In order to apply factor analysis to personality, Cattell believed it was necessary to sample the widest possible range of variables. He specified three kinds of data for comprehensive sampling, to capture the full range of personality dimensions: •
Life data (or L-data), which involves collecting data from the individual's natural, everyday life behaviors, measuring their characteristic behavior patterns in the real world. This could range from number of traffic accidents or number of parties attended each month, to grade point average in school or number of illnesses or divorces. •
Experimental data (or T-data) which involves reactions to standardized experimental situations created in a lab where a subject's behavior can be objectively observed and measured. •
Questionnaire data (or Q-data), which involves responses based on introspection by the individual about their own behavior and feelings. He found that this kind of direct questioning often measured subtle internal states and viewpoints that might be hard to see or measure in external behavior. In order for a personality dimension to be called "fundamental and unitary," Cattell believed that it needed to be found in factor analyses of data from all three of these measurement domains. Thus, Cattell constructed measures of a wide range of personality traits in each medium (L-data; Q-data; T-data). He then conducted a programmatic series of factor analyses on the data derived from each of the three measurement media in order to elucidate the dimensionality of human personality structure. In order to measure these trait constructs across different age ranges, Cattell constructed (Q-data) instruments that included the
Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF) for adults, the High School Personality Questionnaire (HSPQ) now named the Adolescent Personality Questionnaire (APQ), and the Children's Personality Questionnaire (CPQ). Cattell also constructed the (T-data) Objective Analytic Battery (OAB) that provided measures of the 10 largest personality trait factors extracted factor analytically, as well as objective (T-data) measures of dynamic trait constructs such as the Motivation Analysis Test (MAT), the School Motivation Analysis Test (SMAT), and the Children's Motivation Analysis Test (CMAT). In order to measure trait constructs within the abnormal personality sphere, Cattell constructed the Clinical Analysis Questionnaire (CAQ) Part 1 of the CAQ measures the 16PF factors, While Part 2 measures an additional 12 abnormal (psychopathological) personality trait dimensions. The CAQ was later re-badged as the PsychEval Personality Questionnaire (PEPQ). Also within the broadly conceptualized personality domain, Cattell constructed measures of mood states and transitory emotional states, including the Eight State Questionnaire (8SQ) In addition, Cattell was at the forefront in constructing the Central Trait-State Kit. From the very beginning of his academic career, Cattell reasoned that, as in other scientific domains like intelligence, there might be an additional, higher level of organization within personality which would provide a structure for the many primary traits. When he factor analyzed the intercorrelations of the 16 primary trait measures themselves, he found no fewer than five "second-order" or "global factors", now commonly known as the
Big Five. Thus, "global" Extraversion is fundamentally defined by the primary traits that are grouped together factor analytically, and, moving in the opposite direction, the second-order Extraversion factor gives conceptual meaning and structure to these primary traits, identifying their focus and function in human personality. These two levels of personality structure can provide an integrated understanding of the whole person, with the "global traits" giving an overview of the individual's functioning in a broad-brush way, and the more-specific primary trait scores providing an in-depth, detailed picture of the individual's unique trait combinations (Cattell's "Depth Psychometry" page 71). Thus, the 16 primary trait measures plus the five major second-stratum factors have been used in educational settings to study and predict achievement motivation, learning or cognitive style, creativity, and compatible career choices; in work or employment settings to predict leadership style, interpersonal skills, creativity, conscientiousness, stress-management, and accident-proneness; in medical settings to predict heart attack proneness, pain management variables, likely compliance with medical instructions, or recovery pattern from burns or organ transplants; in clinical settings to predict self-esteem, interpersonal needs, frustration tolerance, and openness to change; and, in research settings to predict a wide range of behavioral proclivities such as aggression, conformity, and authoritarianism. Cattell's programmatic multivariate research which extended from the 1940s through the 70's resulted in several books that have been widely recognized as identifying fundamental taxonomic dimensions of human personality and motivation and their organizing principles: •
The Description and Measurement of Personality (1946) •
An Introduction to Personality Study (1949) •
Personality: A Systematic, Theoretical, and Factual Study (1950) •
Factor Analysis (1952) •
Personality and Motivation Structure and Measurement (1957) •
The Meaning and Measurement of Neuroticism and Anxiety (1961) •
Personality Factors in Objective Test Devices (1965) •
The Scientific Analysis of Personality (1965) •
Handbook of Multivariate Experimental Psychology (1966) •
Objective Personality and Motivation Tests (1967) •
Handbook for the Sixteen Personality Questionnaire (16PF) (1970) •
Personality and Mood by Questionnaire (1973) •
Motivation and Dynamic Structure (1975) •
Handbook of Modern Personality Theory (1977) •
The Scientific Analysis of Personality and Motivation (1977) •
Personality Theory in Action: Handbook for the O-A Test Kit (1978) •
The Scientific use of Factor Analysis in Behavioral and Life Sciences (1978) •
Personality and Learning Theory: Volumes 1 & 2 (1979) •
Structured Personality-Learning Theory (1983) •
Human Motivation and the Dynamic Calculus (1985) •
Psychotherapy by Structured Learning Theory (1987) •
Handbook of Multivariate Experimental Psychology (1988) The books listed above document a programmatic series of empirical research studies based on quantitative personality data derived from objective tests (T-data), from self-report questionnaires (Q-data), and from observer ratings (L-data). They present a theory of personality development over the human life span, including effects on the individual's behavior from family, social, cultural, biological, and genetic influences, as well as influences from the domains of motivation and ability. As
Hans Eysenck at the
Institute of Psychiatry,
London remarked:"Cattell has been one of the most prolific writers in psychology since Wilhelm Wundt....According to the Citation Index, he is one of the ten most cited psychologists, and this is true with regard to not only citations in social science journals but also those in science journals generally. Of the two hundred and fifty most cited scientists, only three psychologists made the grade, namely, Sigmund Freud in the first place, then the reviewer [H.J. Eysenck], and then Cattell. Thus there is no question that Cattell has made a tremendous impression on psychology and science in general." He was a controversial figure due in part to his friendships with, and intellectual respect for, white supremacists and neo-Nazis. ==Views on race and eugenics==