SIXTEEN PERSONALITY FACTOR QUESTIONNAIRE (16PF)

• Raymond Cattell founded the 16 Personality Factors (23 Normal actually)
• Raymond Cattell believed that a person’s traits vary from situation to situation
• Methods Used by Cattell

  1. L-DATA (“Life-record data”) – objective information about the life history of an individual

  2. Q-DATA (“Questionnaire data”) – data or information collected from Questionnaires or Self-Report test

  3. T-DATA (“Objective Test data”) – data or information collected from objective test
• 16PF Description

  • Contains 185 items
  • 16 primary personality factor scales
  • Each scale contains 10 to 15 items
  • Administered individually or by group
  • Ages 16 and above
  • 35 to 50 minutes by hand or 25 to 35 minutes to complete by computer
• Temperament Primary/First-Order Traits (23 Normal Traits)

  • Affectia – Sizia
  • High Intelligence – Low Intelligence
  • High Ego Strength – Low Ego Strength
  • Excitability – Phlegmatic
  • Dominance – Submissive
  • Surgency – Desurgency
  • High Superego Strength - Low Surperego Strength
  • Parmia - Threctia
  • Permsia - Harria
  • Coasthenia – Zeppia
  • Social Role Concern – Social Unconcern
  • Protension – Alaxia
  • Autia – Praxernia
  • Shewdness – Naivete
  • Guilty Proneness – Untrobbled Adequacy
  • Sanguine Casualness – Cautious Inactivity
  • Radicalism – Conservatism
  • Self-sufficiency – Group Dependency
  • High Self sentiment – Low self sentiment
  • High Ergic Tension – Low Ergic Tension
  • Group Dedication with sensed inadequacy – Lack of Social concern
  • Social Panache – Self Effacement
  • Explicit Self expression – Lacks explicit self-expression
• 16 Primary Factors

  • WARMTH - Cool and Reserved vs. Warm and Easy Going
  • REASONING - Concrete vs. Abstract
  • EMOTIONAL STABILITY - Reactive vs. Emotionally Stable
  • DOMINANCE - Deferential vs. Dominant
  • LIVELINESS - Seriousness vs. Liveliness or impulsivity
  • RULE-CONSCIOUSENESS - Rule Conscious vs. Expedient
  • SOCIAL BOLDNESS - Socially Bold vs. Shy
  • SENSITIVITY - Sensitive vs. Utilitarian
  • VIGILANCE - Vigilant vs. Trusting
  • ABSTRACTEDNESS - Abstract vs. Grounded
  • PRIVATENESS - Private vs. Forthright
  • APPREHENSION - Apprehensive vs. Self- assured
  • OPENNESS TO CHANGE - Open to change vs. Traditional
  • SELF-RELIANCE - Self-reliant vs. Group-Oriented
  • PERFECTIONISM - Perfectionistic vs. Tolerates disorder
  • TENSION - Tense vs. Relaxed
• Introverted, Socially inhibited

  Extraverted, Socially Participating
• Low Anxiety, Unperturbed


  High Anxiety, Perturbed
• Receptive, Open-minded, Intuitive


  Tough-minded, Resolute, Unempathetic
• Accommodating, Agreeable, Selfless


  Independent, Persuasive, Willfull
• Unrestrained, Follow urges

  Self-Controlled, Inhibits Urges
• Sten scores range from 1-10, ( M=5.5, SD= 2 )
• Scores farther from the mean (either in the high or the low direction) are considered extreme
• Extreme score indicates that trait descriptors will be apparent in behaviour
• 16PF Administration


  1. The administrator may either read aloud the instruction or request examinee to read the instructions silently

  2. Advise examinee not to make any marks in the test booklet

  3. Examinees are cautioned to avoid skipping any questions and to choose the first response that comes to mind rather than spending too much time on any single question

  4. Before the test, examinees are asked to complete the grids for name and gender on the left-hand side of the answer sheet

  5. During the test, the administrator should check that examinees are marking responses appropriately. Response circles must be darkened completely with a No.2 or softer lead pencil

  6. At the conclusion of testing, the administration should review each answer sheet to ensure that the name and gender grids have been completed
• 16PF Scoring


  1. Before being handscored or computer-scored, each answer sheet should be verified for completeness

  2. That the identification grid information has been provided name (or I.D number) and gender

  3. That all 185 items have been answered

  4. 12 or fewer incomplete items are still scorable by hand

  5. 13 or more incomplete items must be completed before it can be handscored

  6. That the norm grid has been completed. The grid includes two choices, combined sex norms and sex-specific norm
• 16PF Interpretation

  1. Impression Management (IM) consists of 12 items scored only on the IM scale and don't contribute to primary scales. It is a socially desirability scale where high scores indicate socially desirable responses and low scores indicate willingness to admit undesirable attributes

  2. Acquiescence (ACQ) Scale measures the tendency to answer “true” to an item, no matter what its content. It consists of 103 true or false items unique to the 16PF Fifth Edition

  3. Infrequency (INF) Scale consists of 32 items taken from the full set of personality items, unique to the fifth edition. High scores on the INF scale indicate the examinee answered many items in a way different from most people. Possible explanations for high INF scale score include random responding, inability to decide, reactions to specific item content, reading or comprehension difficulty, trying to avoid making the “wrong impression”
• 16PF Norms


  • 9 sets of norms: Separate norms for Men, Women, Men & women combined. For each group: Adults, college students, high school seniors. Provided Age corrections for scales that change with age
• 16PF Forms

  • 6 Forms available: Two parallel forms for each of the Three levels of vocabulary proficiency from Newspaper-literate to educationally disadvantaged. A tape-recorded oral form
• Children Personality Questionnaire is a parallel inventory for 8 to 12 years old
• Junior Highschool Personality Questionnaire is a parallel inventory for 12 to 18 years old
• Clinical Analysis Questionnaire (CAQ) by Delhees & Cattell 1971 includes 16 PF + 12 new factors and is a clinical instrument for psychological disorders
• 16PF 5th Edition was authored by R. Cattell, Karen Cattell, Heather Cattell, released in 1993, restandardized in the US 2002, restandardized in France 2011. It consists of 185 + 26 multiple choice items and is for ages 16 and above
• 16PF has no overlapping items, balanced keying, Short-term Test-retest reliability: .65-.93, Long-term Test-retest reliability: .21-.64, lower than MMPI & MMPI-2