Three superfactors in the 16PF and their relation to Eysenck's P, E and N

Abstract

The initial data consisted of responses to the 16PF and E.P.Q., obtained at the same testing, from 239 Independent Study Students. The responses to the 16PF were subjected to a principal components analysis. A Scree Test applied to the original solution indicated that between 8 and 10 factors should be retained for rotation. As this was at variance with Cattell's postulated factor structure supplementary analyses involving the retention and rotation of from 16 to 22 factors and item-factor analyses of groups of scales were carried out. All of these analyses failed to reproduce anything like a clear 16-scale structure. In order to accommodate the hypothesis that a 3-factor solution, in line with Eysenck's postulated dimensions of P, E and N, underpinned the Cattell scales and to test the validity of the intermediate solutions, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4 and 3 factors were retained and subjected to varimax and promax rotations. These solutions were compared with solutions obtained from analyses of the responses to the 16PF of 200 students at the Independent Assessment and Research Centre. Only the 3-factor solutions showed a degree of replicability across samples. The samples were combined to form a total sample of 439 cases and this was tested for factor replicability using factor comparability coefficients based on factor scores. This revealed a clear 3-factor structure, of anxiety, superego and exvia, which was replicable across sexes. An analysis of the responses to the combined questionnaires indicated that the neuroticism and anxiety factors and the extraversion and exvia factors were co-incident, but that psychoticism and superego were separate factors. However, the P-scale loaded -0.40 on the superego factor, which lends some support to Eysenck's contention that psychoticism is the obverse of superego. A 3-step analysis, in which pairs and triads of scales were tested for factor replicability, confirmed the equivalence of the neuroticism and anxiety factors and the extraversion and exvia factors. As far as psychoticism and superego were concerned only the latter appeared as a real, replicable factor. This factor contained virtually all the 16PF superego or S-items and 11 of the 25 E.P.Q. P-items. The 14 P-items which did not load significantly on the superego factor were those involving the cruelty or sadism element of the concept of psychoticism. It is contended that superego, rather than psychoticism, may best lay claim to join neuroticism and extraversion in what may be termed the great triumverate of the personality sphere.