THE CROSS-CULTURAL COMPARABILITY OF THE 16 PERSONALITY FACTOR INVENTORY (16PF) FATIMA ABRAHAMS THE CROSS-CULTURAL COMPARABILITY OF TIIE 16 PERSONALITY FACTOR INVENTORY (16PF) by FATIMA ABRAHAMS submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF COMMERCE in the subject INDUSTRIAL PSYCHOLOGY at the UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA PROMOTER: PROF K F MAUER 30 NOVEMBER 1996 IBIS IBESIS IS DEDICATED TO MY PARENTS, ACHMAT AND WARALDIA GYDIEN, MY HUSBAND, RAMZIE AND MY DAUGHTERS, ZAREEN AND MISHKAH. UN ISA BIBUOTEEK I LIBRARY rn~d-04- , 1 Class Klas .. 155. 283 ABRA Ace es Aanwi1 ...... llHHlmHllll 0001698820 Student number: 3004-475-8 I declare that The cross-cultural comparability of the 16 Personality Factor Inventory (16PF) is my own work and all that I have used or quoted have been indicated and acknowledged by means of complete references. SIGNATURE DATE (MRS) F ABRAHAMS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS All praises are due to the Creator who granted me the ability to tackle and complete this thesis. I would also like to thank all the people who supported me throughout the process, particularly: Prof. K F Mauer, my supervisor, for his suggestions and inputs about the thesis in general, his critical comments of the draft chapters, and his constant willingness to support me throughout the entire process. Prof. Micheal Muller and Ms. Evelyn Muller for their advice and help with conducting the statistical analysis. My brother Ziyaad, for his continual support and for acting as my research assistant, who spent many hours coding and punching the data. The staff of the Psychology and/or Industrial Psychology Departments at the University of Durban-Westville, University of Pretoria, and University of Natal who so willingly spent time helping me with the administration of the test. All the students who participated in the study, particularly my honours students of 1996. The staff of the department of Industrial Psychology, UWC, for their constant encouragement and support. My parents, Achmat and Waraldia Gydien who made many sacrifices throughout their lives to give me an education and who supported me emotionally and physically whilst busy with this thesis. My husband Ramzie, whose support and encouragement was invaluable during this period, and who made valuable comments about my research. My daughters, Mishkah and Zareen, who inspire me continually and who love me unconditionally. And last, but not least, my brothers Sedick and Riad, who supported and encouraged me continually, even though we argued over many issues over the years, as sibling often do. Finally, the financial assistance of the Centre for Science Development towards this research is acknowledged. Opinions expressed in this thesis and conclusions arrived at, are those of the author and are not necessarily to be attributed to the Centre for Science Development. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF TABLES viii LIST OF FIGURES XlV SUMMARY xvi CHAPI'ER 1 INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Background 1 1.2 Importance of Research 5 1.3 Aims 8 1.4 Conclusion 9 CHAPI'ER 2 CROSS-CULTURAL PSYCHOWGY 10 2.1 Introduction 10 2.2 Cross-cultural Psychology 10 2.3 Goals of cross-cultural psychology 13 2.4 Relationships with other disciplines 15 2.4.1 Historical development 16 2.4.2 Cross-cultural psychology in South Africa 20 2.4.3 Academic interest in cross-cultural psychology 25 2.5 Etic-Emic Distinction 27 2.6 Ethnocentrism of psychology 29 11 2.7 Culture and ethnicity 35 2.7.1 Culture 35 2.7.2 Ethnicity 37 2.8 Conclusion 39 CHAPTER 3 COMPARABILITY OF PERSONALITY TESTS 40 3.1 Introduction 40 3.2 Comparability 42 3.2.1 The logic of comparability 42 3.2.2 Defining comparability 44 3.3 Bias 48 3.3.1 Bias in predictive validity 49 3.3.2 Bias in construct validity 51 3.3.3 Bias in content validity 52 3.4 Relationship between comparability and bias 56 3.5 Research on the cross-cultural comparability of personality tests 57 3.5.1 Cross-cultural research on the 16PF 64 3.5.2 Cross-cultural research on personality tests in South Africa 69 3.6 Conclusion 71 Ill CHAYfER 4 CATTELL'S FACTOR THEORY 72 4.1 Introduction 72 4.2 Trait Theorists 73 4.2.1 Allport 73 4.2.2 Guilford 75 4.2.3 Eysenck 76 4.3 Cattell' s Factor Theory 78 4.3.1 Definition of Personality 79 4.3.2 Structure of Personalty 82 4.3.2.1 Classification of traits 82 4.3.2.2 Dynamic structure 87 4.3.2.3 The dynamic lattice 91 4.3.2.4 Conflict and the specification equation 92 4.3.3 Research methodology 93 4.3.3.1 Sources of data 93 4.3.3.2 Basic techniques in factor analytic methods 97 4.3.4 Stages of Personality Development 100 4.3.5 Heredity-Environment Research and Learning 103 4.3.6 Evaluation of Cattell's theory 105 4.4 Conclusion 109 iv CHAPTERS STATEMENT OF PROBLEM AND HYPOTHESIS 110 5.1 Introduction 