Article lecture 8
Exploring the personality structure in the 11 languages of south Africa
Abstract:
The present study, part of the development of the South African Personality Inventory (SAPI),
explores the implicit personality structure in the 11 official language groups of South Africa by
employing a mixed-method approach. In the first, qualitative part of the study, semi structured
interviews were conducted with 1,216 participants from the 11 official language groups. The derived
personality-descriptive terms were categorized and clustered based on their semantic relations in
iterative steps involving group discussions and contacts with language and cultural experts. This
analysis identified 37 sub clusters, which could be merged in 9 broad clusters: Conscientiousness,
Emotional Stability, Extraversion, Facilitating, Integrity, Intellect, Openness, Relationship, Harmony,
and Soft-Heartedness. In the second, quantitative part, the perceived relations between the 37 sub
clusters were rated by 204 students from different language groups in South Africa and 95 students
in the Netherlands. The outcomes generally supported the adequacy of the conceptual model,
although several clusters in the domain of relational and social functioning did not replicate in detail.
The outcomes of these studies revealed a personality structure with a strong emphasis on social
relational aspects of personality.
Approaches to the study of personality structure:
The etic approach focuses on the cross-cultural universality of traits, whereas the emic approach
investigates traits in a particular culture. These approaches are complementary. The cross-cultural
comparison of lexical studies has been suggested as a way of combining these two approaches. A
typical representative of the etic approach is the body of research that has found support for the
Five-Factor Model describing personality along 5 dimensions across a large number of cultures.
Several studies have indicated problems with the cross-cultural replicability of the Openness
dimension. On the other hand, studies in the emic approach set out to explore the personality
structure in a given culture. Cheung studied personality conceptions in China and came with a
concept of interpersonal relatedness and a weakly represented openness. This construct of
relatedness is however recognizable beyond the specific context of Chinese culture.
Lexical models across cultures:
The psycholexical method is widely employed in personality research, it’s based on the assumption
that salient individual differences in psychological functioning are embedded or encoded in language.
To study the implicit personality conceptions, personality-descriptive terms are sampled from
dictionaries and research participants are asked to rate themselves or a familiar other on each term
contained in a list. Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness are the only factors that fully
replicate across languages. Lexical studies typically employ single person-descriptive terms extracted
from lexica. An alternative approach is to conduct interviews which involve whole phrases in context.
This gives more contextual information, which makes them suited for personality conceptions in
different cultures. Lexical studies conducted in different languages have found less support for
universality. Studies in non-Western countries have the potential to detect important personality
concepts not well represented in the Big Five. The theoretical debate about the universality of
personality dimensions is thus ongoing.
Personality study in the South African context:
General practice in personality research has been to adopt or adapt tests developed abroad for use
in South Africa. These inventories showed weak structural equivalence across ethnic groups and a
low reliability. Item adaptation is not a viable way to solve the problem. Taylor and De Bruin set out
Exploring the personality structure in the 11 languages of south Africa
Abstract:
The present study, part of the development of the South African Personality Inventory (SAPI),
explores the implicit personality structure in the 11 official language groups of South Africa by
employing a mixed-method approach. In the first, qualitative part of the study, semi structured
interviews were conducted with 1,216 participants from the 11 official language groups. The derived
personality-descriptive terms were categorized and clustered based on their semantic relations in
iterative steps involving group discussions and contacts with language and cultural experts. This
analysis identified 37 sub clusters, which could be merged in 9 broad clusters: Conscientiousness,
Emotional Stability, Extraversion, Facilitating, Integrity, Intellect, Openness, Relationship, Harmony,
and Soft-Heartedness. In the second, quantitative part, the perceived relations between the 37 sub
clusters were rated by 204 students from different language groups in South Africa and 95 students
in the Netherlands. The outcomes generally supported the adequacy of the conceptual model,
although several clusters in the domain of relational and social functioning did not replicate in detail.
The outcomes of these studies revealed a personality structure with a strong emphasis on social
relational aspects of personality.
Approaches to the study of personality structure:
The etic approach focuses on the cross-cultural universality of traits, whereas the emic approach
investigates traits in a particular culture. These approaches are complementary. The cross-cultural
comparison of lexical studies has been suggested as a way of combining these two approaches. A
typical representative of the etic approach is the body of research that has found support for the
Five-Factor Model describing personality along 5 dimensions across a large number of cultures.
Several studies have indicated problems with the cross-cultural replicability of the Openness
dimension. On the other hand, studies in the emic approach set out to explore the personality
structure in a given culture. Cheung studied personality conceptions in China and came with a
concept of interpersonal relatedness and a weakly represented openness. This construct of
relatedness is however recognizable beyond the specific context of Chinese culture.
Lexical models across cultures:
The psycholexical method is widely employed in personality research, it’s based on the assumption
that salient individual differences in psychological functioning are embedded or encoded in language.
To study the implicit personality conceptions, personality-descriptive terms are sampled from
dictionaries and research participants are asked to rate themselves or a familiar other on each term
contained in a list. Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness are the only factors that fully
replicate across languages. Lexical studies typically employ single person-descriptive terms extracted
from lexica. An alternative approach is to conduct interviews which involve whole phrases in context.
This gives more contextual information, which makes them suited for personality conceptions in
different cultures. Lexical studies conducted in different languages have found less support for
universality. Studies in non-Western countries have the potential to detect important personality
concepts not well represented in the Big Five. The theoretical debate about the universality of
personality dimensions is thus ongoing.
Personality study in the South African context:
General practice in personality research has been to adopt or adapt tests developed abroad for use
in South Africa. These inventories showed weak structural equivalence across ethnic groups and a
low reliability. Item adaptation is not a viable way to solve the problem. Taylor and De Bruin set out
