16 Personality Factor Essay

Evaluation of the 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire (16 PF) The 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire (16 PF) is a comprehensive self-report questionnaire, invented by Raymond B. Cattell, that is used to provide in-depth evaluation of the human personality. Cattell   employed a statistical technique called the Multiple Abstract Variance Analysis (MAVA) to identify "surface traits", consistent behavioral responses, and "temperament and ability source traits", underlying variables that determine surface traits. The 16 PF measures these traits by dividing the human personality into sixteen factors - warmth, reasoning, emotional stability, dominance, liveliness, rule consciousness, social boldness, sensitivity, vigilance, abstractedness, privations, apprehension, openness to change, self-reliance, perfectionism, and tension. Each scale score is interpreted as being low scores direction vs. high score direction. By adding points for marked choices, factor by factor, raw scores can be obtained.   Cattell believed that all 16 factors were necessary for a comprehensive measurement of personality. The test has been modified throughout the years, with the 5th edition being the most recent version, and has now established itself as one of the best questionnaires to evaluate personality trait. The 16 PF has overcome other psychological tests due to the following reasons: it has the ability to define basic personality without the need of regarding to how it is applied in different environments. In other words, it is universal and very applicable. Its comprehensiveness, functional relation to personality structure, and simplicity of concepts allow the 16 PF to be applied in many different contexts such as clinical, educational, industrial, or basic research fields. The test is easy to administer, allowing the experimenter to familiarize with the use of apparatus easily, it is time saving, requiring no more than an hour to construct a personal profile, it is economical, allowing a...