Raymond Cattell
Encyclopedia
Raymond Bernard Cattell (20 March 1905 – 2 February 1998) was a British and American psychologist
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...

, known for his exploration of many areas in psychology. These areas included: the basic dimensions of personality
Personality psychology
Personality psychology is a branch of psychology that studies personality and individual differences. Its areas of focus include:* Constructing a coherent picture of the individual and his or her major psychological processes...

 and temperament
Temperament
In psychology, temperament refers to those aspects of an individual's personality, such as introversion or extroversion, that are often regarded as innate rather than learned...

, a range of cognitive abilities, the dynamic dimensions of motivation
Motivation
Motivation is the driving force by which humans achieve their goals. Motivation is said to be intrinsic or extrinsic. The term is generally used for humans but it can also be used to describe the causes for animal behavior as well. This article refers to human motivation...

 and emotion
Emotion
Emotion is a complex psychophysiological experience of an individual's state of mind as interacting with biochemical and environmental influences. In humans, emotion fundamentally involves "physiological arousal, expressive behaviors, and conscious experience." Emotion is associated with mood,...

, the clinical dimensions of personality, patterns of group and social behavior, applications of personality research to psychotherapy
Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy is a general term referring to any form of therapeutic interaction or treatment contracted between a trained professional and a client or patient; family, couple or group...

 and learning theory
Learning theory (education)
In psychology and education, learning is commonly defined as a process that brings together cognitive, emotional, and environmental influences and experiences for acquiring, enhancing, or making changes in one's knowledge, skills, values, and world views . Learning as a process focuses on what...

, predictors of creativity
Creativity
Creativity refers to the phenomenon whereby a person creates something new that has some kind of value. What counts as "new" may be in reference to the individual creator, or to the society or domain within which the novelty occurs...

 and achievement, and many scientific research methods for exploring and measuring these areas. Cattell was famously productive throughout his 92 years, authoring and co-authoring over 50 books and 500 articles, and over 30 standardized tests. According to a widely cited ranking, he was the 16th most influential and eminent psychologist of the 20th century.

As a psychologist, Cattell was rigorously devoted to the scientific method. He was an early proponent of using factor analytical methods
Factor analysis
Factor analysis is a statistical method used to describe variability among observed, correlated variables in terms of a potentially lower number of unobserved, uncorrelated variables called factors. In other words, it is possible, for example, that variations in three or four observed variables...

 instead of what he called "verbal theorizing" to explore the basic dimensions of personality, motivation, and cognitive abilities. One of the most important results of Cattell's application of factor analysis was his discovery of 16 factors underlying human personality. He called these factors "source traits" because he believed they provide the underlying source for the surface behavior
Behavior
Behavior or behaviour refers to the actions and mannerisms made by organisms, systems, or artificial entities in conjunction with its environment, which includes the other systems or organisms around as well as the physical environment...

s we think of as personality. This theory of personality factors and the instrument used to measure them are known respectively as the 16 personality factor model
16 Personality Factors
The 16 Personality Factors, measured by the 16PF Questionnaire, were derived using factor-analysis by psychologist Raymond Cattell.Below is a table outlining this model.- Raymond Cattell's 16 Personality Factors :-Relationship to the Big Five:...

 and the 16PF Questionnaire
16PF Questionnaire
The Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire , is a multiple-choice personality questionnaire which was developed over several decades of research by Raymond B. Cattell and his colleagues...

.

Although Cattell is best known for identifying the dimensions of personality, he also studied basic dimensions of other domains: intelligence
Intelligence
Intelligence has been defined in different ways, including the abilities for abstract thought, understanding, communication, reasoning, learning, planning, emotional intelligence and problem solving....

, motivation
Motivation
Motivation is the driving force by which humans achieve their goals. Motivation is said to be intrinsic or extrinsic. The term is generally used for humans but it can also be used to describe the causes for animal behavior as well. This article refers to human motivation...

, and vocational interests. Cattell theorized the existence of fluid and crystallized intelligence
Fluid and crystallized intelligence
In psychology, fluid and crystallized intelligence are factors of general intelligence originally identified by Raymond Cattell...

s to explain human cognitive ability, and authored the Culture Fair Intelligence Test
Cattell Culture Fair III
In seeking to develop a culture-fair intelligence or IQ test that separated environmental and genetic factors, Raymond B. Cattell created the CFIT or Culture Fair Intelligence Test. Cattell argued that general intelligence exists and that it consists of fluid intelligence and crystallized...

 to minimize the bias of written language and cultural background in intelligence testing.

