Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ)
(Tellegen, 1982; Tellegen & Waller, 2008 ).
The MPQ measures three higher order factors, labeled: Positive Emotionality, Negative Emotionality, and
Constraint. The MPQ includes 11 scales: Well-Being, Social Potency, Achievement, Social Closeness, Stress
Reaction, Alienation, Aggression, Control vs. Impulsivity, Harm Avoidance vs. Danger Seeking, Traditionalism,
and Absorption. Cronbach alpha coefficients across US, Israeli, and German samples ranged from .68 to .90 (see
Table 26.1 for details). In a comparison between US and Israeli samples, Ben-Porath, Almagor, Hoffman-Chemi,
and Tellegen (1995) found acceptable congruence coefficients ( ..90) for all three factors. Johnson, Spinath,
Krueger, Angleitner, and Riemann (2008) found about 29% items with DIF between a US and a German sample,
indicating limitations to score comparability. The reviewed studies suggest that the MPQ has adequate structural
equivalence, although only a few countries have been examined and there is evidence of item bias. This instru-
ment may be useful for cross-cultural comparisons of personality structure in Western cultures, especially when
a focus on temperament-related factors is of interest.
INVENTORIES BASED ON THEORETICAL MODELS
Big Five/FFM Family of Inventories
The wide interest in the Big Five model of normal personality during the last decades of the 20th century has
been accompanied by the development of multiple instruments designed to measure personality according to
this model ( John, Naumann, & Soto, 2008 ). We discuss some of the major ones below.
Big Five Inventory (BFI)
(Schmitt et al., 2007 ).
The BFI is designed to measure the five higher-order factors of Extraversion (E), Agreeableness (A),
Conscientiousness (C), Neuroticism (N), and Openness (O). Schmitt et al. (2007) reported the following
Cronbach alpha coefficients across 56 cultures from North America, South America, Western Europe, Eastern
Europe, Southern Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Oceania, South and Southeast Asia, and East Asia: E (.77),
A (.70), C (.78), N (.79), and O (.76) as well as values per world region. Schmitt et al. (2007) examined the
validity of the BFI for cross-cultural use in several country-level analyses. First, they found a positive correla-
tion of .49 between E measured by the BFI and the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) in 24 countries,
although the correlation for N (.18) did not reach significance. Second, they found some evidence for conver-
gent validity in correlations of facet and domain scales of the BFI and NEO-PI-R in 27 countries. The conver-
gent country-level correlations were sizable for E, N, and C (.44, .45, and .45, respectively), but not for A
(.22) and O (.27). Schmitt et al. (2007) presented evidence for external-criterion validity of E and, less conclu-
sively, N as country- and region-level predictors of sociosexuality (47 countries) and self-esteem (55 coun-
tries). The BFI has been translated and/or adapted into 28 languages and administered in 56 countries;
samples from Morocco, Ethiopia, Fiji, the Philippines, and Hong Kong have been administered the inventory
in English, with clarifications for certain terms and phrases ( Schmitt et al., 2007 ). The total sample congru-
ence coefficients after target rotation to the US sample were in excess of .98 (see Table 26.1 ). The average
coefficients per world region were also high (all ..90), as follows: E (.94), A (.93), C (.96), N (.96), and O
(.94). However, there were also some lower congruence coefficients per individual regions: E (.88, Africa), A
(.87, Eastern Europe; .88, Middle East; .85, South and Southeast Asia), C (.88, Africa; .89, South and Southeast
Asia), and O (.84, Africa, .86, South and Southeast Asia; Schmitt et al., 2007 ). Still, no region had much lower
values.
An impressive amount of data has been gathered and systematically presented on the cross-cultural use of the
BFI, allowing examination of cross-cultural similarities and differences in the instrument’s functioning. For exam-
ple, Schmitt and colleagues (2007) examined four possible explanations for some of the lower indices of conver-
gent validity at country level (sampling, standardization, acquiescence, and conceptualization). The aggregate
congruence coefficients are reassuring for country-level analyses, although more caution is suggested in the
application of the BFI in individual country and region comparisons.766 26. MEASURES OF PERSONALITY ACROSS CULTURES
VI. SOCIOCULTURAL INTERACTION AND CONFLICT