Personality profiles of cultures: aggregate personality traits

Personality profiles of cultures can be operationalized as the mean trait levels of culture members. College students from 51 cultures rated an individual from their country whom they knew well (N = 12, 156). Aggregate scores on Revised NEO Personality Inventory scales generalized across age and gender groups, approximated the individual-level Five-Factor Model, and correlated with aggregate self-report personality scores and other culture-level variables. Results were not attributable to national differences in economic development or to acquiescence. Geographical differences in scale variances and mean levels were replicated, with Europeans and Americans generally scoring higher in Extraversion than Asians and Africans. Findings support the rough scalar equivalence of NEO-PI-R factors and facets across cultures, and suggest that aggregate personality profiles provide insight into cultural differences

Les troubles de la personnalite au Burkina Faso

Nous avons, dans ce travail, analysé les troubles de la personnalité au Burkina Faso. Pour ce faire, nous avons dans un premier temps vérifié la fiabilité de l’Inventaire des Troubles de la Personnalité (IPDE) sur un échantillon de participants de la ville de Ouagadougou au Burkina Faso. Il s’agissait de participants venant de différentes Unités de Formation et de Recherche de l’Université Joseph KI-ZERBO et de participants habitants Ouagadougou. Les résultats mettent en évidence l’existence des troubles au Burkina Faso mais la « prévalence » semble beaucoup varier en fonction de l’âge. Seul le trouble anti social n’est pas clairement identifié. Nous pensons que cette situation peut s’expliquer par des stratégies de protection contre l’isolement utilisées par les participants. English title: Personality disorders among Burkina Faso people Abstract: We have, in this work, analysed the personality disorders among Burkina Faso people. In order to do this, we have in a first auditted time the reliability of the disorders Inventory of the Personality (IPDE) on a sample of participants city of Ouagadougou to the Burkina Faso. It was being of participants over from different formative Unities and of Looking-for the University Joseph WHO-ZERBO and of inhabitted participants Ouagadougou. Results put in obviousness the disorders existence to the Burkina Faso but the " prévalence " seems a lot to vary acting of the age.Single person disturbs him ante social is not clearly identified. We think that this situation can explain oneself by protecting strategies against the used isolation by participants. Key words: Disorders; personality; Burkina Faso; students

Les perceptions du travail decent au Burkina Faso: Decent work perceptions in Burkina Faso

Dans le présent travail, nous avons analysé les perceptions du travail décent au Burkina Faso. Notre objectif était d’analyser comment après presqu’une décennie de sensibilisation par les organismes chargé des problématiques du travail décent, cette conception a été intégrée dans les conceptions du travail au Burkina Faso. Aussi, nous avons interrogé de futur travailleur et des travailleurs grâce à un entretien structuré. Les résultats mettent en exergue l’existence de conception du travail décent. Pour nos participants un travail décent est avant tout un travail acceptable, digne qui garantisse un revenu convenable, de bonnes conditions de travail. Mais pour une grande majorité l’accès au travail est un critère important pour qualifier un travail de décent. Cette perception se comprend car l’accès au travail est assez difficile au Burkina Faso et les demandeurs d’emplois sont souvent victime «d’exploitation » de toute sorte. Nous avons noté également qu’il y a deux grandes catégories de perceptions. La première regroupe les considérations liées à l’accès au travail, aux conditions de travail et au revenu. La seconde est focalisée sur les différentes facettes des relations de travail qui sont reléguées au second plan pour nos participants.ABSTRACT:All along this study, we analyzed people’s conception of decent work in Burkina Faso. Our goal was to analyze how the conception of decent work have been understood in Burkina Faso, following about ten years of sensitization accomplished by ad hoc organizations. Then, we got structured interviews with students (future workers) and workers. After this study, we found a noteworthy conception of decent work. For our participants, decent work is the one that is acceptable, dignity full, and which can provide a guaranteed remuneration with good work conditions. According to the majority, the accessibility conditions are one of the most important criteria for a job to be qualified of decent. This conception is understandable, because, in fact, obtaining a job in Burkina Faso is quite difficult and applicants are somehow exploited. We noticed also that, there are meanly two categories of perceptions. The first one is related to job accessibility, work conditions and the remuneration. The second one focused on different work relationships, which aspects has been pushed on the background by the participants

Psychometric Properties of the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale in Eight African Countries and Switzerland

The purpose of this study was to assess the cross-cultural validity of the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability scale short form C, in a large sample of French-speaking participants from eight African countries and Switzerland. Exploratory and confirmatory analyses suggested retaining a two-factor structure. Item bias detection according to country was conducted for all 13 items and effect was calculated with R2. For the two-factor solution, 9 items were associated with a negligible effect size, 3 items with a moderate one, and 1 item with a large one. A series of analyses of covariance considering the acquiescence variable as a covariate showed that the acquiescence tendency does not contribute to the bias at item level. This research indicates that the psychometric properties of this instrument do not reach a scalar equivalence but that a culturally reliable measurement of social desirability could be developed

Structural and mean level analyses of the Five-Factor Model and Locus of Control: Further evidence from Africa

The present study examines the Five-Factor Model (FFM) of personality and locus of control in French-speaking samples in Burkina Faso (N = 470) and Switzerland (Ns = 1,090, 361), using the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) and Levenson's Internality, Powerful others, and Chance (IPC) scales. Alpha reliabilities were consistently lower in Burkina Faso, but the factor structure of the NEO-PI-R was replicated in both cultures. The intended three-factor structure of the IPC could not be replicated, although a two-factor solution was replicable across the two samples. Although scalar equivalence has not been demonstrated, mean level comparisons showed the hypothesized effects for most of the five factors and locus of control; Burkinabè scored higher in Neuroticism than anticipated. Findings from this African sample generally replicate earlier results from Asian and Western cultures, and are consistent with a biologically-based theory of personality

