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Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences pp 1–4Cite as

The California Adult Q-Sort

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Synonyms

California Adult Q-set; California Q-set; CAQ

Definition

The California Adult Q-sort, aka the California Q-set and the California Adult Q-set (CAQ; Block 1961, 2008) is a set of statements used in observer and self-report assessments of personality. As an assessment tool, the CAQ is distinguished both by the content of its items and technical features including the ipsative nature of its intended use or administration. Most importantly, the empirical results attained by research using the CAQ are impressive. For example, the longitudinal Lives Through Time study (Block 1961), used the CAQ to develop an influential taxonomy of developmental trajectories. A second longitudinal study, the Block project, used the CAQ to illuminate the nature of constructs ranging from political affiliation to depression, as well as the psychological significance of phenomena such as divorce (see entry for “Block, Jack,” in this encyclopedia).

Item Content

The 100 items of the CAQ can be considered...

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References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL, USA

    Kevin Lanning & Ryne A. Sherman

Authors
  1. Kevin Lanning
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  2. Ryne A. Sherman
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ryne A. Sherman .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland University, Rochester, USA

    Virgil Zeigler-Hill

  2. Oakland University, Rochester, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. Wichita State University, Wichita, KS, USA

    Brendan Clark

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© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG

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Lanning, K., Sherman, R.A. (2017). The California Adult Q-Sort. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_11-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_11-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

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