Abstract
Orientation: Most psychological measuring instruments developed in Western, educated, industrial, rich, democratic (W.E.I.R.D.) countries have been found to inadequately capture and represent personality outside the borders of these countries. Consequently, culturally informed or indigenous measuring instruments need to be developed.Research purpose: This study aimed to inspect whether an overlap exists between the empirical data obtained and the theoretical six-factor SAPI framework, providing evidence for an indigenous personality structure in a multi-cultural context.Motivation for the study: Psychological professionals in South Africa have been criticised for using culturally biased instruments that do not display an accurate representation of the 11 official cultural groups. The South African Personality Inventory (SAPI) aims to address these criticisms, highlighting the importance of establishing the cultural applicability of the model through model-fit analyses.Research approach/design and method: A quantitative, cross-sectional design was used to administer the SAPI-English version to a sample of employed, unemployed and employment-seeking South Africans (N = 3912). Exploratory Structural Equation Modelling (ESEM) was used to model the data.Main findings: The results revealed that the model was a good fit to the data and that the SAPI factors accurately represent personality in a multi-cultural context.Practical/managerial implication: Using a well-researched indigenous personality assessment like the SAPI can assist South African organisations to fairly and reliably assess people across the 11 official cultural groups.Contribution/value-add: This study advances the processes surrounding indigenous test development through the establishment of a personality model and measure that encapsulates personality traits exhibited in a multi-cultural context.
Highlights
In the fields of psychological testing and assessment, research has reached many difficult-to-attain goals (Laher & Cockroft, 2014)
The confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) provided insufficient support for the South African Personality Inventory (SAPI) model previously established through exploratory factor analysis (EFA) (Asparouhov & Muthén, 2009; Marsh et al, 2014), indicating that the SAPI does not meet the criteria associated with model-fit (Marsh et al, 2010)
The model-fit and estimates obtained increased the confidence with which the SAPI can be applied to the broader society within South Africa and the generalisability of the personality traits to individuals from all 11 official cultural groups
Summary
In the fields of psychological testing and assessment, research has reached many difficult-to-attain goals (Laher & Cockroft, 2014). In the South African context, many psychological tests and assessments have been criticised for inadequately capturing and representing cultures outside the countries of origin, mainly in Europe and North America (Blokland, 2016), especially because individuals within a multi-cultural context such as South Africa have traditions and beliefs that are quite distinct from those found in Europe and America (Moletsane, 2016). These cultural differences influence how individuals perceive personality and exhibit behaviours related to it. The emic–etic, a combined approach, outlines universal and culture-specific aspects of personality (Cheung 2012; Cheung, Van de Vijver, & Leong, 2011) to identify critical aspects pertaining to personality (in South Africa in this case) and attain a detailed, integrated and balanced view of personality (Cheung et al, 2011)
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