Raymond Cattell biog.

Because of his history and interests in the more structured Sciences, Cattell’s approach to Psychology was more attuned to empirical understanding then the Philosophically based theories such as Freud, Jung etc. During the 1940’s, Cattell allied with Edward Thorndike, a behavioural Psychologist whom did numerous studies into the arena of operant conditioning, and operant learning. Like the behaviouralists, Cattell shared an approach that the unconscio

Cattell proclaimed that personality was not the study of why people did act in the way they did, but studying the factors that determine why people will act in certain ways to certain situations in light of their trait makeup. His test has been the foundation for almost all current personality tests, and the original 16Pf that was created is still applicable, and thus cannot be accessed by lay people. The 16Pf created by Cattell has many uses; it is most commonly used as a personality profiler in job placement and position suitability.

This however was not enough to accurately determine someone’s behavioural tendencies. Test data (or Q data) such as the 16 Pf was one element of Cattell’s multifaceted approach to personality disposition. In order to determine ones behaviour, Cattell believed that there is significance in the environmental and Social understanding of the individual. Cattell measured many people in several different ways . Cattell had 3 major measures he utilized: L-data; Q-data; and T-data. The L-data involves the collection of data from various people’s ordinary behaviour. For instance, he would collect on individuals such data as: number of accidents, number of social contacts, and number of organizations they may be affiliated with. This was, in essences, their life record. The Q-data was measures from various questionnaires Cattell administered. These were questionnaires asking participants to rate themselves on different characteristics. There are some inherent limitations to this method: people who are asked to rate themselves may lie or distort characteristics or may not have much self-knowledge about the traits asked. Consequently, he

Some topics in this essay:
Ego Strength, T-data L-data, Gordon Allport, Edward Thorndike, S=Stimulus Cattell, Physics Scientifically, Staffordshire England, Sciences Cattell’s, Factor Analysis, World War, factor analysis, behaviour cattell, source traits, surface traits, human behaviour cattell, core traits, 16pf created, environmental social, 16 pf, human behaviour, people act, factor analysis cattell,