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Personality Factors of Contemporary Baccalaureate Nursing Students: A Descriptive Study

D. Moira Mansell Karen K. Porter

This report is part of an on-going undergraduate psychiatric nursing training project funded by the USPHS, Department of Health, Education and Welfare, National Institutes of Health. The larger study encompasses the concept of role socialization of the professional nurse. The long-term goals of the demonstration project are to maximize job effectiveness and job satisfaction through assistance with role identification and role formation, thereby facilitating the transition from student to graduate nurse status. To evaluate the attainment of these goals, several measures are employed. This study dealt with one measure of student nurse personality characteristics, the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire, or 16PF (Cattell, Eber, and Tatsuoka 1970). To develop a descriptive data base, the 16PF was administered to a series of students at the time of their admission to the upper division major of a large baccalaureate nursing program. For purposes of this study, the resultant profile was compared with previous data. In the larger study, personality data will be correlated with many other data.

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY In spite of certain differences, the fundamental concerns of nursing education and nursing service are likely to be more alike than not. Not the least among the complex dilemmas confronting both are those of selection, preparation, and retention of5, 2016 students and Downloaded from wjn.sagepub.com at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on June

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Western Journal of Nursing Research

practitioners. How can we acquire a cadre of professionals who will gain satisfaction from their efforts in practice as well as contribute positively to the image of nursing? Perhaps some answers to this question and solutions to related problems may be found by exploring the personality source traits of the members who constitute the group(s). Human personality has been the subject of intellectual curiosity and intrigue since the beginning of humanity. Inquiries into the structure of the human personality have moved from philosophical and personal attempts to explain human behavior to a full-fledged field of organized and experimental disciplines of psychology. In the belief that the human mind must be studied as a whole, Spearman began what is known as multivariate personality research. Rather than taking a bit of man into the laboratory, his approach was to study the whole man in natural surroundings and the multiple factors that make up his personality. This work was associated with the development of Spearman's correlational technic and factor analysis (Cattell 1965). Multivariate personality factor analysis has been extensively applied since the late 1930s. Among the researchers exploring rating factors to derive descriptive schemes of personality, none has been more persistent than Cattell. In 1949, he evolved the Sixteen Personality FactorQuestionnaire (Cattell, Eber, and Tatsuoka 1970).

REVIEW OF SELECTED LITERATURE Personality characteristics of nurses-both graduate and studenthas been the subject of intensive research by nonnurses for over a quarter century. However, only a few investigations have been done about nurses by nurses. From a review of the related nursing literature, few studies provided relevant information in this area. Mauksch (1960), in a longitudinal study, found that needs such as social control and security characterized students entering nursing. Nursing instructors were described as being overly solicitous and cautious. Mauksch's conclusions portrayed nurses and nursing students as low in dominance and autonomy. This finding was congruent with several other personality studies done during the same era, including those of Spaney(1953), Navran and Stauffacher (1957). Perceiving a need to re-evaluate the portrayal of nurses in the literature of the 1960s Gilbert (1975) initiated a study investigating the personalities of graduate students in nursing, based on the assumption that personalities of nurses have changed as a function of social change. Her findings, using the California Psychological Inventory (CPI), revealed that graduate nurse students exhibited a Downloaded from wjn.sagepub.com at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on June 5, 2016

