Psychological Reports, 1991, 68, 12 19-1222

O l'sychological Reports 199 1

THE SIXTEEN PERSONALITY FACTOR QUESTIONNAIRE-FORM E: EXPERIMENTAL NORMS FOR MENTALLY RETARDED ADULTS ' CHARLES L. SPIRRISON Mississippi State University Summary.-Form E of the Sixteen Personality Factors Questionnaire (16 PF-E) was administered to 286 adults (168 men, 118 women) who resided in public Facilities for the mentally retarded. Based on each subject's 16 primary-trait raw scores, standard sten scores were established for the subject population. Experimental norms for the 16 PF-E responses of mentally retarded adults are presented.

Although the habilitation and rehabilitation of mentally retarded individuals has received a considerable amount of attention in the literature, little research has explored the personalities of mentally retarded people. Mentally retarded persons are often incapable of meeting the task requirements of most personality assessment instruments because they have deficits in abstract reasoning and verbal skills (Rosen & Weisz, 1983). One concern regarding the use of objective self-report personaLty tests with mentally retarded persons is the retarded individual's lack of ability and inclination to respond to items in a valid manner. True-false questions are particularly susceptible to response styles of retarded persons. The true-false format, which is employed by common personality inventories (e.g., MMPI, CaLfornia Psychological Inventory), yields less reliable responses than the multiple-choice and either-or formats, when applied to the mentally retarded individual (Gerjouy & Winters, 1966; Rosen, Floor, & Zisfein, 1974; Sigelman, Budd, Spanhel, & Schoenrock, 1781). The either-or format yields both more reliable answers than true-false questions (Sigelman, et al., 1781) and more responsiveness than multiple-choice items (Sigelman, Winer, & Schoenrock, 1982). This suggests that Form E of the Sixteen Personabty Factor Questionnaire (16 PF-E) (Eber & Cattell, 1985), which is specifically designed for use with populations low in literacy and which employs the either-or format, is of potential value in the study of personality characteristics of mentally retarded persons. The 16 PF-E consists of 128 either-or, forced-choice items. Most items ask the respondent to state a preference between two activities or self-descriptions, while the eight items designed to tap intelligence have correct and incorrect alternatives. As are other forms of the 16 PF, Form E is designed to measure normal variation in personality functioning, and it only extends the range to moderate maladjustment (Eber & Cattell, 1985). 'Requests For reprints should be sent to Charles L. Spurison, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, Mississippi State University, P O Drawer 6161, Mississippi State, MS 39762-6161.

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C. L. SPIRRISON

Subjects Subjects were 286 adults (168 men, 118 women) who resided in public facilities for mentally retarded people. Subjects resided in either large stateoperated institutional/sheltered community settings (n = 207) or in state-operated community-living arrangements (e.g., group homes, supervised apartments) (n = 79). IQs of subjects ranged from 20 to 84 (M = 51.49, SD = 14.70). Each subject had been given a WISC-R, WAIS, WAIS-R, or Stanford-Binet (Form L-M) within five years prior to the 16 PF-E administration. Most IQs fell in the range of Mild Mental Retardation (Severe Mental Retardation = 16.8%; Moderate Mental Retardation =24.5%; Mild Mental Retardation = 52.8%; Borderline Intellectual Functioning or above = 5.9%). Subjects ranged from 18 to 86 years of age (M = 39.3, SD = 15.6). It should be noted that the 16 PF-E was attempted with 311 individuals, but that 25 prospective subjects were unable to respond appropriately to the test items. 16 PF-E administrations with these 25 people were discontinued prior to the completion of the questionnaire. Their data were excluded from further analysis. Procedure A pilot study indicated that the standard 16 PF-E administration procedures were too complex for retarded subjects. Most were unable to keep up with the audiotaped version of the scale. Subjects also experienced considerable difficulty completing their own answer sheets so a modified procedure was adopted. AU subjects were tested individually in a private setting. The examiner read the 16 PF-E instructions and questions aloud to each of the subjects and recorded their responses on standard 16 PF-E answer sheets. When subjects exhibited difficulty understanding a test item, the examiner restated the question in a simpler form. For example, if a subject had initial difficulty with, "Do you like to play jokes on people-or-do you not like to do that?" the examiner asked, "Do you like to play jokes on people-or-do you not like to play jokes on people?" RESULTS Test items were scored via 16 PF-E standard procedures to yield 16 primary raw scores for each subject. Groups of raw scores were analyzed to produce a distribution of scores for each of the 16 primary scales. Raw score distributions were used to develop standard sten scores for the subjects. Three experimental norm tables were devised, based upon responses of all 286 subjects (see Table 1) and for men and women separately; see Tables 2 and 3.

