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.     

Psychoticism and creativity

Eysenck and Eysenck (1976) cited a number of studies showing that creativity and originality are associated with high scores on their Psychoticism factor, P. In this study, we examined the generality of this claim by using a different set of creativity measures, scales from the Comprehensive Ability Battery (Hakstian & Cattell, 1976) and the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (Eysenck & Eysenck, 1975), with a sample of 173 students. No appreciable overlap was found between the creativity scales and P. A number of possible explanations for this result are discussed, and we concluded that this finding may cast doubt on the generality of the link between creativity and P.     

On complicity theory

The received account of whistleblowing, developed over the last quarter century, is identified with the work of Norman Bowie and Richard DeGeorge. Michael Davis has detailed three anomalies for the received view: the paradoxes of burden, missing harm and failure. In addition, he has proposed an alternative account of whistleblowing, viz., the Complicity Theory. This paper examines the Complicity Theory. The supposed anomalies rest on misunderstandings of the received view or misreadings of model cases of whistleblowing, for example, the Challenger disaster and the Ford Pinto. Nevertheless, the Complicity Theory is important for as in science the contrast with alternative competing accounts often helps us better understand the received view. Several aspects of the received view are reviewed and strengthened through comparison with Complicity Theory, including why whistleblowing needs moral justification. Complicity Theory is also critiqued. The fundamental failure of Complicity Theory is its failure to explain why government and the public encourage and protect whistleblowers despite the possibility of considerable harm to the relevant company in reputation, lost jobs, and lost shareholder value. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2005 conference, Ethics and Social Responsibility in Engineering and Technology, Linking Workplace Ethics and Education, co-hosted by Gonzaga University and Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA, USA, 9–10 June 2005.     

A task for use in decision-making research and practice

This study was designed to refine the Decision-Making Questionnaire (DMQ) developed in earlier research for ease of use. Previous work had indicated that the longer forms of the DMQ, whilst reasonably reliable and valid, were too lengthy to be easily incorporated into research and practice. Sixtythree individual workers from different organizations participated in this study by completing the 10-scenario DMQ, which takes about 45 minutes. A series of analyses indicated how this 10-scenario scale was most effectively reduced to a two-scenario scale, which takes less than 15 minutes to complete. The results are discussed in terms of their research value and practical utility. The Decision-Making Task and its scoring protocol are appended.     

Are personality questionnaires answered mindlessly?

Langer (1978) suggests that repetitive tasks may induce more automatic or mindless responding. Since many personality questionnaires consist of large numbers of questions of a similar form, a possible implication is that such questionnaires are sometimes completed mindlessly. To test this implication, a questionnaire was presented to 150 subjects which contained (both early and late in the questionnaire) items from the Dominance and Impulsivity subscales of Jackson's (1974) Personality Research Form. These items were separated by, or randomly interspersed with, filler items that were either similar (other subscales of the Personality Research Form) or dissimilar (attitude statements concerning nuclear energy). Item order was counterbalanced. It was hypothesized that the inclusion of dissimilar filler items should inhibit mindless responding to the later items. Change scores comparing late and early items showed a significant effect of the type of filler on the Impulsivity scores. A similar trend on the Dominance subscale was not significant. It is argued that personality research should pay more attention to the nature of the cognitive processes involved in self-rating measures.