Cattell's 16 Personality Factors for writers

If you've checked into schemes that categorize personalities, most sort them into good and bad extremes. It takes some imagination to add depth and nuances.

Raymond Cattell sorted personality words into more or less of a factor. Which, even if personality researchers ultimately reject it, is much easier to work with for writers!

Play around with the 16 factors until you find something you like. Look for connections, contrasts and conflicts. A cold empath? Enthusiastically absorbed by ideas? Uninhibited, self absorbed and careless of social rules?

Edit: I made a few changes in the order and added a few words. Now if you read across the top 4 in each category, it's a spectrum with 2 negative extremes on either end and 2 positive though opposite traits in the middle.

Randomize the 16 Personality Factors

WARMTH	EMOTIONAL STABILITY	DOMINANCE	LIVELINESS
RULE CONSCIOUSNESS	SOCIAL BOLDNESS	SENSITIVITY	VIGILANCE
ABSTRACTEDNESS	PRIVATENESS	APPREHENSION	OPENNESS TO CHANGE
SELF-RELIANCE	PERFECTIONISM	TENSION	REASONING

The 16 Personality Factors

(Based on Cattell's 16 Personality Factors)

Way too little	Less	More	Way too much
WARMTH
anti-social	connected to self	connected to others	intrusive
unkind	reserved	warm	smothering
cold	impersonal	outgoing	nosy
uninvolved	distant	attentive to others
	cool	kindly
	detached	easy going
	formal	participating
	aloof	likes people
	self-centered	sociable
	ungenerous	friendly
	socially inhibited	compassionate
		helpful
		nurturing
EMOTIONAL STABILITY
obsessive	excitable	calm	unresponsive
frenzied	emotionally reactive	emotionally stable	emotionally shut down
hysterical	affected by feelings	mature
fickle	emotionally less stable	faces reality
histrionic (dramatic)	changeable moods	adaptive
	easily upset	unsentimental
	high strung	impartial
DOMINANCE
passive	cooperative	assertive	domineering
drone	deferential	forceful	dictatorial
	avoids conflict	dominant	antagonistic
	submissive	aggressive	vindictive
	humble	competitive	vengeful
	obedient	stubborn	unforgiving
	easily led	bossy	hostile
	docile	willful
	accommodating
	subdued
	compliant
	agreeableness
LIVELINESS
apathetic	prudent	sparkly	extravagant
humorless	restrained	lively	undependable
	serious	animated	whirlwind
	taciturn	spontaneous
	introspective	enthusiastic
	silent	happy go lucky
	dour	cheerful
		expressive
		energetic
		passionate
		indulgent
RULE CONSCIOUSNESS
lawless	impulsive	dependable	rule bound
nihilist	nonconforming	rule-conscious	moralistic
anarchist	disregards rules	conscientious	judgmental
dishonest	self indulgent	conforming	critical
manipulative	disobedient	staid
	unrestrained	self-controlled
	expedient	dutiful
		responsible
SOCIAL BOLDNESS
inhibited	modest	uninhibited	attention seeker
reclusive	threat-sensitive	socially bold	blind to social cues
agoraphobic	timid	venturesome	self-aggrandizement
	hesitant	thick skinned
	easily intimidated	can take stress
	shy
SENSITIVITY
insensitive	objective	sensitive	hypersensitive
	utilitarian	aesthetic	manic
	unsentimental	sentimental
	tough minded	tender minded (tender hearted)
	self-reliant	intuitive
	no-nonsense	refined
	rough	empathetic
	resolute	receptive
	determined	histrionic
	open-minded
VIGILANCE
gullible	trusting	skeptical	prejudiced
naive	unsuspecting	vigilant	cynical
	accepting	suspicious	biased
	unconditional	distrustful
	easy	oppositional
		uncooperative
ABSTRACTEDNESS
unimaginative	practical	imaginative	out of touch with reality
	grounded	abstracted
	prosaic	absent minded
	solution oriented	impractical
	steady	absorbed in ideas
	straightforward	idealistic
PRIVATENESS
gossip	forthright	discreet	secretive
blabbermouth	indiscreet	private
	artless	non-disclosing
	open	shrewd
	guileless	polished
	unpretentious	worldly
	involved	astute
	genuine	diplomatic
APPREHENSION
arrogant	confident	concerned	fear-bound
	unworried	apprehensive
	complacent	self doubting
	secure	worrying
	free of guilt	guilt prone
	self-assured	insecure
	self satisfied	self blaming
	self confident	nervous
OPENNESS TO CHANGE
close minded	traditional	free thinking	novelty seeker
fear of the unknown	attached to familiar	experimenting	sensation seeker
dogmatic	conservative	liberal
	respecting traditional ideas	analytical
	consistent	critical (evaluating not censorious)
	cautious	open to change
	conventional	flexible
	pessimistic	optimistic
	predictable	inventive
	seeker of answers	asker of questions
		unpredictable
		surprising
		curious
		self-transcendent (seeing self as an integral part of the universe)
		adventurous
SELF-RELIANCE
leech	group-oriented	self-reliant	tightfisted
self-sacrificing	affiliative	solitary	loner
people pleasing	a joiner and follower	resourceful	selfish
narcissistic	dependent	individualistic	greedy
	extrovert (gets recharged being with others)	self sufficient	rude
	accommodating	introvert (needs alone time to recharge)
	selfless	independent
	generous	self-interested
	self-monitoring	self-focused
	other-focused
	altruistic
	humble (modest)
	considerate
	tolerant
PERFECTIONISM
oblivious	flexible	perfectionist	obsessive
chaotic	big picture oriented	organized	hoarder
	tolerates disorder	compulsive	workaholic
	undisciplined	self-disciplined	hyper-focused on flaws
	lax	socially precise
	self-conflict	exacting will power
	careless of social rules	controlled
	uncontrolled	self-sentimental
	seeker of 'good enough'	careful
	focused on what's working	deliberation
	unexacting	persistence
		simplicity
		thorough
		seeker of 'the best'
		goal oriented
		success oriented
		efficient
		focused on what's not working
TENSION
apathetic	relaxed	tense	overwrought
indolent	Type B	Type A
listless	placid	high energy
torpid	tranquil	impatient
	patient	driven
	composed	frustrated
	low drive	high drive
	easy going	time driven
	low anxiety	high anxiety
	relaxed	tense
	imperturbable	perturbable
	well-adjusted
REASONING
	concrete thinking	abstract-thinking
	lower mental capacity	more intelligent
	less intelligent	bright
	slow learner	higher mental capacity
		fast learner

---

I made some changes to Cattell's list. I suspect some words have shifted meanings since Cattell listed them, such as, critical meant evaluating but is now commonly used to mean condemning. So, I added a few words, removed a couple, and moved one. I listed his "5 Global Factors" under the categories where they seemed to best fit with the 16. (They're global because Cattell felt they fit several categories.)

The "way too" words in the columns to left and right I added. These aren't traits people are born with. Environment or life events warped the person in these directions. These are also where characters have the potential for the most (story) growth.

HISTORY: Back in the 1930s Gordon Allport collected 17,953 personality words -- by scanning through the dictionary! He whittled them down to 4505. Cattell whittled them further to 171 then categorized them.