Factor analysis and physical types

Abstract

Physical measurements, obtained from several different age-groups and national groups, have been correlated and factorized. The largest of the investigations was based on 2,400 British airmen in the R.A.F., and the most recent included as many as 17 traits. The methods of factorization employed were those worked out in early investigations of mental and scholastic tests, and differed in minor respects from those more recently used by Thurstone in his re-analysis of some of our data. The factor patterns reveal a remarkable constancy from age to age and from one national group to another. The general factor accounts for about the same proportion of the variance as the general factor in cognitive tests. The largest of the bipolar factors classifies traits into longitudinal and transverse, thus in some measure confirming the traditional classification of body-types.