Raymond Cattell

Raymond Cattell (1905–1998) was a British-American psychologist who developed influential theories of personality and intelligence, including the 16 Personality Factor model.

Factor analysis: A statistical method that identifies latent variables by analyzing patterns of correlation among measured variables. Cattell used this method to identify clusters of personality traits.
16 Personality Factor Questionnaire: A personality assessment developed by Cattell to measure sixteen primary personality factors. It operationalized his model in a widely used questionnaire.
Charles Spearman: An English psychologist who developed factor analysis and the theory of general intelligence. Spearman’s statistical work helped make Cattell’s factor-analytic research possible.
Big Five personality traits: A five-dimensional model summarizing broad patterns of personality variation. The Big Five offers a more compact alternative to Cattell’s sixteen primary factors.
Trait theory: An approach to personality that explains consistent patterns of behavior through relatively enduring individual characteristics. Cattell treated measurable traits as the basic units of personality.
L-data, Q-data, and T-data: Cattell’s categories of personality evidence: life records, questionnaire responses, and objective test performance. These data sources formed his multi-method approach to identifying traits.
Hans Eysenck: A German-born British psychologist who developed a hierarchical model of personality centered on a small number of broad traits. Eysenck sought a more compact trait structure than Cattell’s sixteen-factor model.
Hierarchical model of intelligence: An account of cognitive abilities arranged from narrow skills to broad factors and general intelligence. It places Cattell’s fluid and crystallized abilities within a broader hierarchy.
Fluid and crystallized intelligence: A distinction between reasoning with novel problems and using knowledge acquired through learning and experience. Cattell proposed this influential division of general intelligence.
Oblique factor rotation: A factor-analytic method that allows extracted factors to correlate with one another. Cattell favored correlated factors when personality dimensions were not independent.

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