Structural and functional equivalence of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire within and between countries

Abstract

The question was examined as to whether scores at the individual level and scores at the country level on the four scales of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) have the same psychological meaning. Using data of 24 countries, it was found that the EPQ has different factorial structures at both levels. Both the Lie scale and the Psychoticism scale were shown to jeopardize cross-level equivalence. For further exploration of the meaning of the EPQ scales within countries and between countries country-level correlations were calculated with a variety of country characteristics such as Gross National Product, political indices, religiosity, Hofstede's measures, and subjective well-being. Significant findings for 38 countries included correlations of the EPQ scales with Hofstede's Masculinity, Diener's Subjective Well-Being, religiosity, the number of deaths in a country due to political violence, and bribery. The most striking finding was a substantial negative correlation of the Lie scale with Gross National Product and other wealth-related indices.