Raymond Bernard Cattell (20 March 1905 – 2 February 1998) was a British-American psychologist, known for his psychometric research into intrapersonal psychological structure.Gillis, J. (2014). Psychology's Secret Genius: The Lives and Works of Raymond B. Cattell. Amazon Kindle Edition.Festschrift for Raymond B. Cattell (1988). The Analysis of Personality in Research and Assessment: In Tribute to Raymond B. Cattell. (2 April, & 17 June 1986). University College London: Independent Assessment and Research Centre (Preface by K.M. Miller). His work also explored the basic dimensions of personality and temperament, the range of cognitive abilities, the dynamic dimensions of motivation and emotion, the clinical dimensions of abnormal personality, patterns of group syntality and social behavior,Cattell, R. B. (1948). Concepts and methods in the measurement of group syntality. Psychological Review, 55(1), pages 48–63. doi: 10.1037/h0055921 applications of personality research to psychotherapy and learning theory,Cattell, R. B. (1987). Psychotherapy by Structured Learning Theory. New York: Springer. predictors of creativity and achievement,Cattell, R. B., & Butcher, H. J. (1968). The Prediction of Achievement and Creativity. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill. and many multivariate research methodsCattell, R. B. (1966). (Ed.), Handbook of Multivariate Experimental Psychology. Chicago, Illinois: Rand McNally. including the refinement of factor analytic methods for exploring and measuring these domains.Cattell, R. B. (1972). Real base, true zero factor analysis. Multivariate Behavioral Research Monographs 72(1), (1–162). Fort Worth, Texas: Texas Christian University Press.Cattell, R. B. (1978). The Use of Factor Analysis in Behavioral and Life Sciences. New York: Plenum. Cattell authored, co-authored, or edited almost 60 scholarly books, more than 500 research articles, and over 30 standardized psychometric tests, questionnaires, and rating scales.Books and Monographs of Raymond B. Cattell. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 1984, 19, pages 344–369.Cattell, R. B. (1983). Structured Personality-Learning Theory: A Wholistic Multivariate Research Approach. (pages 419–457). New York: Praeger. According to a widely cited ranking, Cattell was the 16th most eminent,Eminent Psychologists of the Twentieth Century [Retrieved 22 October 2015] 7th most cited in the scientific journal literature,Haggbloom, S. J. et al. (2002). The 100 most eminent psychologists of the 20th century. Review of General Psychology, 6(2), pages 139–152. doi: 10.1037//1089-2680.6.2.139 (Rankings based on: citations, surveys, and awards/honors) and among the most productive psychologists of the 20th century.
Cattell was an early proponent of using factor analytic methods instead of what he called "subjective verbal theorizing" to explore empirically the basic dimensions of personality, motivation, and cognitive abilities. One of the results of Cattell's application of factor analysis was his discovery of 16 separate primary trait factors within the normal personality sphere (based on the trait lexicon).Cattell, R. B. & Kline, P. (1977). The Scientific Analysis of Personality and Motivation. New York: Academic. He called these factors "source traits".Cattell, R. B. (1973). Personality and Mood by Questionnaire. San Francisco: California: Jossey-Bass. This theory of personality factors and the self-report instrument used to measure them are known respectively as the 16 personality factor model and the 16PF Questionnaire (16PF).Cattell, R. B., Eber, H. W., & Tatsuoka, M. M. (1970). Handbook for the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF). New York: Plenum.
Cattell also undertook a series of empirical studies into the basic dimensions of other psychological domains: intelligence,Cattell, R. B. (1982). The Inheritance of Personality and Ability: Research Methods and Findings. New York: Academic. motivation,Cattell, R. B. & Child, D. (1975). Motivation and Dynamic Structure. London: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. career assessment and vocational interests.Schuerger, J. M. (1995). Career assessment and the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire. Journal of Career Assessment, 3(2), pages 157–175. Cattell theorized the existence of fluid and crystallized intelligence to explain human cognitive ability,Cattell, R. B. (1963). Theory of fluid and crystallized intelligence: A critical experiment. Journal of Educational Psychology, 54, pages 1–22. investigated changes in Gf and Gc over the lifespan,Cattell, R. B. (1971). Abilities: Their Structure, Growth and Action. Boston, MA:: Houghton-Mifflin. and constructed the Culture Fair Intelligence Test to minimize the bias of written language and cultural background in intelligence testing.Cattell, R. B. & Cattell, A. K. S. (1973). Measuring Intelligence with the Culture Fair Tests. Champaign, Illinois: IPAT.
