Background

the 16PF is a self-report personality test
developed by Raymond B. Cattell , Maurice Tatsuoka, and Herbert Eber
provides a measure of normal personality and can also be used by psychologists and other mental health professionals, as a clinical instrument to help diagnose psychiatric disorders, as well as help with prognosis and therapy planning
It provides clinicians with a normal-range measurement of anxiety, adjustment, emotional stability, and behavioral problems. It can also be used within other areas of psychology, such as career and occupational selection.

Item Format

Cattell argued that self-ratings relate to self-image and are affected by self-awareness, and defensiveness about one’s actual traits
compared to other personality instruments that ask questions such as:
- “I am a warm and friendly person; I am not a worrier; I am an even tempered person.”
16PF ask questions about daily, concrete situations

In the 1940s, Cattell began what was to be many years of research into personality traits
Cattell was frustrated with personality theories that only seemed to describe separate aspects of personality, he set out to try and identify all of the traits that made up a person
Because of WWI and WWII, he hoped that if human nature could be better understood, it would be easier to solve global political and economic problems
In terms of boiling down the traits and establishing a formal framework for understanding personality, Cattell used factor analysis
Starting with 4500 adjectives that could describe people, he then went through a laborious process of grouping these adjectives into 171 clusters
After several years, Cattell and his team of psychologists were able to boil down the set of traits to 16
Once Cattell had created a personality theory, he continued to research its effectiveness and refine the questions until 1978
During this period and beyond, 5 different editions of questionnaire were published by the Institute of Personality and Ability Testing, Inc., which was acquired by PAN in 2015
Moreover, the 16 traits measured by the 16PF questionnaire can also be grouped into 5 broad dimensions known as the Global Factors, which correlate strongly with the Big Five

can be hand-scored using a test of scoring keys, or computer-scored by mailing-in or faxing-in the answer sheet to the publisher IPAT
There is also a software system that can be used to administer, score, and provide reports on the test results directly in the professional’s office
In addition, there is an interest-based system which can also provide administration, scoring, and reports in a range of different languages

Computer Generated Interpretative Reports
- Career Development Report
- Karson Clinical Report
- Cattell Comprehensive Personality Interpretation
- Teamwork Development Report
Books that help with test interpretation
- 16PF Interpretation in Clinical Practice (Karson, Karson, & O’Dell, 1997)
- The 16PF: Personality in Depth (Cattell, H.B., 1989)
- Essentials of the 16PF (Cattell, H.E., & Schuerger, J.M., 2003)

the 16PF is a self-report personality test
developed by Raymond B. Cattell , Maurice Tatsuoka, and Herbert Eber
provides a measure of normal personality and can also be used by psychologists and other mental health professionals, as a clinical instrument to help diagnose psychiatric disorders, as well as help with prognosis and therapy planning
It provides clinicians with a normal-range measurement of anxiety, adjustment, emotional stability, and behavioral problems. It can also be used within other areas of psychology, such as career and occupational selection.

Cattell argued that self-ratings relate to self-image and are affected by self-awareness, and defensiveness about one’s actual traits
compared to other personality instruments that ask questions such as:
- “I am a warm and friendly person; I am not a worrier; I am an even tempered person.”
16PF ask questions about daily, concrete situations

In the 1940s, Cattell began what was to be many years of research into personality traits
Cattell was frustrated with personality theories that only seemed to describe separate aspects of personality, he set out to try and identify all of the traits that made up a person
Because of WWI and WWII, he hoped that if human nature could be better understood, it would be easier to solve global political and economic problems
In terms of boiling down the traits and establishing a formal framework for understanding personality, Cattell used factor analysis
Starting with 4500 adjectives that could describe people, he then went through a laborious process of grouping these adjectives into 171 clusters
After several years, Cattell and his team of psychologists were able to boil down the set of traits to 16
Once Cattell had created a personality theory, he continued to research its effectiveness and refine the questions until 1978
During this period and beyond, 5 different editions of questionnaire were published by the Institute of Personality and Ability Testing, Inc., which was acquired by PAN in 2015
Moreover, the 16 traits measured by the 16PF questionnaire can also be grouped into 5 broad dimensions known as the Global Factors, which correlate strongly with the Big Five

can be hand-scored using a test of scoring keys, or computer-scored by mailing-in or faxing-in the answer sheet to the publisher IPAT
There is also a software system that can be used to administer, score, and provide reports on the test results directly in the professional’s office
In addition, there is an interest-based system which can also provide administration, scoring, and reports in a range of different languages

Computer Generated Interpretative Reports
- Career Development Report
- Karson Clinical Report
- Cattell Comprehensive Personality Interpretation
- Teamwork Development Report
Books that help with test interpretation
- 16PF Interpretation in Clinical Practice (Karson, Karson, & O’Dell, 1997)
- The 16PF: Personality in Depth (Cattell, H.B., 1989)
- Essentials of the 16PF (Cattell, H.E., & Schuerger, J.M., 2003)