Levels of basic personality factors in a psychiatric population

Diverse sets of factors have been claimed by various investigators to be basic personality variables of the highest factor order. A sample of 400 psychiatric patient records were rated for pressence or absence of 14 criteria. The data were factor analyzed, and four factors were extracted. Three of the four factors resemble Eysenck's three-factor model of personality at the universal or general level. The fourth factor is interpreted to be a behavioral dimension at a lower level. The results are discussed in terms of the population and the type of data utilized.