Introduction In the field of psychology, personality refers to the unique characteristics and behavior patterns that distinguish one individual from another. Personality can be a complex spectrum to evaluate. Personality of is not always stable and may change over time for different reasons such as shocking events, education, and environment to name a few. The study and assessment of personality has been used to describe and discover from severe mental disorders to assist self-awareness. Personality inventories are a method to assess personality traits. These evaluation methods arose from the need to understand and treat the effects of war on soldiers’ personality. Personality inventories have evolved over time and today are used in several fields: education, research, clinical, counseling, and industrial / organizational. This paper aims to explore and offer details of one of these personality inventories: The Sixteen Personality Factors Questionnaire (16PF). The Sixteen Personality …show more content…
During the period of World War II, he designed the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF). The 16PF was one of the first standardized tests (following a specific format and procedures previously outlined) to measure personality, (Milite, 2001). Cattell’s main objective was to investigate the universal aspects of personality. Cattell along with colleagues from different nationalities, were given the task of studying the personality traits across cultures. Cattell believed that personality could be assessed entirely by human characteristics: creativity, authoritarianism, selflessness, and leadership. The 16PF came out on 1949. Since its inception, the 16PF has gone through four revisions; the latest version was on 1993, the 16PF5, (Cattell & Mead, 2008). The 16PF is still widely used and is generally used to evaluate normally well-adjusted people, (Milite,
Self-report has always been one the easiest ways to gain insight of a person’s personality. These test can range from quizzes filled out online that tell you which pop star is your personality twin to standardized tests requiring a certified test user. Some of the most popular and highly researched tests have been the MMPI and its successors. The MMPI, created by Stark R. Hathaway and John Charneley McKinley, was the first step towards the MMPI-2-RF. The MMPI was firstly created to test individuals who were 14 years old and older. Throughout the years, the MMPI has through a lot of changes, evolving into three tests used today: MMPI-2, MMPI-A, and MMPI-2-RF (Cohen & Swerdlik, 2013).
Our book was divided into different chapters on various theorists and explained the major theories of personality that were proposed by the different psychologists. One of the theories that we learned about was the trait theories. Gordan Allport introduced the trait theory and his theory suggested that individual personalities are primarily composed of broad dispositions’. Eysenck’s three dimensions of Personality was also a part of the trait theory. Eysenck developed that model of personality upon three universal trails. And at last, the trait theory had the Big five dimensions which proposed that there are give basic dimensions of personality. One of the four conclusions in our textbook suggested that “until more unambiguous empirical research is available, the best one can do is to evaluate the various theories personally, and to accept concepts that make sense and reject those that do not”(531).
A model developed for using factor analysis to try to determine the key traits in human personality. Although trait theories were well established by the 1960s, there was no consensus concerning the number or nature of the traits that make up personality. Since then, further research has confirmed a basic five factor model of personality or ‘Big Five’ (Tomas 2007). This five factor structure has been replicated by Norma (1963), Borgatta (1964) and Digman and Takemoto-Chock (1981) in list derived from Cattle’s 35 variables (Lawrence &Oliver 2000).
Cervone, D., Pervin, L. A. (2008). Personality: Theory and research (10th Ed.). New York: Wiley.
five factor theory is a fairly recent proposal and has its basis in earlier work,
(1997). McRae et al. (1997) attempted to find if the Five-Factor Model was a universal constant in all cultures. They also attempted to see if cultural views would change how the five traits were viewed. The researchers collected data from 6 different translations of the Revised NEO Personality Inventory, this inventory looks for universal trait dimensions in a variety of languages. These 6 translations were then compared to the American counterpart. It was found that while some cultures did differ slightly in their view of the five traits found in the Five-Factor Model in comparison to Americans, the traits were still universal. All six translations found the big five traits of extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and opens to experience to be
In addition, the 16PF testing tool is capable of profiling the 7 general career areas based on test taker’s personality to generate a Personal Career Profile report apart from identifying test taker’s soft skills or personality traits.
According to the findings of the Five Factor Model of personality, I have a relatively balanced score on a number of the key traits. For example, on the continuum of extroversion versus introversion, I scored moderately high in both categories, indicating that I am comfortable being around other people and also being alone. I also scored moderate on the quality of contentiousness, indicating I am always struggling between being organized and disorganized, which is also true. I scored extremely high on agreeableness, indicating that I am basically a trusting and friendly person. In general, I believe this speaks well of my mental health. But I scored high for the trait of neuroticism, which indicates that I can be emotional and insecure (i.e., I worry a great deal). I also ranked high on the trait of openness, on seeking out new experiences and being open-minded. This indicates that I am open to new ideas and enjoy creative and novel things.
Personality can be defined as an individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling and acting. Many personality theorists have put forward claims as to where personality is derived from and how it develops throughout an individual’s life. The two main personality theories this essay will be focusing on is the Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) (Bandura, 1986) and the Trait Theory – Five Factor Theory (FFT) (McCrae and Costa, 1995). The SCT allocates a central role to cognitive, observational learning and self-regulatory processes (Bandura, 1986). An individual’s personality develops through experiences with their sociocultural environment. Whereas the Trait Theory proposes that all individuals are predisposed with five traits (Extraversion, Openness, Conscientiousness, Agreeableness and Neuroticism) which determines our personality. This theory also puts forward that personality is stable and cannot change as it’s biologically determined.
Matthews, G., Deary, I. J., & Whiteman, M. C. (2009). Personality traits. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Mccrae, R. R. and Costa Jr, P. T. 1997. Personality trait structure as a human universal. American psychologist, 52 (5), p. 509.
Later research attempted to reduce Cattell’s sixteen “source traits” to five universal personality dimensions resulting in what is now known as “The Big Five Personality Factors.” (Costa & McCrae, 2006; Noftle & Fleeson, 2010)
Friedman, H. S., & Schustack, M. W. (2012). Personality: Classic theories and modern research (5th ed). Boston , MA, USA: Pearson
The Five-Factor Model of Personality gives an insight to psychologists when dealing with patients and test subjects. Due to this theory, research psychologist are able to research personality more accurately and uphold a better understanding when discussing the reasoning behind certain pre-disposed tendencies. Also, counselors which practice different types of therapy are enabled to learn details concerning their patient that can assist in the treatment of that specific patient. There have been multiple disputes in regards to the validity of the Five-Factor Model of Personality theory. Many skeptics believe that there are too many variations that come into play when dealing with personality in order to accurately depict and diagnose a 100% accurate declaration of ones’ characteristics (McCrae, 1991). The issue with relying on the model in order to declare one’s characteristics is that there is often overlap between the degrees of high and low (Popkins, 1998). Although this is a valid statement, the model is a significant role in sorting through the variations to achieve a probable consensus. Therefore, the model cannot achieve a result without any probable cause for doubt but generally will provide a clear depiction of ones’ traits and
The test overall did a fairly accurate job in measuring the various factors of my personality. I only disagreed with two of the ten factors, which I merely saw as an overt measurement. The test appeared to be valid for the most part pertaining to my case, and since validity correlates with reliability, its reliability appears to be relatively strong. However this is merely an opinion based on my interpretation of my own personality. It could be equally likely that other people may get many scores in which they totally disagree on. Since this test was written 20 years ago the question of re-standardization also comes into play. As for cross-cultural differences discussed in the introduction, to me it is unclear whether or not the questions are common to all cultures and backgrounds, yet among English speakers the questions seemed well structured. While no test is perfect, the 16 PF does seem to have relatively high reliability and validity, making it ideal in measuring personality traits.