On Enhancing the Cross–Cultural Comparability of Likert–Scale Personality and Value Measures: A Comparison of Common Procedures

2017 ◽  
Vol 31 (6) ◽  
pp. 642-657 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jia He ◽  
Fons J.R. Van de Vijver ◽  
Velichko H. Fetvadjiev ◽  
Alejandra de Carmen Dominguez Espinosa ◽  
Byron Adams ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
A Priori ◽  
Likert Scale ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Response Style ◽  
Ordered Categories ◽  
Personality Psychology ◽  
Invariance Testing ◽  
Anchoring Vignettes ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Using Data

This study aims to evaluate a number of procedures that have been proposed to enhance cross–cultural comparability of personality and value data. A priori procedures (anchoring vignettes and direct measures of response styles (i.e. acquiescence, extremity, midpoint responding, and social desirability), a posteriori procedures focusing on data transformations prior to analysis (ipsatization and item parcelling), and two data modelling procedures (treating data as continuous vs as ordered categories) were compared using data collected from university students in 16 countries. We found that (i) anchoring vignettes showed lack of invariance, so they were not bias–free; (ii) anchoring vignettes showed higher internal consistencies than raw scores where all other correction procedures, notably ipsatization, showed lower internal consistencies; (iii) in measurement invariance testing, no procedure yielded scalar invariance; anchoring vignettes and item parcelling slightly improved comparability, response style correction did not affect it, and ipsatization resulted in lower comparability; (iv) treating Likert–scale data as categorical resulted in higher levels of comparability; (v) factor scores of scales extracted from different procedures showed similar correlational patterning; and (vi) response style correction was the only procedure that suggested improvement in external validity of country–level conscientiousness. We conclude that, although no procedure resolves all comparability issues, anchoring vignettes, parcelling, and treating data as ordered categories seem promising to alleviate incomparability. We advise caution in uncritically applying any of these procedures. Copyright © 2017 European Association of Personality Psychology

scholarly journals Cross-Cultural Variations in Extreme Rejecting and Extreme Affirming Response Styles

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (8) ◽  
pp. 955-971 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tieyuan Guo ◽  
Roy Spina
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Response Style ◽  
Response Styles ◽  
Cultural Variation ◽  
Cultural Variations ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Country Level ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Individual

Previous research has discussed cultural differences in moderacy vs extremity response styles. The present research found that cultural differences in response styles were more complex than previously speculated. We investigated cross-cultural variations in extreme rejecting versus affirming response biases. Although research has indicated that overall Chinese have less extreme responses than Westerners, the difference may be mainly driven by extreme rejecting responses because respondents consider answering survey questions as a way of interacting with researchers, and extreme rejecting responses may disrupt harmony in relationships, which is valued more in Chinese collectivistic culture than in Western individualistic cultures. Studies 1 and 2 revealed that Chinese had less extreme rejecting response style than did British, whereas they did not differ in extreme affirming response style. Study 2 further revealed that the cross-cultural asymmetry in extreme rejecting versus affirming response styles was partially accounted for by individualism orientation at the individual level. Consistently, Study 3 revealed that at the country level, individualism was positively associated with extreme rejecting response style, but was not associated with extreme affirming response style, suggesting that individualism accounted for the asymmetric cultural variation in extreme rejecting versus affirming response styles.

scholarly journals Forced choice to overcome the cross-cultural response style bias problem

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tianjun Sun ◽  
Fritz Drasgow
Keyword(s):  
Item Response ◽  
Convergent Validity ◽  
The United States ◽  
Likert Scale ◽  
Forced Choice ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Response Style ◽  
Tree Model ◽  
Two Samples ◽  
The Impact

Two formats, traditional Likert scale single statements and two-alternative forced choice statements, were administered to samples from the United States and China to examine whether format influences response biases. Examination of response anchor usages and decision making processes from the two samples using an item response tree model yielded conclusions consistent with findings of prior studies--traditional Likert scale single statements exhibited cross-cultural response style differences: Chinese respondents engage in significantly less endpoint endorsement. Such response style differences can produce measurement nonequivalence across cultures. In contrast, a two-alternative forced choice format with Item Response Theory scoring yielded latent trait score estimates substantially correlated with estimates from other measures, demonstrating convergent validity, but with much smaller differences in trait variance across cultural groups. Thus, the two-alternative forced choice format appears to be an effective format for reducing the impact of cross-cultural response style bias. Implications for practice and extensions for further research are discussed.

scholarly journals Psychometric Properties and Correlates of Precarious Manhood Beliefs in 62 Nations