Innovations and accomplishments

Cattell's principal accomplishments were in personality, intelligence, and statistics
Statistics
Statistics is the study of the collection, organization, analysis, and interpretation of data. It deals with all aspects of this, including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys and experiments....

.
In personality, he is best remembered for his 16-factor model of personality
16 Personality Factors
The 16 Personality Factors, measured by the 16PF Questionnaire, were derived using factor-analysis by psychologist Raymond Cattell.Below is a table outlining this model.- Raymond Cattell's 16 Personality Factors :-Relationship to the Big Five:...

, arguing for this over Eysenck's simpler 3-factor model, and developing tests to measure his primary factors in the form of the 16PF Questionnaire. He was the first to propose a hierarchical, multi-level model of personality with basic primary factors at the first level and the broader, "second-order," or global traits of personality at a higher level of personality organization (Cattell, 1943). These five global traits are now identified with the widely used Big Five
Big Five personality traits
In contemporary psychology, the "Big Five" factors of personality are five broad domains or dimensions of personality which are used to describe human personality....

 model of personality. His research lead to additional conceptual advances - for instance distinguishing state versus trait measurement of personality: immediate, transitory states versus long-term, enduring trait levels on traits such as anxiety.
In intelligence, Cattell is best identified with the distinction of fluid and crystallized intelligence
Fluid and crystallized intelligence
In psychology, fluid and crystallized intelligence are factors of general intelligence originally identified by Raymond Cattell...

: current, abstract, adaptive intellectual abilities versus applied or crystallized knowledge. As a theoretical underpinning for this distinction, Cattell developed the investment-model of ability, arguing that crystallized ability emerged out of investment of fluid ability in a topic of knowledge. He thus contributed to cognitive epidemiology, arguing that crystallized knowledge, while initially lagging fluid ability, could be maintained or even increase after fluid ability began to decline, a concept embodied in the National Adult Reading Test
National Adult Reading Test
The National Adult Reading Test is a widely accepted and commonly used method in clinical settings for estimating premorbid intelligence levels of English-speaking patients with dementia in neuropsychological research and practice. Such tests are called hold tests as these abilities are thought to...

 (NART). Cattell developed his own ability test, the Culture Fair Intelligence Scales
Cattell Culture Fair III
In seeking to develop a culture-fair intelligence or IQ test that separated environmental and genetic factors, Raymond B. Cattell created the CFIT or Culture Fair Intelligence Test. Cattell argued that general intelligence exists and that it consists of fluid intelligence and crystallized...

, designed to minimize the effect of cultural or educational background and provide a completely non-verbal measure of intelligence such as that now seen in the Raven's
Raven's Progressive Matrices
Raven's Progressive Matrices are non-verbal multiple choice measures of the reasoning component of Spearman's g , which is often referred to as general intelligence. The tests were originally developed by John C. Raven in 1936...

.

In statistics, he founded the Society of Multivariate Experimental Psychology
Society of Multivariate Experimental Psychology
The Society of Multivariate Experimental Psychology is a small academic organization of research psychologists who have interests in multivariate statistical models for advancing psychological knowledge...

 (1960) and its journal Multivariate Behavioral Research. He was a early and frequent user of factor analysis
Factor analysis
Factor analysis is a statistical method used to describe variability among observed, correlated variables in terms of a potentially lower number of unobserved, uncorrelated variables called factors. In other words, it is possible, for example, that variations in three or four observed variables...

, and developed improvements for this process, such as the Scree Test which used the curve of latent roots to judge the best number of factors to result from a factor analysis
Factor analysis
Factor analysis is a statistical method used to describe variability among observed, correlated variables in terms of a potentially lower number of unobserved, uncorrelated variables called factors. In other words, it is possible, for example, that variations in three or four observed variables...

