The South African Personality Inventory (SAPI): A culture-informed instrument for the country’s main ethnocultural groups.

Abstract

We present the development and the underlying structure of a personality inventory for the main ethnocultural groups of South Africa, using an emic-etic approach. The South African Personality Inventory (SAPI) was developed based on an extensive qualitative study of the implicit personality conceptions in the country's 11 official languages (Nel et al., 2012). Items were generated and selected (to a final set of 146) with a continuous focus on cultural adequacy and translatability. Students and community adults (671 Blacks, 198 Coloreds, 104 Indians, and 391 Whites) completed the inventory. A 6-dimensional structure (comprising a positive and a negative Social-Relational factor, Neuroticism, Extraversion, Conscientiousness, and Openness) was equivalent across groups and replicated in an independent sample of 139 Black and 270 White students. The SAPI correlated highly overall with impression-management aspects, but lower with lying aspects of social desirability. The SAPI socialrelational factors were distinguishable from the Big Five in a joint factor analysis; the multiple correlations with the Big Five were .64 (positive) and .51 (negative social-relational). Implications and suggestions for emic-etic instrument and model development are discussed.

Indigenous Research Methods: A Systematic Review

“…This method entails the researchers focusing on independently uncovering both universal (emic) and specific Indigenous (etic) factors related to the construct in question; this approach ensures that the final data includes both majority culture factors and also Indigenous factors. These two categories of constructs have historically been thought of as distinct and somewhat conflicting; however, Fetvadjiev et al (2015) found that Indigenous personality factors mapped on to the Big Five Model. Leong et al (2010) also noted similarities across general personality factors and those generated from Chinese novels and proverbs.…”

“…Two studies explored an emic-etic approach, specifically within the context of personality assessment (Fetvadjiev, Meiring, van de Vijver, Nel, & Hill, 2015;Leong, Leung, & Cheung, 2010). This method entails the researchers focusing on independently uncovering both universal (emic) and specific Indigenous (etic) factors related to the construct in question; this approach ensures that the final data includes both majority culture factors and also Indigenous factors.…”

Personality and well-being in Black and White South African emerging adults

“…Some research has shown that personality instruments are limited for use in South Africa and need continual refinement (Fetvadjiev, Meiring, van de Vijver, Nel, & Hill, 2015;Taylor & De Bruin, 2005;Van Zyl, 2014). Cultural and language bias and inequalities seem to be the major problems (Fetvadjiev et al, 2015;Meiring, van de Vijver, Rothmann, & Barrick, 2005).…”

Choosing an adequate design and analysis in cross-cultural personality research

“…It is difficult to accommodate the diversity in cross-cultural personality findings under a universal theoretical roof (etic), as theories in personality are sometimes tied to their cultural contexts (emic) that cannot be fully characterized by universal frameworks (e.g., Church, 2009;Church et al, 2011;Fetvadjiev, Meiring, van de Vijver, Nel, & Hill, 2015). Both the etic and emic approaches have certain methodological advantages and disadvantages; yet, it seems difficult to escape from the impression that differences between the two approaches have been much overrated and that both approaches are more complementary than often assumed.…”