Abstract:
In this study, we examined cross-cultural differences in sociability, a core personality facet of the higher order extraversion trait, which has been reported at lower levels in Eastern versus Western cultures several decades ago. Up until now, however, East-West cultural comparisons on the Western-defined construct of sociability have been limited, despite the extensive research published on extraversion indicating that this personality dimension is globally relevant across cultures. Following current practices, we first assessed for measurement invariance (MI) on the Cheek and Buss sociability scale between Chinese (n = 816, 47.2% male, M = 18.51 years, SD = 1.26 years) and Canadian (n = 995, 30.8% male, M = 19.62 years, SD = 1.25 years) young adult samples to ensure any comparisons would be valid and meaningful. Results from a multigroup confirmatory factor analysis (exact invariance) showed that there was measurement non-invariance at the scalar level in the sociability construct across country and country by sex, and the newer alignment method (approximate invariance) confirmed these results, suggesting that mean level comparisons of sociability were biased and noninformative. Our findings indicated that although a few of the higher-level personality dimensions such as extraversion are considered universal, the facets underlying their meaning, like sociability, are not as clearly delineated between cultures. Alongside the present-day pursuit of understanding personality across cultures through an indigenous measurement lens in tandem with the notion of universality, researchers should also consider narrowing their focus onto lower-level facets, each of which is likely to be uniquely embedded into a cultural context.
摘要:
在这项研究中,我们研究了社交能力的跨文化差异,高阶外向性特质的核心人格方面,几十年前,东方文化和西方文化的水平都较低。直到现在,然而,东西方文化对西方定义的社交能力结构的比较是有限的,尽管发表了大量关于外向性的研究,表明这种人格维度在不同文化中具有全球相关性。按照目前的做法,我们首先在Cheek和Buss社交量表上评估了中国人之间的测量不变性(MI)(n=816,男性47.2%,M=18.51年,SD=1.26岁)和加拿大人(n=995,男性30.8%,M=19.62年,SD=1.25年)年轻成人样本,以确保任何比较都是有效和有意义的。多组验证性因子分析(精确不变性)的结果表明,在整个国家和性别的社交能力建设中,标量水平上存在测量非不变性,较新的对齐方法(近似不变性)证实了这些结果,这表明社交能力的平均水平比较是有偏见和无信息的。我们的研究结果表明,尽管一些更高层次的人格维度,如外向性被认为是普遍的,它们含义背后的方面,比如社交能力,文化之间没有那么清晰的划分。除了当今通过本土测量镜头与普遍性概念相结合来追求跨文化理解人格的同时,研究人员还应考虑将重点放在较低级别的方面,每个都可能独特地嵌入到文化背景中。