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more well-rounded, healthy personality adjustment than did students of the early 1960s, as reported by Lukens (1965) and Miller (1965). Cattell's 16PF was chosen forthis study because of its long history of experimental formulation plus the theoretical viability of its concepts, its use with health professionals, and the profiles of other nurse groups. Cattell's profile depicts the personality of the nurse to be highlighted by traits of submissiveness, shyness, and group dependency (Cattell, Eber, and Tatsuoka 1970). However, the authors of this study suggest that whether the existing literature on personality traits of nurses represents the current population of baccalaureate nursing students may be questioned. The characteristics of nursing students in the mid-1970s need to be assessed to reflect a more contemporary picture in relation to social change. Moreover, the independent variable of personality characteristics may be associated with successful role formation.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM The research questions to be answered, using the 16PF as a measure, were: (1) What are the characteristics of the current generation entering baccalaureate nursing programs in the mid1970s7 (2) Have significant changes occurred over a 1O-year period in group traits characterizing nursing students? Definitions of Terms 16PF Personality inventory test based largely on factor analysis developed by R. B. Cattell, senior author. Personality 16 personality factors perceived as normal dimensource traits sions of personality. Personality The 16 personality factors coded alphabetically as A, B, C, E, F, G, H, I, L, M, N, 0, 01, 02, 03, and 04; factors constifuting a scale and named according to high score descriptions (Cattell, Eber, and Tatsuoka 1970). Reserved (sizothymia) versus outgoing (affectothyFactor A mia). Less intelligent (lower scholastic mental capacity) Factor B versus more intelligent (hinher scholastic mental capacity). Affected by feelings (lower ego strength) versus emoFactor C tionally stable (higher ego strength). Humble (submissiveness) versus assertive (domiFactor E nance). Sober (desurgency) versus happy-go-lucky (surgency). Factor F Downloaded from wjn.sagepub.com at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on June 5, 2016

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Western Journal of Nursing Research

Factor G Factor H Factor I Factor Factor Factor Factor

L M N 0

Factor 01 Factor 02 Factor 03 Factor 04 Personality scores Personality profile Upper division nursing

Expedient (weaker superego strength) versus conscientious (stronger superego strength). Shy (threctia) versus venturesome (paronia). Tough-minded (harria) versus tender-minded (premsla), Trusting (alaxia) versus suspicious (protension). Practical (praxernia) versus imaginative (autia). Forthright (artlessness) versus shrewd (shrewdness). Placid (untroubled adequacy) versus apprehensive (guilt-proneness). Conservative (conservatism) versus experimenting (radicalism). Group-dependent (group adherence) versus self-sufficient (self-sufficiency). Undisciplines self-conflict (low integration) versus controlled (high self-concept control). Relaxed (low ergic tension) versus tense (high ergic tension). Measures of the 16 personality factors. Graph of the 16 personality scores on the basis of stens. The 48-semester credit-hour nursing sequence planned for the four semesters of the junior and senior academic years.

METHODS The 16PF was administered to all students within the first 2 weeks following their admission to the upper division nursing major. Data were collected each fall and spring semesters from August, 1973, to December, 1976, a total of five times. Raw scores on each of the 16 factors were converted to sten scores. Profiles were developed on the individual groups of subjects as well as the combined group for comparisons. The combined profile of the study sample (N-624) was then compared with the 1968 Cattell profile of 176 female American nursing students.

SETTING The study was conducted in a large baccalaureate nursing program in the southwest. The program, designed with an upper division Downloaded from wjn.sagepub.com at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on June 5, 2016

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nursing major, admits students each fall and spring. Approximately 75 have been admitted each fall semester and 50 each spring semester from the inception of the study until the present.

SUBJECTS Subjects were 624 nursing students newly admitted to the upper division major. Five hundred eighty-one were female and 43 male. The age group was from 18 to 56, with a median of 21. Respondents' ethnic backgrounds revealed 557 Caucasian, 25 Mexican-American, 19 Oriental, 9 Black, 6 American Indian, 4 other, and 4 in the no response category. Marital status indicated 417 were single, 163 married, 28 divorced, 8 separated, 4 widowed, and 4 in the no response category. All subjects had completed at least 58 semester credit hours of prescribed nonnursing prerequisite courses with a minimum grade point average of 2.5 on a 4-point scale. Fifty-five were registered nurse students who had graduated from diploma or associate degree nursing programs. Analysis of data collected on the five separate groups for which data were collected over time yielded no significant differences among the subgroups contributing to the cumulative total of 624. Cattell, in developing the reference profile, grouped nurses with physicians and psychiatric technicians under the category of medical personnel. Means for five subgroups were established; i.e., physicians, British nursing students, and American nursing students. Profiles were presented for the three different subgroups of nurses: (1) the established practitioner, (2) the British nursing student, and (3) the American nursing student. This American nursing sample was baccalaureate nursing students, deemed to be representative of students of that era.

