ABSTRACT
IT is curious that children, as compared to adults, have attracted relatively little interest on the part of personality psychologists. Inventories and questionnaires are thick on the ground as far as adults (consenting or not) are concerned, but children are much less weIl catered for. Only two children's personality inventories are at all widely used in this country at the moment; one is the Cattell IPAT scale (Porter & Cattell, 1960), the other the Junior M.P.I. (Furneaux & Gibson, 1961). In both cases it should be noted that there have never been conducted proper item analyses and factor analyses for all the questions used, for all age groups, and for the two sexes separately; such detailed analyses are in our opinion necessary in order to take into account possible age and sex variations in factor structure, and in order to gain some more information on the organization of personality in children as they pass from one age to another. The present chapter reports in detail some of the work done in the construction of the Junior B.P.!. (S. B. G. Bysenck, 1965a; b); hardly any ofthis material has been made available hitherto in view ofthe severe space restrictions in the Manual which accompanies the inventory.
