Reactions of Russian adolescents to reward and punishment: a cross-cultural study of the Gray–Wilson Personality Questionnaire

Abstract

A translated, shortened version of the Gray–Wilson Personality Questionnaire was administered, along with an abbreviated adult Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, to 251 Russian schoolchildren aged 14–16 years. Girls were significantly higher than boys on passive avoidance , flight, and N, suggesting higher levels of anxiety/emotionality. In accord with British and Japanese results, principal component analysis of individual items largely failed to identify the six theoretical animal learning paradigms on which the GWPQ was constructed. Nor did intercorrelations among scale scores support the a priori three-dimensional structure of the test; instead there was evidence for two major systems underlying reactions to reward and punishment: Inhibition , with strong loadings on passive avoidance, extinction and flight, and Activation , with positive loadings on fight and approach and a negative loading on active avoidance. Correlations with Rutter Teacher scores, the Child Behaviour Checklist and Youth Self-Report are also presented and discussed. As predicted, anxiety and emotional problems were associated with Inhibition, while conduct disorder and attention deficits were associated with Activation. Multiple regression analysis showed that GWPQ scores were superior to scores on this version of the EPQ as predictors of teacher ratings and added significant predictive power to parent and self-report measures of adolescent adjustment.