. He also developed a new factor analysis rotation, the "Procrustes" rotation, designed to test the fit of data to a prior-hypothesized factor structure. Additional contributions include the Coefficient of Profile Similarity (taking account of shape, scatter, and level of two score profiles),the Dynamic Calculus for assessing interests and motivation, P-technique factor analysis for an occasion-by-variable matrix, the Taxonome program for ascertaining the number and contents of clusters in a data set, the Basic Data Relations Box (assessing the dimensions of experimental designs), sampling of variables, as opposed to or in conjunction with sampling of persons; the group syntality construct: the "personality" of a group; factoring or repeated measures on single individuals to study fluctuating personality states, and Multiple Abstract Variance Analysis (MAVA) with "specification equations" embodying genetic and environmental variables and their interactions.

England

Raymond Cattell was born in 1905 in Hilltop, a small town in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 near Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...

, where his father's family was involved in inventing new parts for engines, automobiles, and other machines. It was a time when the burgeoning scientific ideas influenced his perspective on how to make a difference in the world. He wrote:
"1905 was a felicitous year in which to be born. The airplane was just a year old. The Curies and Rutherford in that year penetrated the heart of the atom and the mystery of its radiations, Binet launched the first intelligence test, and Einstein, the theory of relativity.".


When Cattell was about 5 years old, his family moved to Torquay, Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...

, in the south of England, where he grew up with strong interests in science and spent a lot of time sailing around the coastline. He was the first of his family (and the only one in his generation) to attend university: In 1921, he was awarded a scholarship to study chemistry at the University of London
University of London
-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...

, where he obtained a BSc at the age of 19. While studying physics and chemistry at university he learned from influential people in many other fields, who visited or lived in London. He writes that he:
"browsed far outside science in my reading and attended public lectures - Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic. At various points in his life he considered himself a liberal, a socialist, and a pacifist, but he also admitted that he had never been any of these things...

, H. G. Wells
H. G. Wells
Herbert George Wells was an English author, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books and rules for war games...

, Huxley
Julian Huxley
Sir Julian Sorell Huxley FRS was an English evolutionary biologist, humanist and internationalist. He was a proponent of natural selection, and a leading figure in the mid-twentieth century evolutionary synthesis...

, and Shaw
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...

 being my favorite speakers (the last, in a meeting at King's College, converted me to vegetarianism - for almost two years!).".


As he observed first-hand the terrible destruction and suffering after World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, he was increasingly attracted to the idea of applying the tools of science to the serious human problems that he saw around him. He stated that in the cultural upheaval after WWI, he felt that his laboratory table had begun to seem too small and the world's problems so vast. Thus, he decided to change his field of study and pursue a Ph.D in psychology at University of London
University of London
-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...

, which he received in 1929.

While working on his Ph.D., Cattell accepted a position teaching and counseling in the Department of Education at Exeter University
University of Exeter
The University of Exeter is a public university in South West England. It belongs to the 1994 Group, an association of 19 of the United Kingdom's smaller research-intensive universities....

. He ultimately found this disappointing because there were no resources to conduct research there. During his three years at Exeter, Cattell courted and married Monica Rogers, whom he had known since his boyhood in Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...

 and they had a son together. Soon afterward he moved to Leicester
Leicester
Leicester is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England, and the county town of Leicestershire. The city lies on the River Soar and at the edge of the National Forest...

 where he organized one of England's first child guidance clinics. It was also in this time period that he finished his first book "Under Sail Through Red Devon," which described his many adventures sailing around the coastline and estuaries of South Devon and Dartmoor.

United States

In 1937, he reluctantly left England and moved to the United States, when he was invited by Edward Thorndike
Edward Thorndike
Edward Lee "Ted" Thorndike was an American psychologist who spent nearly his entire career at Teachers College, Columbia University. His work on animal behavior and the learning process led to the theory of connectionism and helped lay the scientific foundation for modern educational psychology...

, to come to Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

. Then, when the G. Stanley Hall professorship in Psychology became available at Clark University in 1938, Cattell was recommended by Thorndike and was appointed to the position at the age of 34.

After a few productive years at Clark, he was invited by Gordon Allport
Gordon Allport
Gordon Willard Allport was an American psychologist. Allport was one of the first psychologists to focus on the study of the personality, and is often referred to as one of the founding figures of personality psychology...

 to join the Harvard University faculty in 1941. While at Harvard he planned and began some of the research in personality that would become the foundation for much of his later work in this area.

