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A Factorial Study of Temperament

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2025

Melany E. Baehr
Melany E. Baehr*
Affiliation:
University of Chicago
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Abstract

The theory is advanced that personality factors obtained in the first order may often represent combinations of temperament traits that occur in the experimental population. Under these circumstances an investigation of the second order represents a purification process and yields factors which represent the more basic or pervasive characteristics of the original behavior items included in the factorial study. These second-order factors can be obtained directly in the first order by a careful selection of the variables which enter into the analysis. A second-order analysis was undertaken of the nine factors inherent in three of J. P. Guilford's inventories, and four clearly interpretable second-order factors were obtained. Three of these factors were obtained directly in the first order in a new factorial study of twenty-two behavior items. Attention is drawn to the similarities between these factors and traits of temperament postulated by an independent investigator.

Type
Original Paper
Information
Psychometrika , Volume 17 , Issue 1 , March 1952 , pp. 107 - 126
Copyright
Copyright © 1952 The Psychometric Society

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Footnotes

*

This paper abstracts portions of the writer's Ph.D. dissertation.

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