Premium
Exploring the Personality Structure in the 11 Languages of South Africa
Author(s) -
Nel Jan Alewyn,
Valchev Velichko H.,
Rothmann Sebastiaan,
Vijver Fons J. R.,
Meiring Deon,
Bruin Gideon P.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
journal of personality
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.082
H-Index - 144
eISSN - 1467-6494
pISSN - 0022-3506
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-6494.2011.00751.x
Subject(s) - conscientiousness , psychology , openness to experience , personality , extraversion and introversion , intellect , social psychology , developmental psychology , big five personality traits , big five personality traits and culture , epistemology , philosophy
The present study, part of the development of the S outh A frican P ersonality I nventory ( SAPI ), explores the implicit personality structure in the 11 official language groups of S outh A frica by employing a mixed‐method approach. In the first, qualitative part of the study, semistructured interviews were conducted with 1,216 participants from the 11 official language groups. The derived personality‐descriptive terms were categorized and clustered based on their semantic relations in iterative steps involving group discussions and contacts with language and cultural experts. This analysis identified 37 subclusters, which could be merged in 9 broad clusters: Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, Extraversion, Facilitating, Integrity, Intellect, Openness, Relationship Harmony, and Soft‐Heartedness. In the second, quantitative part, the perceived relations between the 37 subclusters were rated by 204 students from different language groups in S outh A frica and 95 students in the Netherlands. The outcomes generally supported the adequacy of the conceptual model, although several clusters in the domain of relational and social functioning did not replicate in detail. The outcomes of these studies revealed a personality structure with a strong emphasis on social‐relational aspects of personality.