CHILDREN'S PERSONALITY QUESTIONAIRENorberto Orozco Portales IIIIV – 21 BSE Values Education

PURPOSE To screen out for individual attention and guidance

those children who need to help with emotional conflicts and behavior disorders, or to locate individuals with unusual temperamental sensitivity, needing careful handling.

To raise accuracy of estimates of scholastic promise, and to make better predictions of future achievement and creativity in the process of scholarship selection and general school and occupational counseling.

Clinical practice, and work with delinquents and children’s court, require diagnostic instrument which operates with basic personality concepts, such as ego strength, anxiety, dominance, etc.

If the development of character and personality is to be given that attention in the classroom which, at present, it too often gets only as lip service in describing educational ideals, then it is necessary to be able to measure progress in these characterological aspects of education.

Parents are able to make reliable comparisons of their children with other children, to understand what behavior is exceptional or abnormal and what is entirely normal, and focus problems of upbringing.

PURPOSE

The CPQ has been planned and based on extensive research by Catell, et. al. to meet the above requirements. Research psychologists should familiarize themselves with the evidence for unitary factor structure.

The CPQ is a test, the whole design of which is aimed at giving the maximum information in the shortest time about the greatest number of dimensions of personality.

The CPQ is arranged to give both (a) the narrower (primary) and (b) the broader (second stratum) psychological formulations, according to the psychologist’s purposes.

Present test is primarily intended for an age range of 8 through 12.

WHAT THE TEST MEASURES The CPQ measures a set of Fourteen factorially

independent dimensions of personality. Dimensions or source traits, as they properly called

(Catell, 1950, 1957c; French, 1953) are identified and referred to by letters of the alphabet A through Q4.

The general psychological range and character of thesse factors, some of the dimensions, such as A, affectothymia (warmth) vs. Sizothymia (allofness), and D, excitability, refer to temperament traits. Others, such as E dominance vs. submissiveness, or F surgency vs. disurgency, are what are often called traits of dynamic disposition– predominance of an inclination– and prove to be conditioned a good ideal by environmental experience.

DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION OF THE TEST The CPQ is a test of 140 items in each form

(a total of 560 for Forms A, B, C, and D) carrying 10 items per factor per form (this means 40 items per factor if all four forms are used). Since 140 items per form is too long for the younger and slower reading classes, each form is broken down into parts. Thus, form A is made up of Part A1 and Part A2, each consisting of 70 items, 5 per factor; form B consists of part B1 and B2, and similarly for Forms C and D.

DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION OF THE TEST The items were constructed to be as

neutral as possible with regard to social desirability. Items have been balanced so that an equal number of agreement and disagreement responses contribute to the scale score. In this way, effects from acquiescent set are eliminated. Finally, the items selected were those that had a low level of face validity but that at the same time retained their ability to measure accurately the trait in question.

VALIDITY The validity of these tests is a measure of

the relationship between what the test specifically measures and what it is trying to measure. In technical terms, it is criterion or concrete validity, meaningful only in regard to the test’s limited purpose. The CPQ and its sister scales for other age ranges, in multiple-purpose test measuring at the same time many different aspects of personality, and is usefully applied in prediction and measurement across many different situations.

VALIDITYThe CPQ is theoretically based; its scales

are relevant to the hypothesized structure of personality and validity indicates both the goodness of the hypotheses and the adequacy of the measures of each hypothesized construct. This is termed concept of construct validity (Catell, 1964; Cronbach, 1960). The process of obtaining these validities is quite complex, arising from factor analytic techniques.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR TEST ADMINISTRATION The test is administered without a time

limit, but for younger children it might be better to divide the testing time into two parts for a given form.

It is generally recommended that more than one form be used and that interpretation be made on the composite scores for each factor.

Pass out the test booklets and the separate answers sheets if they are to be used.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR

TEST ADMINISTRATION

Since it is recommended that the answer sheet always be used when possible, the children should be cautioned to make no marks on the test booklets.

They should be told to print at the top of the answer sheet their name, age, grade, sex and other information the examiner desires. Sometimes it is well to remind them to print both their first name and last name.

SCORING THE TESTThe CPQ test has been developed

to allow for convenient hand scoring of separate answer sheets by use of a set of scoring stencils. Form A and C of the CPQ use one set of scoring keys, while Form B and D use a different set of scoring stencils. Be sure to check that you are using the correct set of stencils for forms you have administered.

SCORING THE

TEST Regardless of which form or forms of the

CPQ are used, the following general guidelines apply; (a) examine the answer sheets to see that only one response has been marked for each item and that is clearly marked; (b) reject any forms that show obvious response patterns such as all of the answers in one column, regular alternation of left and right responses, etc.; (c) check to see that all of the items have been answered

PRIMARY SOURCE TRAITS MEASURED BY

THE CPQLow Score Description Factor High Score Description

A boy/girl with low score is:

A boy/girl with high score:

Reserved, detached, critical, cool, aloof (sizothymia)

A Warmhearted, outgoing, easygoing, participating (affectothymia, formerly cyclothymia)

Dull (crystalized, power measure) (low intelligence)

B Bright (crystalized, power measure) (high intelligence)

Affected by feelings, emotionally, less stable, easily upset, changeable

C Emotionally stable, mature, faces reality, calm, of (higher ego strength)

Undemonstrative, deliberate, inactive, stodgy (phlegmatic temperament)

D Excitable, impatient, demanding, overactive unrestrained (excitablity)

PRIMARY SOURCE TRAITS MEASURED BY THE CPQ

Low Score Description Factor High Score Description

A boy/girl with low score is:

A boy/girl with high score:

Obedient, mild, easily lead, accommodating (submissiveness)

E Assertive, competitive, aggressive, stubborn (dominance)

Sober, taciturn, serious, prudent (desurgency)

F Enthusiastic, heedless, happy-go-lucky (surgency)

Disregards rules, expedient (weaker super ego strength)

G Conscientious, persistent, moralistic stand, has stronger (super ego strength)

Shy, timid, threat-sensitive (threctia)

H adventuresome, socially-bold, uninhibited (parmia)

PRIMARY SOURCE TRAITS MEASURED BY

THE CPQLow Score Description Factor High Score Description

A boy/girl with low score is:

A boy/girl with high score:

Tough-minded, self reliant, realistic, no-non sense (harria)

I Tender minded, sensitive, over protected (premsia)

Zestful, likes group actions, vigorous (zeppia)

J Circumspect individualism, reflective, internally restrained (coasthenia)

Forthright, natural, artless, sentimental (artlessness)

N Shrewd, calculating, artful (shrewdness)

self assured, confident, secure, complacent (untroubled adequacy)

O Guilt-prone, apprehensive, worrying, troubled, insecure (guilt proneness)

PRIMARY SOURCE TRAITS MEASURED BY THE CPQ

Low Score Description Factor High Score Description

A boy/girl with low score is:

A boy/girl with high score:

Undisciplined, self conflict, follows own urges, careless of social rules (low self-sentiment integration)

Q3 Controlled, socially precise, following self-image, compulsive (high self-concept control)

Relaxed, tranquil, torpid, un frustrated, composed (low ergic tension)

Q4 Tense, driven, over-wrought, frustrated, fretful (high ergic tension)END OF REPORT