Using Cognitive Interviewing for the Semantic Enhancement of Multilingual Versions of Personality Questionnaires
Abstract
We discuss the use of cognitive interviewing with bilinguals as an integral part of cross-cultural adaptation of personality questionnaires. The aim is to maximize semantic equivalence to increase the likelihood of items maintaining the intended structure and meaning in the target language. We refer to this part of adaptation as semantic enhancement, and integrate cognitive interviewing within it as a tool for scrutinizing translations, the connotative meaning, and the psychological impact of items across languages. During the adaptation of a work-based personality questionnaire from English to Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), and Spanish, we cognitively interviewed 12 bilingual participants about 136 items in different languages (17% of all items), of which 67 were changed. A content analysis categorizing the reasons for amending items elicited 11 errors that affect 2 identified forms of semantic equivalence. We provide the resultant coding scheme as a framework for designing cognitive interviewing protocols and propose a procedure for implementing them. We discuss implications for theory and practice.
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Incorporating a more thorough qualitative stage into the translation process could have strengthened the semantic equivalence of the translated scales.
“Incorporating a more thorough qualitative stage into the translation process could have strengthened the semantic equivalence of the translated scales [130].”
From Validation of the compassionate engagement and action scales, compassion scale, and Sussex-Oxford compassion scales in a French-Canadian sample (2024) · cites this paper as [130]
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- Authors
- Daouk-Öyry, L., & McDowal, A.
- Affiliations
- University of Surrey (GB)
- Venue
- Journal of Personality Assessment
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2013-07
- Volume
- 95
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 407-416
- ISSN
- 0022-3891 (ISSN-L)
- 1532-7752
- OpenAlex
- W2128233896
- Cited by
- 25
- References
- 45
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 1 · 2013: 1
- FWCI
- 0.85
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Personality Assessment (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- BIROn (Birkbeck, University of London) (acceptedVersion)
- City Research Online (City University London) (acceptedVersion)
- Surrey Research Insight Open Access (The University of Surrey) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Management Science and Operations Research › Psychometric Methodologies and Testing
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Psychological Testing and Assessment
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Language and Linguistics › Translation Studies and Practices
- Keywords
- cognitive interviewing, cross-cultural adaptation, personality tests, semantic equivalence, bilinguals, Arabic translation, Mandarin translation, Spanish translation, test item revision, connotation
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Cross-Cultural Comparison, Female, Humans, Interview, Psychological, Language, Male, Middle Aged, Personality, Personality Assessment, Psychometrics, Surveys and Questionnaires, Translations
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