further evidence on 16 PF distortion scales

Norms were obtained on a nationally representative sample of 4830 adult men and women for two empirically developed faking indices for Cattell's 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF) by Winder, Karson, and O'Dell (1975). These data provided convincing evidence that the cutoff suggested in the original work for the faking good scale was far too liberal and would routinely classify more than half of all 16 PF protocols as invalid. The faking bad cutoff appeared to be approximately correct. The correlations of the faking scales with the 16 PF primary factors were highly congruent with those reported in the development study and provided additional validity evidence for the two indices. Both indices were found to be sufficiently reliable to permit adjustments to be made in the primary trait scales when distortion is above average.     

Reliability, homogeneity and the construct validity of Cattell's 16PF

This paper reviews criticisms of the psychometric properties of Cattell's Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire and examines Cattell's claims that 16PF scale reliabilities and factor validities are seriously underestimated by conventional internal consistency approaches to reliability estimation.On large samples of British adults and undergraduates no evidence was found to support the claim that the 16PF is deliberately heterogeneous in item content. No presence of suppressor effects or balancing of specifics were found in the 16PF scales, most of which were reasonably homogenous by conventional standards. Conventional internal-consistency reliability estimates in fact give very similar results to alternate form reliability coefficients and Cattell's factorial validities. 16PF scales which were particularly poor in terms of scale consistency were L, M and N with C, O and Q4 emerging as measures of essentially the same trait of anxiety.     

Reliability of the 16PF questionnaire for security guard applicants

The Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF) was administered to a group of security guard applicants to determine its retest reliability after a moderate (9-month) interval. All of the Pearson correlations for specific test scales were lower than the reliabilities reported by the test's authors. These data raise questions as to the usefulness of the 16PF for the prediction of security guard behavior.     

The Development of Traditional Psychopathology (Book)

The Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF) was administered to a group of security guard applicants to determine its retest reliability after a moderate (9-month) interval. All of the Pearson correlations for specific test scales were lower than the reliabilities reported by the test's authors. These data raise questions as to the usefulness of the 16PF for the prediction of security guard behavior.     

The Psychometric Properties of the 16PF Among Male Anglican Clergy

Cattell's 16PF Questionnaire was completed by 441 male Anglican clergy who attended residential ministry workshops over a period of ten years. The psychometric properties of this instrument were investigated. Most scales had poor homogeneity and the face validity of many items was suspect as far as the specific population of clergy was concerned. These findings caveat the usefulness of the 16PF in programs of ministry development.     

Personality factors underlying coronary prone behavior patterns among employees

The structure of the coronary prone behavior syndrome was mapped onto the personality trait domain with a sample of 222 adult men and women (mean age=31). The subjects completed the Sixteen Personality Factor (16PF) and the Jenkins Activity Survey (JAS) questionnaires and canonical correlation analysis was used to derive the structure of common variance between the two sets of scales. Coronary prone behavior, when viewed within personality source trait structure, can be thought of as heavily influenced by anxiety and extraversion. Additional regression analyses were conducted to analyze interdomain relationships among the 16PF and JAS.     

Personality scale and item correlates of WAIS abilities

A cross-validation methodology was employed to identify 16PF scales and items that significantly correlated with performance on the verbal, spatial, and memory/numerical abilities measured by the WAIS in a nonpsychiatric sample of 489 adults. For both men and women larger personality-ability correlations resulted in all analyses for verbal ability than for spatial or memory/numerical ability. The 16PF scale analysis offered results generally consistent with Cattell's research. The item analyses produced rather similar results for both sexes for verbal and spatial abilities. For verbal ability three major correlates resulted: communicative competence, equanimity/low anxiety, and a desire for times alone. Though few in number the item correlates of spatial ability suggested a dispassionate, nontemperamental style of interaction with one's environment as the major correlate. Memory/ numerical ability was somewhat independent of 16PF item responses for women, but was associated with fastidiousness in men. Possible cause-effect relationships were suggested and implications for future research discussed.     

Three superfactors in the 16PF and their relation to Eysenck's P,E and N

The initial data consisted of responses to the 16PF and E.P.Q., obtained at the same testing, from 239 Independent Study Students. The responses to the 16PF were subjected to a principal components analysis. A Scree Test applied to the original solution indicated that between 8 and 10 factors should be retained for rotation. As this was at variance with Cattell's postulated factor structure supplementary analyses involving the retention and rotation of from 16 to 22 factors and item-factor analyses of groups of scales were carried out. All of these analyses failed to reproduce anything like a clear 16-scale structure. In order to accommodate the hypothesis that a 3-factor solution, in line with Eysenck's postulated dimensions of P, E and N, underpinned the Cattell scales and to test the validity of the intermediate solutions, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4 and 3 factors were retained and subjected to varimax and promax rotations. These solutions were compared with solutions obtained from analyses of the responses to the 16PF of 200 students at the Independent Assessment and Research Centre. Only the 3-factor solutions showed a degree of replicability across samples. The samples were combined to form a total sample of 439 cases and this was tested for factor replicability using factor comparability coefficients based on factor scores. This revealed a clear 3-factor structure, of anxiety, superego and exvia, which was replicable across sexes. An analysis of the responses to the combined questionnaires indicated that the neuroticism and anxiety factors and the extraversion and exvia factors were co-incident, but that psychoticism and superego were separate factors. However, the P-scale loaded -0.40 on the superego factor, which lends some support to Eysenck's contention that psychoticism is the obverse of superego. A 3-step analysis, in which pairs and triads of scales were tested for factor replicability, confirmed the equivalence of the neuroticism and anxiety factors and the extraversion and exvia factors. As far as psychoticism and superego were concerned only the latter appeared as a real, replicable factor. This factor contained virtually all the 16PF superego or S-items and 11 of the 25 E.P.Q. P-items. The 14 P-items which did not load significantly on the superego factor were those involving the cruelty or sadism element of the concept of psychoticism. It is contended that superego, rather than psychoticism, may best lay claim to join neuroticism and extraversion in what may be termed the great triumverate of the personality sphere.     

