16PF

Generalities

The 16PF is a personality assessment developed by R.B. Cattell. Its first version was published in 1949, followed by subsequent versions in 1956, 1962, and 1968. A fifth version, the 16PF5, was published in 1993 and is still used today. The assessment has been translated into many languages and there are plenty of psychometric studies available on it.

Taking the 16PF takes over an hour and it's mainly used by psychologists in counseling, and clinical situations. The 16PF5 version added five new dimensions (EX, AX, TM, IN, SC) to keep up with BIG5 research. The 16+5 dimensions measured by the 16PF are listed in the table below.

16PF5 Factors table

Factor	Title	Low	High
Factor A	Warmth	Reserved, Distant	Warm, Outgoing
Factor B	Reasoning	Concrete	Abstract
Factor C	Emotional Stability	Reactive	Adaptive
Factor E	Dominance	Deferential, Cooperative	Assertive, Dominant
Factor F	Liveliness	Serious, Restrained	Animated, Spontaneous
Factor G	Rule-Consciousness	Expedient, Nonconforming	Rule-conscious, Dutiful
Factor H	Social Boldness	Threat sensitive, Timid	Venturesome, Think-skinned
Factor I	Sensitivity	Utilitarian, Objective	Sensitive, Sentimental
Factor L	Vigilance	Trusting, Unsuspecting	Skeptical, Wary
Factor M	Abstractedness	Grounded, Practical	Imaginative, Idea-oriented
Factor N	Privateness	Forthright, Genuine	Discreet, Non-disclosing
Factor O	Self-assured, Complacent	Worried, Self-doubting
Factor Q1	Openness to change	Traditional, Attached to familiar	Experimenting
Factor Q2	Self-reliance	Group-oriented	Solitary, Individualistic
Factor Q3	Perfectionism	Unexacting, Flexible	Organized, Self-disciplined
Factor Q4	Tension	High-energy, Impatient
Factor EX	Extraversion	Socially inhibited	Socially participating
Factor AX	Anxiety	Low Anxiety, unperturbed	High anxiety
Factor TM	Tough minded	Receptive, intuitive	Resolute, un-empathetic
Factor IN	Independence	Agreeable, Selfless	persuasive, Willful
Factor SC	Self-control	Unrestrained, follows urges	Inhibit urges

Comments

The 16 factors emerged from factorial analyses that the 16PF’s author R. Cattell calculated at a time when computers and software were not yet available. The same factorial analyses were computed later in the 1990s by Digman (1996), who evidenced 7 factors instead of 16, raising some doubts about the validity of the 16PF. The 16PF5 version emerged later as more consistent, theoretically solid, and in line with recent research on the Big Five.

The use of the 16PF is generally more clinical than organizational. The 16PF was popular among psychologists in the 1970th and 1980th. Utilizations started to decrease at the end of the 1990th in favor of more recent tests coming from the Big Five approach research, such as the NEO-PI or the FFM. The popularity of the 16PF was undoubtedly related to its author, who was a renowned researcher and an active writer and speaker.

The 16PF has inspired the development of many other tests, like the Guilford Zimmerman Temperament Survey (GZTS). With a large number of items to be checked and a number of measured traits greater than a dozen, other well-known assessments like OPQ or HPI can also be classified as close to the 16PF.

References

More on Catell and the 16PF in encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/medicine/psychology-and-psychiatry-biographies/raymond-bernard-cattell

More on the 16PF in Google Scholar: http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&lr=&q=16PF&btnG=Search

More details about the critique of the 16PF in : Digman, J. M. (1996). The curious history of the five-factor model. In J. S. Wiggins (Ed.), The five-factor model of personality: Theoretical perspectives (pp. 1-20). New York, NY: Guilford Press. ISBN: 9781572300682.

More on the 16 PF in Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/16PF_Questionnaire