INSTRUMENT The Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF) is a multidimensional set of 16 questionnaire scales designed to give information about an individual's standing on the majority of primary personality factors. Referred to as source traits. the test measures what purports to be the simple structure factors basic to personality theory as derived from factor analysis. At present there are six parallel forms of the 16PF test. Form B was selected as most appropriate for this research (Cattell, Eber, and Tatsuoka 1970). According to the Handbook, the 16PF is described as being "comprehensive" in relation to general personality expression, Downloaded from wjn.sagepub.com at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on June 5, 2016

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"functional" in terms of personality structure and the 16 primary subscores to be handled, and "relatable" to an organized and integrated body of practical and theoretical knowledge. Source traits have been replicated in basic personality research. Profiles and statistical data have been developed for criteria prediction in occupational and educational success. Cross-cultural trait stability has been researched with multiple language translations of the test. Continuity of trait structure has been investigated with the development of questionnaires for high school, children's early school, and preschool ages. In addition to these scales for analyzing basic personality source traits, there are supplemental scales for clinical use (Cattell, Eber, and Tatsuoka 1970). Validity of the 16PF test is based upon concepts in human personality research and the factor-analytic experiments basic to its development. Sets of items that constitute a single factor scale all correlate significantly with that factor. Reliability according to the dependability coefficient (correlation between two administrations of the same test when the lapse of time is insufficient for people themselves to change with regard to what is being measured) ranged between 54 and 89 on individual source traits. The lowest correlation was on the intelligence factor (Cattell, Eber, and Tatsuoka 1970). According to the one review, although it is still perceived primarily as a research instrument," the 16PF ... appears to be the best factor-based personality inventory available" (Buros 1965). It is important to emphasize that the range of scores for the 16PF was determined on a normal population. For general purposes, scores in the range 1-3 are designated as low sten scores and 8-10 as high sten scores, with a mean of 5.5. Low (-) scores on certain factors may be viewed as being more desirable in selected situations, just as high (+) scores could be viewed as being less desirable. Form B, used in this study, is a 185-item test involving 16 bipolar scales with factors labeled with the symbolsA, B, C, E, F, G, H, /, L, M, N, 0, 01, 02, 03, and 04. Each scale has a technical name with scientifically defined meanings for professionals, and a simpler popular description for communication with the lay public. Table 1 identifies the number of items for each of the factors covered by the 16PF, Form B (Cattell, Eber, and Tatsuoka 1970: 16-17).

TABLE 1

'actor

Items measuring primary source traits.

ABC

E

F

G

H

L M N 0 0, 02 03 04

number ofltems 10 13 13 13 13 10 13 10 10 13 10 13 10 10 10 14 Downloaded from wjn.sagepub.com at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on June 5, 2016