16 PF-E

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AND ADULTS WITH MENTAL RETARDATION

The use of these norms for individual psychological evaluations is premature at present. Few studies have evaluated the validity of the 16 PF-E assessments of mentally retarded adults. These sten score distributions can be applied for research purposes. Perhaps the availabihty of these experimental norms will stimulate the much needed research on the personality functioning of mentally retarded adults. TABLE 1 EXPERIMENTALNORMSFORMENTALLY RETARDED MENAND WOMEN( N = 286) 16 PF-E

Sten Score

Factor

1

A B

0- 1 0- 1 0

2

3

4

5

6

Raw Score 7

8

9

1

0

M S D

Raw Score

C

2

E

1 0

F G

0 2

H

I L M

N 0

QI

0-1 0 0 0 0- 1 0- 1 0 0

QI

Q,

0

Q4

3 2 2 3 1 1 2 3-4 1 2 2 3 1 2 2 2

4 3 4 2 3 5 3 4 3 3 3 4 3 4

5 4 5 3

8

6-7 5 6 4

4

5

6 7 6

6 7 4 5 1 5-6 7-8 4 5 4 5 4-5 1 2-3 5 6 1 2 4 5 0 1 2 3 5 6 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1-2 3 4 5-6

7 6 6 6 6 7 7

5-6 8 8 7 7 7 6 8 8 7

7-8 8 7-8

8 8 7-8 8 8 7-8

8

4.8 1.8 3.7 1.3 4.4 1.7 2.5 1.3 4.6 1.9 5.1 1.5 3.81.7 4.9 2.3 3.61.6 3.7 1.3 4.1 1.4 4.1 1.7 3.4 1.5 3.9 2.1 5.3 1.5 3.4 2.0

TABLE 2 EXPERIMENTAL NORMSFORMENTALLY RETARDEDWOMEN(n = 118) 16 PF-E

Factor

Sten Score 2

1

3

4

5

6

Raw Score 7

8

7 5 6

8

9

10

6

7-8 8 5-8

M

SD

5.4 3.4 4.1 2.3 4.7 5.3 3.9 6.4 3.7 3.8 4.2 4.2

1.6 1.2 1.8 1.2 1.9 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.6 1.2 1.4 1.8

Raw Score A B C

0 0 0

E F G H I L

M N

0

0-2 0 0-1 0 0- 1 0- 1 0

-

1

2

1

1 0 0-1 1 2-3 1

2 3 4

2 1

3 2 2-3 1 3 4 2 5 2 2 3 2-3

4

5 3 4 2 4 5 3 6 3 3 4 4

6 4 5 3 5-6 6 4 7 4 4 5 5

7 5 8 5 5 6 6

(continued on next page)

7 4 7 6 6 6 7

8 8 7 7

8 8 7-8 7-8 8

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C. L. SPIRRISON TABLE 2 (CONT'D) EXPERIMENTAL NORMSFORMENTALLY RETARDED WOMEN(n = 118)

16 PF-E Factor

1

2

3

4

Sten Score 5 6

7

8

9

10

Raw Score M SD

TABLE 3 EXPULIMENTAL NORMSFORMENTALLY RETARDED MEN( n= 168) 16 PF-E Factor

1

2

3

4

Sten Score 5 6

7

8

9

10

Raw Score M SD

Raw Score

REFERENCES EBER,H. W., & CATELL, R. B. (1985) Manual for Form E of the 16 PE Champaign, IL: Institute for Personality and Ability Testing. GERJOUY,I. R., & WINTERS, J. J. (1966) Lateral preference for identical geometric forms: 11. Retardates. Perception and Psychophyics, 1, 104-106. ROSEN,M., FLOOR,L., & ZISFEIN,L. (1974) Investigating the phenomenon of acquiescence in the mentally handicapped: I. Theoretical model, test and development and normative data. Briti~hJournal of Subnormality, 20, 58-68. ROSEN,M., & WEISZ,S. (1983) Personality constructs in the evaluation of mentally retarded persons. Mental Retardation, 21, 116-118. SIGELMAN, C. K., BUDD,E. C., SPANHEL, C. L., & SCHOENROCK, C. J. (1981) When in doubt, say yes: acquiescence in interviews with mentally retarded persons. Mental Retardation, 19, 53-58. SIGELMAN, C. K., WINER,J. L., & SCHOENROCK, C. J. (1982) The responsiveness of mentally retarded persons to questions. Edrrcation and Training of the Mentally Retarded, 17, 120-124.

Accepted June 3, 1991.

The Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire--form E: experimental norms for mentally retarded adults.

Form E of the Sixteen Personality Factors Questionnaire (16 PF-E) was administered to 286 adults (168 men, 118 women) who resided in public facilities...
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