During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, Cattell served as a civilian consultant to the U.S. government researching and developing tests for selecting officers in the armed forces. With the war coming to an end, Cattell returned to teaching at Harvard and married Alberta Karen Schuettler, a Ph.D. student in mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...

 at Radcliffe College
Radcliffe College
Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was the coordinate college for Harvard University. It was also one of the Seven Sisters colleges. Radcliffe College conferred joint Harvard-Radcliffe diplomas beginning in 1963 and a formal merger agreement with...

. Over the years, she worked with Cattell on many aspects of his research, writing, and test development. They were married for over 30 years and had three daughters and a son.

At this time Herbert Woodrow, Professor of Psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...

 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...

 and President of the APA, was searching for someone with a background in multivariate methods to establish a research laboratory there. Cattell was invited to assume this position in 1945 and he accepted. With this newly created research professorship in psychology, he was able to obtain sufficient grant support for two Ph.D. associates, four graduate research assistants, and clerical assistance.

One reason that Cattell moved to the University of Illinois was that they were developing the first electronic computer
Computer
A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...

, the Illiac I
ILLIAC I
The ILLIAC I , a pioneering computer built in 1952 by the University of Illinois, was the first computer built and owned entirely by a US educational institution, Manchester University UK having built Manchester Mark 1 in 1948.ILLIAC I was based on the Institute for Advanced Study Von Neumann...

 there, which made it possible for him to complete large-scale factor analyses, which had here-to-fore been impossible to conduct. At the University of Illinois, Raymond Cattell founded the Laboratory of Personality Assessment and Group Behavior. In 1949 he and his wife, Alberta Karen Cattell, founded The Institute for Personality and Ability Testing (IPAT) . Karen Cattell served as director of IPAT until 1993.

In 1960, Cattell organized and convened an international symposium to increase communication and cooperation among psychological researchers who were using multivariate statistics
Multivariate statistics
Multivariate statistics is a form of statistics encompassing the simultaneous observation and analysis of more than one statistical variable. The application of multivariate statistics is multivariate analysis...

 to study human behavior. This resulted in the foundation of the Society of Multivariate Experimental Psychology
Society of Multivariate Experimental Psychology
The Society of Multivariate Experimental Psychology is a small academic organization of research psychologists who have interests in multivariate statistical models for advancing psychological knowledge...

. He remained in the Illinois research professorship until he reached the University's required retirement age in 1973. A few years after he retired from the University of Illinois he built a home in Boulder, Colorado
Boulder, Colorado
Boulder is the county seat and most populous city of Boulder County and the 11th most populous city in the U.S. state of Colorado. Boulder is located at the base of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains at an elevation of...

, where he wrote and published the results of a variety of research projects that had been left unfinished in Illinois.

In 1977 he decided to move to Hawaii, largely because of his life-long love of the ocean and sailing (see his first book Under Sail Through Red Devon which he wrote about his early years of extensive sailing around his home in Devon, England). He continued his career as a part-time professor and advisor at the University of Hawaii
University of Hawaii
The University of Hawaii System, formally the University of Hawaii and popularly known as UH, is a public, co-educational college and university system that confers associate, bachelor, master, and doctoral degrees through three university campuses, seven community college campuses, an employment...

. He also served as adjunct faculty of the Hawaii School of Professional Psychology, which became the American School of Professional Psychology. After settling in Hawaii he married Heather Birkett, a clinical psychologist, who later carried out extensive research using the 16PF and other tests. During the last two decades of his life in Hawaii, Cattell continued to publish a variety of scientific articles, as well as books on motivation, the scientific use of factor analysis, two volumes of personality and learning theory, the inheritance of personality and ability, structured learning theory; and co-edited a book on functional psychological testing, as well as a revision of his Handbook of Multivariate Experimental Psychology.

Cattell and his wife Heather Birkett Cattell lived on a lagoon in the southeast corner of Oahu
Oahu
Oahu or Oahu , known as "The Gathering Place", is the third largest of the Hawaiian Islands and most populous of the islands in the U.S. state of Hawaii. The state capital Honolulu is located on the southeast coast...

 where he kept a small sailing boat. Around 1990, he had to give up his nearly 80-year sailing career because of navigational challenges resulting from old age. He died peacefully at home in Honolulu on February 2, 1998, at the age of 92 (one month short of 93). He is buried in the Valley of the Temples on a hillside overlooking the sea. http://www.stu.ca/~jgillis/cattell.html Consistent with his will, his remaining funds have been used to build a school for underprivileged children in Cambodia http://www.cattell.net/devon/rbcschool.htm.