Some Relations Between Parental Personality Factors and Childhood Symtomatology

This study hypothesized that parents of children with conduct problems would differ in certain personality factors and in frustration and aggression reactions from parents of children with personality problems. The Rosenzweig Picture-Frustration Study and the 16PF questionnaire, 1962 edition, were used to test the sample of 66 couples, each of whom had a male child (age range, 6 to 13 years). Some significant differences were found on the 16PF and the Rosenzweig which do not support the long history of essentially negative findings reported in the literature on parent-child interactions.     

A factor-analytic study of measures of Machiavellianism

Three Machiavellian (Mach) scales together with measures of authoritarian personality, the EPQ and the 16PF test were subjected to a rotated factor analysis in order to identify and locate in personality space a Mach factor or factors. One Mach factor was identified independent of the main personality factors.     

The differential effects of solution-focused and problem-focused coaching questions on the affect,attentional control and cognitive flexibility of undergraduate students experiencing study-related stress

Previous research has demonstrated that Solution-Focused (SF) coaching can help individuals to attain positive outcomes. However, not much is known about the processes through which these positive outcomes are achieved. In two experiments, we subjected undergraduate students to either SF or Problem-Focused (PF) questions about their study-related problems. In Experiment 1, we hypothesized and found that SF questioning (as compared to PF questioning) leads to higher positive affect (H1a) and lower negative affect (H1b). Contrary to our expectations, SF questions did not lead to higher attentional control (H2). In Experiment 2, we aimed to replicate the hypotheses for positive and negative affect and additionally hypothesized that SF questioning leads to higher cognitive flexibility (H3a). The results supported these hypotheses. However, our hypothesis that the differential effects of SF and PF questioning on cognitive flexibility are mediated by positive affect (H3b) was not supported. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

An item and radial parcel factor analysis of the 16PF questionnaire

An extensive series of analyses were carried out on a sample of data from 491 undergraduate university students who completed Form A of Cattell's 16PF questionnaire. The data was item analysed, factored using both principal component and image analyses, and radial parcelled. However, even though five different factor solutions were rotated to a maximum simple structure, the 16 factors did not emerge as expected. Radial parcelling also yielded equivocal results. Using only psychometric criteria to guide the analysis, three new factor scales were generated that satisfied the test of high factor validity and high coefficient alpha simultaneously for each scale. The overall solution yielded seven factored scales. Additionally, results were reported of a scale factoring of the 16 scales yielding a replicable 4-factor solution. An alternative 7-factor solution was not replicable among subsamples taken from the total data set.     

The Tennessee Self-Concept Scale and the normal personality sphere (16PF)

An examination of the internal structure of the Tennessee Self-Concept Scale (TSCS) and the interrelationship among the TSCS scales and the secondary dimensions of the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF) supported three conclusions: (a) The primary dimension underlying the TSCS is positive self-evaluation, freedom from neurotic symptoms, or the absence of anxiety, (b) this central dimension of the TSCS aligns with the 16PF secondary Anxiety vs. Adjustment, and is virtually independent of the other dimensions of the normal personality sphere, and (c) the mutual orthogonality of extraversion, anxiety or neuroticism, and an empirically derived psychoticism scale provided some support for Eysenck's PEN theory of personality organization.     

A construct validation of the Objective-Analytic Test Battery (OATB)

The scales of Cattell's Objective–Analytic Test Battery (OATB) and the factors derived from the factor analysis of the subtests of the OATB were located with respect to a wide range of ability and personality variables, including the 16PF and Cattell's Comprehensive Ability Battery. The expected relationships between the OATB scales and the personality measures did not emerge. However, it was found that many of the OATB scales were highly correlated with ability factors. It is concluded that in Britain, and in its present form, the OATB is not a viable instrument for measuring personality traits.     

Behavioral Correlates of Selected MMPI–2 Clinical,Content, and Restructured Clinical Scales

An examination of the internal structure of the Tennessee Self-Concept Scale (TSCS) and the interrelationship among the TSCS scales and the secondary dimensions of the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF) supported three conclusions: (a)The primary dimension underlying the TSCS is positive self-evaluation, freedom from neurotic symptoms, or the absence of anxiety, (b) this central dimension of the TSCS aligns with the 16PF secondary Anxiety vs. Adjustment, and is virtually independent of the other dimensions of the normal personality sphere, and (c) the mutual orthogonality of extraversion, anxiety or neuroticism, and an empirically derived psychoticism scale provided some support for Eysenck's PEN theory of personality organization.