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Personality Structure in Psychotics by Factorization of Objective Clinical Tests

Laboratory of Personality Assessment and Group Behavior, University of Illinois

ABSTRACT

1. One hundred and two objective personality measures (from 76 tests), devised in relation to hypotheses already emerging from several personality factor studies, were administered to 100 adult male psychotics. The test battery, consisting of group and individual tests, was designed also to have about 8o per cent. overlap of measures with those used on normal adult groups in six other researches.
   
2. Intercorrelation and factor analysis (rotated to simple structure) yielded eighteen factors, ten of which could be contingently matched, in terms of common variables having similar patterns of loadings, with factors found in the other studies.
   
3. An initial interpretation has been attempted for these ten factors, but the remaining eight are simply recorded, waiting to be confirmed or modified by other researches.
   
4. The conclusion may be drawn that the majority of personality dimensions in objective tests are the same for psychotics as for normals, though the follow-up research on absolute levels may show that they are possessed in very different degrees.
   
5. As far as applied psychology is concerned the way has been prepared for constructing personality factor measures of greater factor saturation than those employed in this exploratory study. For now that initial batteries are available to distinguish each factor, new, lengthened tests can be simply validated by "item analysis" against any one factor pool, without the necessity for experimenting with a hundred or more tests, or for the more complex processes of rotated factor analysis.
   The above tables should suffice for researchers wishing to construct test batteries for individual factors. However, for greater comparability they may perhaps better use the mimeographed, twelve-factor battery which is currently being prepared for distribution by the Institute for Personality aud Ability Testing, 1608, Coronado Drive, Champaign, Ill., U.S.A. This initial standard battery of objective personality tests is put forward now in the hope that interested researchers may (1) seek by "item analysis" (including use of new test designs) to arrive at more saturated measures, and (2) test the predictive value of the factor measures, i.e. , their social validation, in terms of diagnosis and prognosis, and their value in plotting changes occurring under therapy.
   

Received for publication May 21, 1953.