The Questionnaire Big Six in 26 Nations : Developing Cross-Culturally Applicable Big Six, Big Five and Big Two Inventories

The Big Five is a useful model of attributes now commonly used in cross-cultural research, but without the support of strong measurement invariance (MI) evidence. The Big Six has been proposed as a cross-culturally informed update, and the broader Big Two (Social Self-Regulation and Dynamism) draws on even more cross-cultural evidence. However, neither has been rigorously tested for cross-cultural MI. Here a Big Six inventory (36QB6) and measures of the Big Five and Big Two derived from it, were tested and refined for cross-cultural usability in samples from 26 nations, divided into three subsets. CFA of the models in the first subset of nations demonstrated fit as strong in translation as typical personality measures achieve in their nation of origin (although poor per standard benchmarks). Items that performed inconsistently across cultures were removed, and alternates considered in a second subset of nations. Fit and invariance were improved for refined 30-item QB6 (30QB6), 25-item Big Five (25QB5), and 14- item Big Two (14QB2) measures in the third subset of nations. For all models, decrease in CFI between MI levels was larger than .01, indicating lack of support for higher levels. Configural and factorial invariance were relatively stronger, compared to scalar and full

Personality and mental health treatment: Traits as predictors of presentation, usage, and outcome.

Self-report scores on personality inventories predict important life outcomes including health and longevity, marital outcomes, career success, and mental health problems, but the ways they predict mental health treatment have not been widely explored. Psychotherapy is sought for diverse problems, but about half of those who begin therapy drop out, and only about half who complete therapy experience lasting improvements. Several authors have argued that understanding how personality traits relate to treatment could lead to better targeted, more successful services. Here self-report scores on Big Five/Six personality dimensions are explored as predictors of therapy presentation, usage, and outcomes in a sample of community clinic clients (N=306). Participants received evidence-based treatments in the context of individual, couples, or family therapy sessions. One measure of initial functioning and three indicators of outcome were used. All personality trait scores except Openness associated with initial psychological functioning. Higher Conscientiousness scores predicted more sessions attended for family therapy, but fewer for couples therapy clients. Higher Honesty/Propriety and Extraversion scores predicted fewer sessions attended for family therapy clients. Better termination outcome was predicted by higher Conscientiousness scores for family, and higher Extraversion scores for individual therapy clients. Higher Honesty/Propriety and Neuroticism scores predicted more improvement in psychological functioning in terms of successive Outcome Questionnaire-45 (OQ-45) administrations. Taken together, the results provide some support for the role of personality traits in predicting treatment usage and outcome, and for the utility of a six-factor model in this context

The International Mental Health Assessment: Validation of an Efficient Screening Inventory

The International Mental Health Assessment (IMHA) was developed to provide efficient screening to facilitate prevention and early intervention among employees or community adults at three levels of analysis: a P-factor of general functioning and tendency toward disorder; broad spectra of internalizing and externalizing tendencies and for life difficulties; and nine subscales for common, familiar psychological and behavioral health categories. This study describes the development, refinement, and validation of the inventory using item response theory (IRT), specifically the partial credit model (PCM). Explicit, behavior-focused items drew on commonalities among domain-specific inventories, the DSM-V and empirical literature. A response scale based on concrete frequency of occurrence over the last month was developed to avoid the reference-group effects that plague cross-group survey research, facilitating cross-group comparison at both scale and item levels. In Study 1, a preliminary 69-item version was administered to 5,307 employees, family members, and counseling clients. PCM calibration was used to remove items with overlapping discrimination or unclear scale correspondence. In Study 2, the refined 59-item IMHA was administered to 4,048 employees. In Study 3, the subscales were compared to relevant established inventories to assess and confirm their convergent/divergent validity in a third sample (N = 500). The final 54-item IMHA, intended both for screening for psychological problems among community adults and to facilitate research including cross-cultural and cross-group comparisons, is made available freely for educational, non-profit or research purposes. The three-level measurement strategy draws on recent evidence for the continuous nature of psychopathology and on the well-established co-morbidity of traditional disorder categories, making use of them for communication purposes without unnecessarily reifying them in the model

The neglected 95% revisited: Is American psychology becoming less American?