Scientific orientation

When Cattell entered the field of psychology in the 1920s, he felt that the domain of personality was dominated by ideas that were largely theoretical and intuitive with little research basis. Cattell believed in E.L. Thorndike’s empirical viewpoint that “If something actually did exist, it existed in some amount and hence could be measured.”

Cattell found that concepts used by early psychological theorists tended to be subjective and poorly defined. For example, after examining over 400 published papers on the topic of "anxiety" in 1965, Cattell stated "The studies showed so many fundamentally different meanings used for anxiety and different ways of measuring it, that the studies could not even be integrated.”. Early personality theorists tended to provide little objective evidence or research bases for their theories. Cattell wanted psychology to become more like other sciences, where a theory could be tested in an objective way that could be understood and replicated by others. In Cattell's words:
“Psychology appeared to be a jungle of confusing, conflicting, and arbitrary concepts. These pre-scientific theories doubtless contained insights which still surpass in refinement those depended upon by psychiatrists or psychologists today. But who knows, among the many brilliant ideas offered, which are the true ones? Some will claim that the statements of one theorist are correct, but others will favour the views of another. Then there is no objective way of sorting out the truth except through scientific research"


Psychologist Art Sweney, an expert in psychometrics, summed up Cattell’s methodology:
“He was without exception the one man who made the most major strides in systematizing the field of behavioral science from all of its diverse facets into a real science based on empirical, replicable and universal principles. Seldom has psychology had such a determined, systematic explorer dedicated not only to the basic search for scientific knowledge but also to the need to apply science for the benefit of all.” http://www.stu.ca/~jgillis/triswe.htm

Multivariate research

Rather than pursue a “univariate” research approach to psychology, studying the effect that a single variable (such as “dominance”) might have on one other variable (such as “decision-making”), Cattell pioneered the use of a multivariate approach to psychology. He believed that behavioral dimensions were too complex and interactive to fully understand one dimension in isolation. The classical univariate approach required bringing the individual into an artificial laboratory situation and measuring the effect of one particular variable on another, while the multivariate approach allowed psychologists to study the whole person and their unique combination of traits in a natural environment. Multivariate analyses allowed for the study of real-world situations (e.g. depression, divorce, loss) that could not be manipulated in a laboratory.

Cattell applied multivariate research to three domains: the traits of personality or temperament, the motivational or dynamic traits, and the diverse dimensions of abilities. In each of these areas, he thought there must be a finite number of basic, unitary elements that could be identified. He drew a comparison between these fundamental, underlying traits to the basic elements of the physical world that were discovered and presented in the periodic table of the elements.

In 1960, he organized an international meeting of research-oriented psychologists, resulting in the founding of the Society for Multivariate Experimental Psychology, and its journal, Multivariate Behavioral Research. He brought many researchers from Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and South America to work at his lab at the University of Illinois. Many of his books were written in collaboration with others.

Factor analysis

Cattell noted that in sciences such as chemistry, physics, astronomy, and medicine, unsubstantiated theories were historically widespread until new instruments were developed to improve scientific observation and measurement. In the 1920s, Cattell studied under Charles Spearman
Charles Spearman
Charles Edward Spearman, FRS was an English psychologist known for work in statistics, as a pioneer of factor analysis, and for Spearman's rank correlation coefficient...

 who was developing the new psychometric technique of factor analysis
Factor analysis
Factor analysis is a statistical method used to describe variability among observed, correlated variables in terms of a potentially lower number of unobserved, uncorrelated variables called factors. In other words, it is possible, for example, that variations in three or four observed variables...

 in his effort to understand the basic dimensions and structure of human abilities. Factor analysis became a powerful tool to help uncover the basic dimensions behind a confusing array of surface variables in a particular domain.

Factor analysis was built upon the earlier development of the correlation coefficient
Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient
In statistics, the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient is a measure of the correlation between two variables X and Y, giving a value between +1 and −1 inclusive...

, which measures the degree to which two variables are related or tend to go together. For example, if "frequency of exercise" and "blood pressure level" were measured on a large group of people, then inter-correlating these two variables would indicate the degree to which "exercise" and "blood pressure" are directly related to each other. Factor analysis performs complex calculations on the correlation coefficients among a multitude of variables in a particular domain (such as abilities or personality) to determine the basic, unitary factors at work behind the superficial variables of behavior found in that domain.

