Personality structure across cultures: A multimethod evaluation.

Abstract

Personality structure was assessed in 4 countries (Canada, Finland, Poland, and Germany) using both an established verbal personality inventory and a new nonverbal personality questionnaire. A 5-factor structure was found to be highly robust in that it was replicated across the 4 cultures and across the 2 personality assessment methods. The data are discussed in terms of (a) the failure to support a semantic similarity interpretation of personality item responses, (b) the factorial validity of the new nonverbal personality questionnaire, and (c) the viability of the popular 5-factor model of personality. We describe the results of a multimethod cross-cultural study of personality structure. We assessed the organization of personality in four countries by using a traditional verbal self-report measure of personality and a new nonverbal measure. The verbal inventory we used was Jackson's (1984) Personality Research Form-E (PRF), listed in Mitchell's Tests in Print (1983, Table 2) as the fourth most cited personality test used by psychological researchers. The new nonverbal measure, called the Nonverbal Personality Questionnaire (NPQ), is a structured paper-and-pencil form measuring 16 of the 20 Murray traits represented in the PRF. Its items are 136 line drawings of a person engaging in various trait-related behaviors. Respondents are asked to estimate the likelihood that they would engage in behaviors like those shown in the illustrations. The development of the NPQ and some of its psychometric properties have been described by Paunonen, Jackson, and Keinonen (1990). We had three primary goals in designing the present crosscultural study. These goals, described in the following sections, pertain to evaluating personality structure and (a) the wellknown semantic similarity interpretation of personality ques

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