The 16PF Questionnaire - History and Overview
In 1949, Raymond Cattell published the first edition of the 16PF Questionnaire - the 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire. It was a revolutionary concept: measuring the whole of human personality using structure discovered through factor analysis. The 16PF Fifth Edition Questionnaire represents a controlled, natural evolution of the 16PF Questionnaire, enhanced and updated to reflect the changes in today's society.

What is the 16PF Questionnaire?
The 16PF Questionnaire is a self-report assessment instrument that measures the sixteen normal adult personality dimensions discovered by Dr. Cattell in his landmark research. From client responses to the questionnaire, standardized scores (stens) are derived for each of the sixteen personality factors and scores for five Global Factors (the original Five-Factor Model) are computed. These scores enable you to formulate personality models useful in industrial/organizational applications, clinical settings, counseling, and research for predicting human behavior.

Click here for Key Information about the 16PF Questionnaire.

What does the 16PF Questionnaire measure?
Using dimensions discovered through factor analysis, the 16PF Questionnaire assesses the whole domain of human personality. It measures levels of:

Warmth Reasoning Emotional Stability Dominance Liveliness Rule-Consciousness

Social Boldness Sensitivity Vigilance Abstractedness Privateness Apprehensiveness

Openness to Change Self-Reliance Perfectionism Tension

Click here for descriptions of the sixteen Primary Factor scales.

The 16PF model is hierarchical. When the sixteen primary traits were themselves factor-analyzed, they revealed five Global Factors which describe personality at a broader level. These Global Factors are:

These five Global Factors help to show the degree of relationships among the sixteen primary scales. Click here for descriptions of the five Global Factor scales.

An Essential Tool
The 16PF Fifth Edition Questionnaire is a valuable assessment tool for professionals in a wide range of counseling and consulting settings. In business and industry, for example, it facilitates personnel selection and development by identifying personal qualities that influence behaviors in work settings, such as problem-solving style and interpersonal style.

16PFworld.com reports provide you with enriched personality profiles of your clients. Reports include response style indices, sten scores for the sixteen Primary Factors and five Global Factors, narrative interpretations of the Global Factor scores, as well as item responses and summary statistics.

Click here for additional information on report content and profile interpretation.

Portions of this site were extracted from the 16PF Fifth Edition Administrator's Manual authored by Mary T.Russell, M.S., and Darcie Karol, M.A. Definitions of the Primary Factors and Global Factors were authored by Mary T. Russell, M.S., Heather E.P. Cattell, Ph.D., and IPAT staff.