While working at the University of London with Spearman exploring the number and nature of human abilities, Cattell postulated that factor analysis could be applied to other areas beyond the domain of abilities. In particular, Cattell was interested in exploring the basic dimensions and structure of human personality. For example, he thought that if factor analysis were applied to a wide range of measures of interpersonal functioning, the basic dimensions within the domain of social behavior could be identified. Thus, factor analysis could be used to discover the fundamental dimensions behind the large number of apparent surface behaviors and then facilitate more effective research in this area.

Personality theory

In order to apply factor analysis to personality, Cattell believed it 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:
  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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 domains. Thus, Cattell constructed personality measures of a wide range of traits in each medium. He then repeatedly performed factor analyses on the data.

With the help of many colleagues, Cattell's factor-analytic studies continued over several decades, eventually producing the 16 fundamental factors
16 Personality Factors
The 16 Personality Factors, measured by the 16PF Questionnaire, were derived using factor-analysis by psychologist Raymond Cattell.Below is a table outlining this model.- Raymond Cattell's 16 Personality Factors :-Relationship to the Big Five:...

 underlying human personality. He decided to name these traits with letters (A, B, C, D, E…) in order to avoid misnaming these newly discovered dimensions, or inviting confusion with existing vocabulary and concepts. Factor-analytic studies by many researchers in diverse cultures around the world have re-validated the number and meaning of these traits.

Cattell set about developing tests to measure these traits across different age ranges, such as The 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire for adults, the Adolescent Personality Questionnaire, and the Children’s Personality Questionnaire.

From the beginning of his research, 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 16 primary traits themselves, he found five “second-order” or global factors, now commonly known as the Big Five
Big Five personality traits
In contemporary psychology, the "Big Five" factors of personality are five broad domains or dimensions of personality which are used to describe human personality....

. These second-order or global traits were broad, over-arching domains of behavior, which provided meaning and structure for the primary traits. For example, the global trait Extraversion emerged from factor-analytic results made up of the five primary traits that were interpersonal in focus.

Thus, global Extraversion is fundamentally related to the primary traits that came together in the factor analysis to define Extraversion, and, moving in the opposite direction, the domain of Extraversion gave conceptual meaning and structure to these primary traits, identifying their focus and function in personality. These two levels of personality structure can be used to 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.

Research on the basic 16 traits has shown them to be useful in understanding and predicting a wide range of real life behaviors. For example, the traits have been used in educational settings to study and predict such things as achievement motivation, learning style or cognitive style, creativity, and compatible career choices; in work or employment settings to predict such things as 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 dimensions such as aggression, conformity, and authoritarianism.

Cattell’s program of personality research in the 1940s, 50’s, and 60’s resulted in five books that have been widely recognized as identifying fundamental dimensions of personality and their organizing principles:
  • The Description and Measurement of Personality (1946)
  • Personality: A Systematic, Theoretical, and Factual Study (1950)
  • Personality and Motivation Structure and Measurement (1957)
  • The Scientific Analysis of Personality (1965)
  • Personality and Mood by Questionnaire (1973)


These books detailed a program of research that was based on personality data from objective behavioral studies, from self-report or questionnaire data, and from observer ratings. They presented 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.

Criticism and the APA Lifetime Achievement Award

William H. Tucker
William H. Tucker
William H. Tucker is a professor of psychology at Rutgers University and the author of several books critical of race science.Tucker received his bachelor's degree from Bates College in 1967, and his master's and doctorate from Princeton University...

 and Barry Mehler
Barry Mehler
Barry Alan Mehler is a Jewish-American professor of humanities at Ferris State University who founded the Institute for the Study of Academic Racism . He earned his B.A. from Yeshiva University in 1970, his M.A. from City College of New York in 1972, and his Ph.D. from University of Illinois at...

, have taken issue with Cattell based on his interests in eugenics, evolution and political systems. They argue that throughout his life Cattell adhered to a mixture of eugenics and theology
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...