The field of psychology prides itself on being a data-driven science. In 2008, however, Arnett brought to light a major weakness in the evidence on which models, measures, and theories in psychology rest. He demonstrated that the most prominent journals in six subdisciplines of psychology focused almost exclusively (over 70% of samples and authors) on a cultural context, the United States, shared by only 5% of the world\u27s population. How can psychologists trust that these models and results generalize to all humans, if the evidence comes from a small and unrepresentative portion of the global population? Arnett\u27s analysis, cited over 1,300 times since its publication, appears to have galvanized researchers to think more globally. Social scientists from the United States have increasingly sought ways to collaborate with colleagues abroad. Ten years later, an analysis of the same 6 journals for the period of 2014 to 2018 indicates that the authors and samples are now on average a little over 60% American based. The change is mainly due to an increase in authorship and samples from other English-speaking and Western European countries. Thus, it might be said that 11% of the world\u27s population is now represented in these top psychology journals, but that 89% of the world\u27s population continues to be neglected. Majority world authors and samples (4–5%) are still sorely lacking from the evidence base. Psychology still has a long way to go to become a science truly representative of human beings. Several specific recommendations are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved) Public Significance Statement—The field of psychology prides itself on being a data-driven science, but a major weakness in the evidence base has been overreliance on a cultural context, the United States, shared by only 5% of the world\u27s population. In 2008, it was reported that the most prominent journals of six subdisciplines in psychology relied on samples that were over 70% American. Ten years later, an analysis of the same journals indicates that authors and samples are now on average a little over 60% American based, but with the change mainly due to an increase in participation from other English-speaking and Western European countries. Majority-world authors and samples (4–5%) are still sorely lacking from the evidence base. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved

Absolutism, Relativism, and Universalism in Personality Traits Across Cultures: The Case of the Big Five

Personality is a broad concept used to organize the myriad ways that people differ psychologically from one another. There is evidence that such differences have been important to humans everywhere, in that personality-relevant terms appear in all known languages. Empirical attempts to identify the most useful individual differences and their structure have emphasized cross-cultural evidence, but rigid adherence to a Big Five model has sometimes meant ignoring heterogenous results. We start with a framework for more precisely defining the universality versus cultural-specificity of personality concepts and models in order to better assess cross-cultural evidence. As this 50th anniversary of the IACCP is also the 50th anniversary of the first large lexical study of personality and more or less of the Big Five model, we take the opportunity to explore both how personality has been studied across contexts using the lexical method, and in 100 articles on personality topics (most using questionnaires) that were identified in the pages of JCCP. Personality articles in JCCP, classified into three types based on their balance of emic and etic components, illustrate larger trends in personality psychology. With the benefit of hindsight, we reflect on what each type has to offer going forward, and we encourage cross-cultural personality psychologists to go beyond imposed etic studies that seek primarily to confirm Western models in other contexts. The kinds of insights that more integrative emic and etic approaches can bring to the study of psychology across cultures are highlighted, and a future research agenda is provided

Personality structure in east and west Africa: Lexical studies of personality in Maa and Supyire-Senufo.

The field of psychology relies heavily on evidence from North America and Northern Europe. Universally-applicable models require input from around the globe. Indigenous lexical studies of personality, which define the most salient person-descriptive concepts and their structure in a population, provide this. Such results are reported from two non-industrialized communities, representing two of the three main language families of Africa, in groups with differing cultural characteristics. Maasai participants, traditionally herders in rural Kenya and Tanzania, have a highly-structured, traditional culture. Supyire-Senufo participants are traditional horticulturalists in Mali. The 203 most common person-descriptive terms in Maasai were administered to 166 participants, who described 320 persons (166 highly-regarded, 154 less so). The optimal emic solution included 5 factors: virtue/moral-character, debilitation/vulnerability, boldness/surgency, hubris/pride, timidity. In the Maasai context, descriptions of well-regarded individuals were exceptionally uniform, suggesting the role of personality language in norm socialization in tight, traditional cultures. In Supyire, 115 participants used 208 person-descriptive terms to describe 227 targets (half highly-regarded). The optimal emic solution included 10 factors: social self-regulation, well-being, vitality/resilience, broadmindedness, diligence versus laziness, madness, stubbornness versus attractiveness, acceptance versus discontent, hurry/worry, peacefulness. The best convergence between the languages was at the three-factor level, where factors relate to moral character, low agreeableness coupled with high extraversion, and emotional stability. Beginning with the four-factor level, content related to local cultural characteristics became apparent. In both languages, two-factor solutions matched the Big Two, but three-, five-, and six-factor solutions failed to overlap with etic Pan-Cultural Three, Big Five, or Big Six models

Religiousness worldwide: translation of the Duke University Religion Index into 20 languages and validation across 27 nations

