16 Personality Factors

(Based on Cattell's 16 Personality Factors)

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

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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 (to the bottoms of lists), 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.