Psychometric properties of the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale in eight African countries and Switzerland

The purpose of this study was to assess the cross-cultural validity of the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability scale short form C, in a large sample of French-speaking participants from eight African countries and Switzerland. Exploratory and confirmatory analyses suggested retaining a two-factor structure. Item bias detection according to country was conducted for all 13 items and effect was calculated with R2. For the two-factor solution, 9 items were associated with a negligible effect size, 3 items with a moderate one, and 1 item with a large one. A series of analyses of covariance considering the acquiescence variable as a covariate showed that the acquiescence tendency does not contribute to the bias at item level. This research indicates that the psychometric properties of this instrument do not reach a scalar equivalence but that a culturally reliable measurement of social desirability could be developed

Comparability of Self-Reported Conscientiousness Across 21 Countries

Mottus R, Allik J, Realo A, et al. Comparability of Self-Reported Conscientiousness Across 21 Countries. European Journal of Personality. 2012;26(3):303-317.In cross-national studies, mean levels of self-reported phenomena are often not congruent with more objective criteria. One prominent explanation for such findings is that people make self-report judgements in relation to culture-specific standards (often called the reference group effect), thereby undermining the cross-cultural comparability of the judgements. We employed a simple method called anchoring vignettes in order to test whether people from 21 different countries have varying standards for Conscientiousness, a Big Five personality trait that has repeatedly shown unexpected nation-level relationships with external criteria. Participants rated their own Conscientiousness and that of 30 hypothetical persons portrayed in short vignettes. The latter type of ratings was expected to reveal individual differences in standards of Conscientiousness. The vignettes were rated relatively similarly in all countries, suggesting no substantial culture-related differences in standards for Conscientiousness. Controlling for the small differences in standards did not substantially change the rankings of countries on mean self-ratings or the predictive validities of these rankings for objective criteria. These findings are not consistent with mean self-rated Conscientiousness scores being influenced by culture-specific standards. The technique of anchoring vignettes can be used in various types of studies to assess the potentially confounding effects of reference levels. Copyright (c) 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

The Effect of Response Style on Self-Reported Conscientiousness Across 20 Countries

Mottus R, Allik J, Realo A, et al. The Effect of Response Style on Self-Reported Conscientiousness Across 20 Countries. Personality And Social Psychology Bulletin. 2012;38(11):1423-1436.Rankings of countries on mean levels of self-reported Conscientiousness continue to puzzle researchers. Based on the hypothesis that cross-cultural differences in the tendency to prefer extreme response categories of ordinal rating scales over moderate categories can influence the comparability of self-reports, this study investigated possible effects of response style on the mean levels of self-reported Conscientiousness in 22 samples from 20 countries. Extreme and neutral responding were estimated based on respondents' ratings of 30 hypothetical people described in short vignettes. In the vignette ratings, clear cross-sample differences in extreme and neutral responding emerged. These responding style differences were correlated with mean self-reported Conscientiousness scores. Correcting self-reports for extreme and neutral responding changed sample rankings of Conscientiousness, as well as the predictive validities of these rankings for external criteria. The findings suggest that the puzzling country rankings of self-reported Conscientiousness may to some extent result from differences in response styles

Breaking ground in cross-cultural research on the fear of being laughed at (gelotophobia): A multi-national study involving 73 countries

The current study examines whether the fear of being laughed at (gelotophobia) can be assessed reliably and validly by means of a self-report instrument in different countries of the world. All items of the GELOPH (Ruch and Titze, GELOPH46, University of Düsseldorf, 1998; Ruch and Proyer, Swiss Journal of Psychology 67:19–27, 2008b) were translated to the local language of the collaborator (42 languages in total). In total, 22,610 participants in 93 samples from 73 countries completed the GELOPH. Across all samples the reliability of the 15-item questionnaire was high (mean alpha of .85) and in all samples the scales appeared to be unidimensional. The endorsement rates for the items ranged from 1.31% through 80.00% to a single item. Variations in the mean scores of the items were more strongly related to the culture in a country and not to the language in which the data were collected. This was also supported by a multidimensional scaling analysis with standardized mean scores of the items from the GELOPH15. This analysis identified two dimensions that further helped explaining the data (i.e., insecure vs. intense avoidant-restrictive and low vs. high suspicious tendencies towards the laughter of others). Furthermore, multiple samples derived from one country tended to be (with a few exceptions) highly similar. The study shows that gelotophobia can be assessed reliably by means of a self-report instrument in cross-cultural research. This study enables further studies of the fear of being laughed at with regard to differences in the prevalence and putative causes of gelotophobia in comparisons to different cultures

Universal features of personality traits from the observer’ s perspective: data from 50 cultures

To test hypotheses about the universality of personality traits, college students in 50 cultures identified an adult or college-age man or woman whom they knew well and rated the 11, 985 targets using the third-person version of the Revised NEO Personality Inventory. Factor analyses within cultures showed that the normative American self-report structure was clearly replicated in most cultures, and was recognizable in all. Sex differences replicated earlier self-report results, with the most pronounced differences in Western cultures. Cross-sectional age differences for three factors followed the pattern identified in self-reports, with moderate rates of change during college age and very slow changes after age 40. With a few exceptions, these data support the hypothesis that features of personality traits are common to all human groups