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Any piece of observable behaviour is composed of a complex mixture of
varying amounts of the basic source traits as modified by experience. The
contributions of the factors in each of two individuals who exhibit the same
apparent piece of behaviour will almost certainly be differently compounded.
One person will take care to make good preparation, another will rely on intelligence
and ability, a third will be governed by cupidity and falsehood, and a
fourth maybe, by domineering assertiveness. It all depends on how they
are made.
However, because the environment in which we live is common in many
respects to all of us, e.g., the same country, town, manners and customs of
society ; the same subjects taught in school, and the influence of the churches,
it comes about that the hereditary source traits, in being modified by the experience
of the environment, become moulded to a basic common pattern. In
the language of the psychologists all our habits have been rewarded or punished
together. Thus a person is likely to be honest according to the degree in which
his family and school have been successful in producing on his mind the impress
of that particular social objective. But as the emphasis of the environmental
pattern falls this way or that, we distinguish superficial types of personality
which we label patriotic, domestic, conservative or sporting. But for a real
understanding of the personality of anyone we must examine his endowment of
each of the personality factors or source traits.
Measurement.
How can these factors be measured? The most outstanding progress has
been made in intelligence testing (factor 2 B), which is now used a great deal
in the selection of pupils for the various types of schools. For a number of years
now the selection of pupils for grammar schools has rested almost wholly on
the results of intelligence tests and attainment tests in language and arithmetic.
In so far as it went, this system has worked fairly well because success in
academic subjects is closely associated with intelligence; the shortcomings of
the method, and the anomalies frequently encountered have emphasised the
necessity for tests covering a much wider field of the whole personality than is
found in factor 2 (B) alone. Recently, as the outcome of his researches, Cattell2
has published a personality test for adults and another is soon to be published
for senior boys and girls. It is possible that the personality tests for senior
boys and girls may prove to be a much more reliable means of assessing the
capabilities in its wider sense and predicting the probable progress of any boy
or girl, and even in judging his fitness for some future career than anything
which has been possible hitherto.
To return to our assessment of the influence of the home on the health and
educational progress of the child we have been compelled hitherto to depend on
assessments or ratings made by one or more observers. With the new tests
and with a sample of co-operative parents it might prove possible, with further
research, to determine the real relative importance of a child's home background,
and perhaps to suggest measures for improvement where the conditions
are deleterious.
2 Cattell, R.B. 16 Personality Factor Test. Institute for Personality and Ability Testing,
Champaign, Illinois.
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