110 5.2 Hypotheses 112 CHAPTER 6 RESEARCH DESIGN 118 6.1 Sample 118 6.2 Measuring Instruments 128 6.2.1 The 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF) 128 6.2.1.1 The uses of the 16PF 132 6.2.1.2 Interpreting the 16PF 133 6.2.1.2.1 First-order factors 134 6.2.1.2.2 Second-order factors 165 6.2.1.2.3 Third-order factors 169 6.2.1.3 Evaluation of the 16PF 170 6.2.1.4 The 16PF in South Africa 175 6.2.1.4.1 The 16 Personality factor Questionnaire, South African 1992 version (16PF SA92) 177 6.2.2 Biographical Questionnaire 183 6.3 Procedure 187 6.4 Methods and techniques 187 6.5 Conclusion 188 v CHAPfER 7 RESULTS 189 7.1 Descriptive statistics 189 7.1.1 Race 190 7.1.2 Gender 195 7.1.3 Language groups 198 7.1.4 Age groups 204 7.1.5 Institution 208 7.1.6 Socio-economic status 213 7.2 Interactions 217 7.3 Construct comparability 218 7.3.l Reliabilities 218 7.3.2 Factor Analysis 237 7.3.3 Itern analysis 266 7.4 Item comparability 284 7.5 Summary of empirical results 301 7.6 Conclusion 306 CHAPTER 8 QUALITATIVE EXPLORATIONS 307 8.1 Basis for incomparability 308 8.2 Qualitative Approaches 310 8.2.l Questionnaire 310 8.2.2 Detailed analysis 316 VI 8.3 Reasons for item incomparability 317 8.4 Conclusion 347 CHAPTER 9 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 348 9.1 Major findings 348 9.1.1 Race 350 9.1.2 Gender 353 9.1.3 Age 354 9.1.4 Socio-economic status 355 9.2 Implications of the study 356 9.3 Recommendations 361 REFERENCES 368 Appendix A Biographical Questionnaire 404 Appendix B Interactions between race and gender 409 Appendix C Interactions between race and age 412 Vll Appendix D Questionnaire (synonyms) 418 Vlll LIST OF TABLES Page 4.1 Major personality factors found in both L and Q data. 96 6.1 Research participants according to race 119 6.2 Research participants according to gender 120 6.3 Research participants according to race and gender 120 6.4 Research participants according to home language 121 6.5 Research participants according to home language (grouping together certain black languages) 121 6.6 Research participants according to race and home language 122 6.7 Research participants according to age groups 123 6.8 Research participants according to race and age 124 6.9 Research participants who attended primary school in a rural or urban 125 area 6.10 Research participants who attended high school in a rural or urban area 125 6.11 Research participants according to race and institution 126 6.12 Research participants according to socio-economic status and race 127 6.13 The 16 factors of the test 129 6.14 The forms of the 16PF 131 IX 6.15 Factor A 134 6.16 Factor B 136 6.17 Factor C 138 6.18 Factor D 140 6.19 Factor E 141 6.20 Factor F 143 6.21 Factor G 145 6.22 Factor H 147 6.23 Factor I 149 6.24 Factor J 151 6.25 Factor L 152 6.26 Factor M 154 6.27 Factor N 156 6.28 Factor 0 158 6.29 Factor Q1 160 6.30 Factor Q2 161 6.31 Factor Q3 162 6.32 Factor Q4 164 6.33 List of Second-Stratum Factors measurable by the l 6PF 166 x 6.34 Reliability coefficients (KR-8) for first-order factors 179 6.35 Reliability coefficients (using Mosier's formula) for second-order factors 180 7.1 Means and standard deviations of the 16PF for blacks, coloureds, 192 Indians and whites 7.2 Means and standard deviations of the 16PF for males and females 196 7.3 Means and standard deviations of the participants speaking other black languages, Xhosa, English, and Afrikaans 201 7.4 Means and standard deviations of the 16PF for the various age groups 206 7.5 Means and standard deviations of the 16PF for the various university 210 groups 7.6 Means and standard deviations of the 16PF for participants based on 214 socio-economic status 7.7 Summary of significant mean differences in terms of race, language, gender, age, and university groups of the 16PF 216 7.8 Reliability coefficients of the 16PF for the sample and different race groups 220 7.9 Reliability coefficients of the 16PF for males and females 224 7.10 Reliability coefficients of the 16PF for various age groups 227 XI 7.11 Reliability coefficients of the 16PF for participants from different institutions 231 7.12 Reliability coefficients for participants based on their socio-economic status 234 7.13 Rotated factor matrix for whole sample 241 7.14 Rotated factor matrix for blacks 242 7.15 Rotated factor matrix for coloureds 247 7.16 Rotated factor matrix for Indians 248 7.17 Rotated factor matrix for whites 257 7.18 Range of discrimination values of the factors for the total sample 268 7.19 Items that failed to attain significant item-total correlations for the total sample 269 7.20 Range of discrimination values of the factors for the various race groups 271 7.21 Items that failed to attain significant item-total correlations for the various race groups 272 1:22 Range of discrimination values of the factors for males and females 273 7.23