Religiousness and spirituality are important in the study of psychology for several reasons: They are central to identity and values; they have been reported as being positively associated with health and well-being; and they capture (and perhaps lead to) the largest measurable psychological differences between societies. At five items, the Duke University Religion Index (DUREL) is an efficient measure, which advantageously distinguishes between religious sentiment and activity, and between formal versus private involvement. This project extends its internal validation throughout the world, with formal tests of measurement invariance in three languages in Namibia (Study 1) and in a global sample of 26 countries (Study 2). Results confirmed a two-subscale factorial structure of Religious Activity (combining organizational and non-organizational activities) and Intrinsic Religiosity in Namibia and in half of the 26-country samples. In 13 other countries, fit was best for a one-factor model. Fit was problematic where there was too little intra-national variance: in China and Japan, where religious involvement is universally low, and in Tanzania, where it is universally high. Scalar measurement invariance was found for the one-factor structure across 13 samples and for the two-factor structure across 11 samples. External validation of the scale is examined using psychological and sociodemographic variables. This validation of the DUREL supports its use across contexts, facilitating increased attention to this important aspect of both personality and culture

Religiousness worldwide: translation of the Duke University Religion Index into 20 languages and validation across 27 nations

Religiousness and spirituality are important in the study of psychology for several reasons: They are central to identity and values; they have been reported as being positively associated with health and well-being; and they capture (and perhaps lead to) the largest measurable psychological differences between societies. At five items, the Duke University Religion Index (DUREL) is an efficient measure, which advantageously distinguishes between religious sentiment and activity, and between formal versus private involvement. This project extends its internal validation throughout the world, with formal tests of measurement invariance in three languages in Namibia (Study 1) and in a global sample of 26 countries (Study 2). Results confirmed a two-subscale factorial structure of Religious Activity (combining organizational and non-organizational activities) and Intrinsic Religiosity in Namibia and in half of the 26-country samples. In 13 other countries, fit was best for a one-factor model. Fit was problematic where there was too little intra-national variance: in China and Japan, where religious involvement is universally low, and in Tanzania, where it is universally high. Scalar measurement invariance was found for the one-factor structure across 13 samples and for the two-factor structure across 11 samples. External validation of the scale is examined using psychological and sociodemographic variables. This validation of the DUREL supports its use across contexts, facilitating increased attention to this important aspect of both personality and culture

ǂŪsigu: The Structure of Character Description in Khoekhoegowab

Personality psychology relies heavily on evidence from North America and Europe. Lexical studies, based on the rationale that the most important psychological distinctions between people will be encoded in the natural languages, can provide input from underrepresented contexts by defining locally-relevant personality concepts and their structure. We report the results of a psycholexical study in Khoekhoegowab, the most widely spoken of southern Africa’s (non-Bantu) click languages. It includes the largest sample of any lexical study conducted in Sub-Saharan Africa, is the first anywhere to include qualitative interviews to systematically assess the interpretability of terms, and is one of few to rely on a more representative community sample of adults rather than students. Refinement of the survey included frequency-of-use ratings by native speakers from throughout Namibia and input on relevance to personality by those with a psychology degree. The survey was administered by interview to 622 participants by a team of 15 schoolteachers of Khoekhoegowab. The 11 dimensions of the optimal local model were labelled: Intemperance, Prosocial Diligence, Intrusive Gossip, Good Nature, Bad Temper, Predatory Aggression, Haughty Self-Respect, Vanity/Egotism, and Fear versus Courage. A Big One model of evaluation was strongly replicated. Moderate replication was found for the Big Two, Pan-Cultural Three, and a hypothesized pan-African model based on prior lexical results in two languages. Replication criteria were not achieved for the Big Five, Big Six, or South African Personality Inventory models. What results suggest about the local cultural context and about culturally specific aspects of the imported models are discussed

Still Standing Inside: A Local Idiom Related to Trauma among Namibian Speakers of Khoekhoegowab.

Euro-centric psychiatric conceptualizations often ignore the interplay of local with universal factors in psychological suffering. Emic, locally focused perspectives can enrich etic knowledge to provide culturally sensitive care and to better elucidate the role of culture in mental illness. This study explored the idiom Tsûsa ǃNaeǃkhais xa hâǃnâ/mâǃnâ/ǂgâǃnâhe hâ (a terrible event has entered a person and remains standing inside), which was understood to relate to experiences of trauma and post-traumatic stress, among speakers of Khoekhoegowab, a southern-African click language. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 16 participants from six urban and rural communities in Namibia. Questions probed perceptions of the idiom in terms of etiology, course, and risk and resilience factors from a socio-ecological framework. Five key themes were identified using thematic analysis: origin in a shocking event; intrusive recurrence of memories, "it keeps on coming back"; the close interplay between mental and physical suffering; the importance of active engagement in healing through prayer and acceptance; and the role of the community in both alleviating and amplifying distress. Our findings highlight local norms and strategies for adaptive coping, and the benefits of exploring local idioms to elucidate the braiding together of universal and cultural elements in psychological distress