Innovations and accomplishments Cattell's research was mainly in personality, abilities, motivations, and innovative multivariate research methods and statistical analysis (especially his many refinements to exploratory factor analytic methodology).Cattell, R. B. (1984). The voyage of a laboratory, 1928–1984. Multivariate Experimental Research, 19, pages 121–174. In his personality research, he is best remembered for his factor-analytically derived 16-factor model of normal personality structure, arguing for this model over Eysenck's simpler higher-order 3-factor model, and constructing measures of these primary factors in the form of the 16PF Questionnaire (and its downward extensions: HSPQ, and CPQ, respectively). He was the first to propose a hierarchical, multi-level model of personality with the many basic primary factors at the first level and the fewer, broader, "second-order" factors at a higher stratum of personality organization.Cattell, R. B. (1943). The description of personality: I. Foundations of trait measurement. Psychological Review, 50, pages 559–594. These "global trait" constructs are the precursors of the currently popular Big Five (FFM) model of personality.Goldberg, L. R. (1993). The structure of phenotypic personality traits. American Psychologist, 48(1), pages 26–34.McCrae, R. R. & Costa, P. T. (2008). Empirical and theoretical status of the Five-Factor Model of personality traits. In G.J. Boyle et al. (Eds.), The SAGE Handbook of Personality Theory and Assessment: Volume 1 - Personality Theories and Models (pages 273–294). Los Angeles, California: Sage. Cattell, R. B. (1995). The fallacy of five factors in the personality sphere. The Psychologist, May, 207–208.Boyle, G. J. (2008). Critique of Five-Factor Model (FFM). In G.J. Boyle et al.(Eds.), The SAGE Handbook of Personality Theory and Assessment: Volume 1 - Personality Theories and Models. Los Angeles, California: Sage. Cattell's research led to further advances, such as distinguishing between state and trait measures (e.g., state-trait anxiety),Cattell, R. B., & Scheier, I. H. (1961). The Meaning and Measurement of Neuroticism and Anxiety. New York: Ronald Press. ranging on a continuum from immediate transitory emotional states, through longer-acting mood states, dynamic motivational traits, and also relatively enduring personality traits.Boyle, G. J., Saklofske, D. H., & Matthews, G. (2015). (Eds.), Measures of Personality and Social Psychological Constructs (Chapter 8). Amsterdam: Elsevier/Academic. Cattell also conducted empirical studies into developmental changes in personality trait constructs across the lifespan.Nesselroade, J. R. (1984). Concepts of intraindividual variability and change: Impressions of Cattell's influence on lifespan developmental psychology. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 19, pages 269–286.
In the cognitive abilities domain, Cattell researched a wide range of abilities, but is best known for the distinction between fluid and crystallized intelligence. He distinguished between the abstract, adaptive, biologically-influenced cognitive abilities that he called "fluid intelligence" and the applied, experience-based and learning-enhanced ability that he called "crystallized intelligence." Thus, for example, a mechanic who has worked on airplane engines for 30 years might have a huge amount of "crystallized" knowledge about the workings of these engines, while a new young engineer with more "fluid intelligence" might focus more on the theory of engine functioning, these two types of abilities might complement each other and work together toward achieving a goal. As a foundation for this distinction, Cattell developed the investment-model of ability, arguing that crystallized ability emerged from the investment of fluid ability in a particular topic of knowledge. He contributed to cognitive epidemiology with his theory that crystallized knowledge, while more applied, could be maintained or even increase after fluid ability begins to decline with age, a concept used in the National Adult Reading Test (NART). Cattell constructed a number of ability tests, including the Comprehensive Ability Battery (CAB) that provides measures of 20 primary abilities,Hakstian, A. R. & Cattell, R. B. (1982). Manual for the Comprehensive Ability Battery. Champaign, Illinois: IPAT. and the Culture Fair Intelligence Test (CFIT) which was designed to provide a completely non-verbal measure of intelligence like that now seen in the Raven's. The Culture Fair Intelligence Scales were intended to minimize the influence of cultural or educational background on the results of intelligence tests.Cattell, R. B. & Cattell, A. K. S. (1977). Measuring Intelligence with the Culture Fair Tests. Champaign, Illinois: IPAT.