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PROCEDURE The 16PF was administered under controlled conditions to the designated subjects at the prescribed times. Subjects were appropriately informed of their rights under the DHEW Policy on Protection of Human Subjects and in accordance with institutional procedures. Tests were machine scored. Raw scores were converted into sten scores for statistical comparisons. A difference-of-means test was used to determine statistical significance between the two samples on each of the primary source traits.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION An analysis of the sten scores was done on the basis of deviations from the normative 5.5 means. The range for the Cattell group was 4.5 to 6.2. The range for the southwest sample was 4.4 to 6.4. Although ranges for both samples were similar, the contrast in profiles was significant. There was a statistically significant difference between the means of the southwest sample and the Cattell sample on 13 of the 16 primary source traits. Southwest Sample and Discussion The profile for a current sample of southwest nursing students using Cattell's Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire is depicted in Figure1. Factor A, the warmth trait, was significantly lower than the mean, portraying a somewhat reserved, detached, critical, and aloof nature. Factor B, intelligence, depicted a highly intelligent, bright, and persevering sample. Factor C, ego strength, was only slightly higher than the mean. A positive score (C+) indicates a stable, emotionally mature, reality-oriented, and calm nature. Factor E, the dominance trait, did not display particular characteristics of either dominance or submissiveness, with the sten score close to the 5.5 mean. On Factor F, the southwest sample showed only the slightest tendency toward impulsivity, characterized by enthusiasm, quickness, and alertness. Factor G, group conformity, was significantly above the mean. This reflected an inclination toward adherence to group moral standards, with traits of conscientiousness, persistence, responsibility, and a high degree of superego strength. Factor H, boldness, with a tendency to be adventurous, active, responsive, and congenial in social situations, evidenced little deviation from the mean. Factor I, emotional sensitivity, did not show any distinct variation, although the group tended downward from the mean in the direction of tough-mindedness and self-reliance appropriate to the logical and practical approach. Factor L, suspiciousness, similarly Downloaded from wjn.sagepub.com at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on June 5, 2016

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Sixteen Personality Factor profile, southwest nursing students.

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stayed close to the norm, demonstrating a balance between being trustful and hard to fool. Factor M score, imagination, characterized by tendencies toward the unconventional and imaginative ideation, was up from the norm. Factor N, artlessness versus shrewdness, was not significant in its deviation from the norm toward naivete. Factor 0, guilt proneness, showed only the slightest shift in the direction of being untroubled, self-assured, and complacent. Factor 01, rebelliousness, revealed a leaning toward radicalism, liberal thinking, and testing of the system. Factor 02, self-sufficiency, similarly showed some degree of independence, reliance upon one's own decisions, and resourcefulness. Factor 03, undisciplined versus controlled, exhibited a degree of high self-sentiment with the ability to control anxiety-producing situations. Factor 04, score, a measure of "freefloating anxiety," moved downward from the mean, indicating the sample leaning toward being generally relaxed, tranquil, and not frustrated.

Cattell Sample The profile for Cattell's sample of American nursing students is shown in Figure 2. Differences are described in the comparison of profiles. Comparison of Profiles Although means of both the Cattell and southwest samples ranged within the 4 to 7 middle limits of sten scores, differences were present and statistically significant on 13 of the 16 factors, as indicated by asterisks (*). Upon gross observation, deviation in direction from the 5.5 mean on each of the primary source traits is evident. On 8 of the 16 factors (A, B, C, E, F, I, M, and 03), the Cattell and southwest samples moved in a similar direction from the mean. On the remaining 8 factors (G, H, L, N, 0, 01,02, and 04), the two samples moved in opposite directions from the mean. See Figure 3. The difference-between-means test (z score) was used to determine statistical significance between the two samples on each of the 16 primary source traits. On the 8 factors where similarity of personality traits between the two samples might be assumed on the basis of direction from the mean, there were statistically significant differences between the two sample means on 5 of the 8 factors (A, B, E, I, and 03). Factor A scores for Cattell's 1968 sample and the southwest sample showed the southwest sample yielding its lowest mean score on "warmth." Both groups were below the 5.5 mean, the southwest sample lower than the Cattell sample. Inversely, the highest mean score for the southwest sample was on Factor B, intelligence. Both groups were above the 5.5 mean. The significant difference on the Factor E scores showed the southwest sample to be less submissive than the Cattell sample but still barely reaching Downloaded from wjn.sagepub.com at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on June 5, 2016

Downloaded from wjn.sagepub.com at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on June 5, 2016

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Personality factors of contemporary baccalaureate nursing students: a descriptive study.

feature Personality Factors of Contemporary Baccalaureate Nursing Students: A Descriptive Study D. Moira Mansell Karen K. Porter This report is par...
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