, which he eventually named Beyondism and proposed as "a new morality from science". Beyondism is based on the premise that groups, like individuals, evolve based on survival of the fittest. Cattell argues that a diversity of "racio-cultural" groups is necessary to allow that evolution. He makes controversial arguments to support natural group selection by encouraging not only the separation of groups but also the prevention of any "external" assistance to "failing" groups from "successful" ones, and by calling for a process of "genthanasia," in which the former would be "phased out" by the latter through "educational and birth control measures"--that is, by segregating them and preventing their reproduction. http://www.lrainc.com/swtaboo/taboos/beyond01.html However, Cattell's former colleagues and other supporters assert that, although some of Cattell's views are controversial, Tucker and Mehler have exaggerated and misrepresented him by using quotes out of context and from outdated writings.http://www.stthomasu.ca/~jgillis/awalif.htm

In 1997, Cattell, at 92, was chosen by the American Psychological Association
American Psychological Association
The American Psychological Association is the largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the United States. It is the world's largest association of psychologists with around 154,000 members including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. The APA...

 (APA) for its "Gold Medal Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Science of Psychology." Before the medal was presented, Mehler
Barry Mehler
Barry Alan Mehler is a Jewish-American professor of humanities at Ferris State University who founded the Institute for the Study of Academic Racism . He earned his B.A. from Yeshiva University in 1970, his M.A. from City College of New York in 1972, and his Ph.D. from University of Illinois at...

 launched a publicity campaign against Cattell http://www.ferris.edu/isar/bios/Cattell/gold.htm through his nonprofit foundation ISAR
Institute for the Study of Academic Racism
The Institute for the Study of Academic Racism is an organization that monitors "changing intellectual trends in academic racism, biological determinism, and eugenics." ISAR states that in this capacity it "acts as a resource service for students, academics, journalists, legislators and civil...

 accusing Cattell of being sympathetic to racist and fascist ideas http://www.ferris.edu/isar/bios/Cattell/homepage.htm and claiming that "it is unconscionable to honor this man whose work helps to dignify the most destructive political ideas of the twentieth century".
A blue-ribbon committee was convened by the APA to investigate the legitimacy of the charges. However, before the committee reached a decision, Cattell issued an open letter to the committee saying "I abhor racism and discrimination based on race. Any other belief would be antithetical to my life’s work" and saying that "it is unfortunate that the APA announcement … has brought misguided critics' statements a great deal of publicity." http://www.cattell.net/devon/openletter.htm He refused the award, withdrawing his name from consideration. The blue ribbon committee was therefore disbanded and Cattell, in failing health, died months later.

In 1994, Cattell was one of 52 signatories on "Mainstream Science on Intelligence
Mainstream Science on Intelligence
Mainstream Science on Intelligence was a public statement issued by a group of academic researchers in fields allied to intelligence testing that claimed to present those findings widely accepted in the expert community...

," an editorial written by Linda Gottfredson
Linda Gottfredson
Linda Susanne Gottfredson is a professor of educational psychology at the University of Delaware and co-director of the Delaware-Johns Hopkins Project for the Study of Intelligence and Society. Gottfredson's work has been influential in shaping U.S...

 and published in the Wall Street Journal, which declared the consensus of the signing scholars on issues related to race and intelligence
Race and intelligence
The connection between race and intelligence has been a subject of debate in both popular science and academic research since the inception of intelligence testing in the early 20th century...

 following the publication of the book The Bell Curve
The Bell Curve
The Bell Curve is a best-selling and controversial 1994 book by the Harvard psychologist Richard J. Herrnstein and political scientist Charles Murray...

.

