Cattell defined personality as " That which permits a prediction of what a person

will do in a given situation." Source Traits are the underlying basic factors of an
individuals personalities.He further states, 'Personality is that which determines
behaviour as a defined situation.

Personality Theory

Raymond Cattell made many contributions to psychology but is most renowned

for his theory of personality. Cattell developed this theory later in his life, and his
work in psychometric research and factor analysis culminated in this unique
perspective on personality.

Trait theorist Raymond Cattell reduced the number of main personality traits
from Allport’s initial list of over 4,000 down to 171, mostly by eliminating
uncommon traits and combining common characteristics.

The trait is the most important factor of Cattell’s personality theory. He

introduces characteristic of personality as a trait. For its clarification, he has given

classification. According to him a trait is a mental structure or an inference which

is made from observed behavior -accounts for regularity or consistency in the
behaviour.

As with all of his work, Cattell took a statistical, measurable approach to studying
personality rather than utilizing observational and qualitative data. He wanted to
apply factor analysis to personality. To do this, he categorized data into three
parts to achieve a large, comprehensive method of sampling. The three data
types were:

 Life Data (L-data): Information about an individual's everyday behaviors and

their behavioral patterns. This included things such as the grades they
received in school, their marital status, social interactions, and more.
 Experimental Data (T-data): Recorded reactions to standardized
experiments in a lab setting, designed to test study participant's response
to certain situations.
  Questionnaire Data (Q-data): Responses to questions about the
participant's behavior and feelings. This data was introspection based and
provided a deeper look at the person's personality that is not always clear
through behavioral data.

According to Cattell [1965], personality is that which permits us to predict what a

person will do in a given situation. With the help of mathematical analysis of
personality, he suggests that the prediction of behaviour can be made by a
specification equation .

The formula used by Cattell to predict behaviour with any degree of accuracy is
given below: R = f (S ,P ) Where R refers to the nature of a person’s specific
response, f refers to the unspecified function, S refers to the stimulus situation at
a given moment in time and P refers to the Personality structure.

The goal of Cattell's personality theory was to establish a "common taxonomy" of

personality traits. He refined previously established lists of personality traits and
narrow it to simplify the descriptions of personality even further than his
predecessors. The previously established taxonomy, created by psychologists
Gordon Allport and Henry Odbert in 1936, contained thousands of personality
traits divided into four categories. But, this taxonomy contained some
"ambiguous category boundaries," that reduced the significance of the work.
Raymond Cattell's personality theory sought to both refine the previous
taxonomy and create more rigid boundaries that added to the significance of the
theory.

The 16 Primary Traits of Cattell's Personality Theory

Cattell's theory of personality described 16 personality traits that each person

possesses to varying degrees. The personality traits are referred to as "primary
factors," of which someone can be in the "low range," or "high range." Within
those rangers are descriptors of attributes someone may possess, or ways
someone may act, who falls within those ranges. The sixteen primary factors of
personality as described by Cattell's personality theory are as follows:
 1. Abstractedness: Imaginative versus practical
2. Apprehension: Worried versus confident
3. Dominance: Forceful versus submissive
4. Emotional Stability: Calm versus high-strung
5. Liveliness: Spontaneous versus restrained
6. Openness to Change: Flexible versus attached to the familiar
7. Perfectionism: Controlled versus undisciplined
8. Privateness: Discreet versus open
9. Reasoning: Abstract versus concrete
10.Rule-Consciousness: Conforming versus non-conforming
11.Self-Reliance: Self-sufficient versus dependent
12.Sensitivity: Tender-hearted versus tough-minded.
13.Social Boldness: Uninhibited versus shy
14.Tension: Impatient versus relaxed
15.Vigilance: Suspicious versus trusting
16.Warmth: Outgoing versus reserved

In connection with Cattell's theory of personality came the sixteen personality

factor questionnaire (16PF). The 16PF is a personality test used by individuals as
well as psychologists and mental health institutions to help evaluate patients.
Unlike personality tests that explicitly ask the respondent about their personality
traits, the 16PF asks about certain situations and their response to those
situations.

The Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire(16 PF) was devised by Cattell to

measure source traits using self-report data. He also developed a statistical tool
called multiple abstract variance analysis to estimate the relative contributions of
heredity and environment to a given trait. He estimates that one-third of
personality is determined by genetics and twothirds by environmental influences.
Finally, he has studied how the syntality or defining characteristics of groups
influence personality.

Cattell's personality theory undeniably made a large impact on the field of

personality within psychology. Cattell's sixteen primary factors were essential for
the later discovery of the "big five" personality traits.
Just as Cattell sought to improve and refine the findings of his predecessors in the
field of personality, others did the same thing with Cattell's sixteen factors.
Psychologists were able to use Cattell's personality theory as a starting point to
distill it down to five personality traits that "define human personality." Cattell
recognized these factors in his research as "global factors" that encompass many
of the sixteen factors into five broader traits. The big five personality traits are:
Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness , Neuroticism
(OCEAN).