Selected publications

Raymond Cattell's papers and books are the 7th most referenced in psychology journals over the past century. His 20 most cited publications are:
  • Cattell, R. B. (1966). "The Scree Test for the Number of Factors." Multivariate Behavioral Research, 1(2), 245-276. 1585 citations
  • Cattell, R. B., Eber, H. W. & Tatsuoka, M. M. (1970 or 1980 Edition). Handbook for the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16 PF). Champaign IL: Institute for Personality and Ability Testing. 542 citations
  • Cattell, R. B. (1978). The Scientific Use of Factor Analysis in Behavioral and Life Sciences. New York: Plenum. 452 citations
  • Cattell, R. B. (1971). Abilities: Their Structure, Growth, and Action. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. 436 citations
  • Cattell, R. B. (1957). Personality and Motivation Structure and Measurement. New York: World Book. 280 citations
  • Cattell, R. B. (1965). The Scientific Analysis of Personality. London: Penguin. 216 citations
  • Cattell. R. B. (1966). Handbook of Multivariate Experimental Psychology. Chicago: Rand McNally. 203 citations
  • Cattell, R. B. & Scheier, I. H. (1961). The Meaning and Measurement of Neuroticism and Anxiety. New York: Ronald Press. 138 citations
  • Cattell, R. B. (1966). "The Meaning and Strategic Use of Factor Analysis." (In Handbook of Multivariate Experimental Psychology). Chicago: Rand McNally. 190 citations
  • Horn, J. L. & Cattell, R. B. (1966). "Refinement and test of the theory of fluid and crystallized intelligence." Journal of Educational Psychology, 57(5), 253-270. 168 citations
  • Cattell, R. B. Description and Measurement of Personality. (1946). New York: World Book. 166 citations
  • Cattell, R. B. Factor analysis. (1952). New York: Wiley. 165 citations
  • Cattell, R. B. Personality and Mood by Questionnaire. (1973). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass San Francisco. 146 citations
  • Cattell, R. B. Intelligence: Its Structure, Growth, and Action. (1987). Amsterdam: Elsevier. 145 citations
  • Cattell, R. B. (1943). "The description of personality: Basic traits resolved into clusters." Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 1943, 38, 476-506. 96 citations
  • Cattell, R. B. (1965). "A Biometrics Invited Paper. Factor Analysis: An Introduction to Essentials II. The role of factor analysis in research." Biometrics, 21, 405-435. 92 citations
  • Cattell, R. B. (1950). Personality a systematic theoretical and factual study. New York: McGraw Hill. 82 citations
  • Cattell, R. B. & Vogelmann, S. (1977). "A comprehensive trial of the scree and KG criteria for determining the number of factors." Multivariate Behavioral Research, 12, 289-325. 94 citations
  • Cattell, R. B. & Scheier, I. H. (1963). Handbook for the IPAT Anxiety Scale Questionnaire. Champaign IL: Institute for Personality and Ability Testing. 70 citations
  • Hurley, J. R. & Cattell, R. B. (1963). "The Procrustes program: Producing direct rotation to test a hypothesized factor structure." Behavioral Science, 7, 258-262. 69 citations

See also

  • 16PF Questionnaire
    16PF Questionnaire
    The Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire , is a multiple-choice personality questionnaire which was developed over several decades of research by Raymond B. Cattell and his colleagues...

  • Sixteen Personality Factors
    16 Personality Factors
    The 16 Personality Factors, measured by the 16PF Questionnaire, were derived using factor-analysis by psychologist Raymond Cattell.Below is a table outlining this model.- Raymond Cattell's 16 Personality Factors :-Relationship to the Big Five:...

  • Big Five Personality Traits
    Big Five personality traits
    In contemporary psychology, the "Big Five" factors of personality are five broad domains or dimensions of personality which are used to describe human personality....

  • Cattell-Horn-Carroll Theory (CHC Theory)
    CHC Theory
    Recent advances in current theory and research on the structure of human cognitive abilities have resulted in a new empirically derived model commonly referred to as the Cattell–Horn–Carroll theory of cognitive abilities . CHC theory of cognitive abilities is an amalgamation of two similar theories...

  • Culture Fair Intelligence Test
    Cattell Culture Fair III
    In seeking to develop a culture-fair intelligence or IQ test that separated environmental and genetic factors, Raymond B. Cattell created the CFIT or Culture Fair Intelligence Test. Cattell argued that general intelligence exists and that it consists of fluid intelligence and crystallized...

  • Factor Analysis
    Factor analysis
    Factor analysis is a statistical method used to describe variability among observed, correlated variables in terms of a potentially lower number of unobserved, uncorrelated variables called factors. In other words, it is possible, for example, that variations in three or four observed variables...

  • Fluid and Crystallized Intelligence
    Fluid and crystallized intelligence
    In psychology, fluid and crystallized intelligence are factors of general intelligence originally identified by Raymond Cattell...

  • Trait Theory
    Trait theory
    In psychology, Trait theory is a major approach to the study of human personality. Trait theorists are primarily interested in the measurement of traits, which can be defined as habitual patterns of behavior, thought, and emotion. According to this perspective, traits are relatively stable over...


External links

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