2021 ◽  
pp. 002202212199799
Author(s):  
Jennifer K. Bosson ◽  
Paweł Jurek ◽  
Joseph A. Vandello ◽  
Natasza Kosakowska-Berezecka ◽  
Michał Olech ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Human Development ◽  
Gender Equality ◽  
Ambivalent Sexism ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Gender Ideologies ◽  
Public Action ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Male Gender Role ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Individual

Precarious manhood beliefs portray manhood, relative to womanhood, as a social status that is hard to earn, easy to lose, and proven via public action. Here, we present cross-cultural data on a brief measure of precarious manhood beliefs (the Precarious Manhood Beliefs scale [PMB]) that covaries meaningfully with other cross-culturally validated gender ideologies and with country-level indices of gender equality and human development. Using data from university samples in 62 countries across 13 world regions ( N = 33,417), we demonstrate: (1) the psychometric isomorphism of the PMB (i.e., its comparability in meaning and statistical properties across the individual and country levels); (2) the PMB’s distinctness from, and associations with, ambivalent sexism and ambivalence toward men; and (3) associations of the PMB with nation-level gender equality and human development. Findings are discussed in terms of their statistical and theoretical implications for understanding widely-held beliefs about the precariousness of the male gender role.

Three Paradoxical Effects on Academic Self-Concept Across Countries, Schools, and Students

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 231-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Herbert W. Marsh ◽  
Philip D. Parker ◽  
Reinhard Pekrun
Keyword(s):  
International Student ◽  
Student Assessment ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Frame Of Reference ◽  
School Level ◽  
Self Concept ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
International Student Assessment ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Starting School

Abstract. We simultaneously resolve three paradoxes in academic self-concept research with a single unifying meta-theoretical model based on frame-of-reference effects across 68 countries, 18,292 schools, and 485,490 15-year-old students. Paradoxically, but consistent with predictions, effects on math self-concepts were negative for: • being from countries where country-average achievement was high; explaining the paradoxical cross-cultural self-concept effect; • attending schools where school-average achievement was high; demonstrating big-fish-little-pond-effects (BFLPE) that generalized over 68 countries, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)/non-OECD countries, high/low achieving schools, and high/low achieving students; • year-in-school relative to age; unifying different research literatures for associated negative effects for starting school at a younger age and acceleration/skipping grades, and positive effects for starting school at an older age (“academic red shirting”) and, paradoxically, even for repeating a grade. Contextual effects matter, resulting in significant and meaningful effects on self-beliefs, not only at the student (year in school) and local school level (BFLPE), but remarkably even at the macro-contextual country-level. Finally, we juxtapose cross-cultural generalizability based on Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) data used here with generalizability based on meta-analyses, arguing that although the two approaches are similar in many ways, the generalizability shown here is stronger in terms of support for the universality of the frame-of-reference effects.

Recognizing Job Apathy Patterns of Iraqi Higher Education Employees Using Data Mining Techniques

2019 ◽  
Vol 54 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mustafa S. Abd ◽  
Suhad Faisal Behadili
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Data Mining ◽  
Psychiatric Patients ◽  
Human Life ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Attribute Selection ◽  
Specific Class ◽  
Data Mining Techniques ◽  
Using Data

Psychological research centers help indirectly contact professionals from the fields of human life, job environment, family life, and psychological infrastructure for psychiatric patients. This research aims to detect job apathy patterns from the behavior of employee groups in the University of Baghdad and the Iraqi Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research. This investigation presents an approach using data mining techniques to acquire new knowledge and differs from statistical studies in terms of supporting the researchers’ evolving needs. These techniques manipulate redundant or irrelevant attributes to discover interesting patterns. The principal issue identifies several important and affective questions taken from a questionnaire, and the psychiatric researchers recommend these questions. Useless questions are pruned using the attribute selection method. Moreover, pieces of information gained through these questions are measured according to a specific class and ranked accordingly. Association and a priori algorithms are used to detect the most influential and interrelated questions in the questionnaire. Consequently, the decisive parameters that may lead to job apathy are determined.

scholarly journals Relationship between MODIS Derived NDVI and Yield of Cereals for Selected European Countries

Agronomy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 340
Author(s):  
Ewa Panek ◽  
Dariusz Gozdowski
Keyword(s):  
Linear Regression ◽  
Grain Yield ◽  
Vegetation Index ◽  
Normalized Difference Vegetation Index ◽  
Arable Land ◽  
Early Spring ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Yield Prediction ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Using Data

In this study, the relationships between normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) obtained based on MODIS satellite data and grain yield of all cereals, wheat and barley at a country level were analyzed. The analysis was performed by using data from 2010–2018 for 20 European countries, where percentage of cereals is high (at least 35% of the arable land). The analysis was performed for each country separately and for all of the collected data together. The relationships between NDVI and cumulative NDVI (cNDVI) were analyzed by using linear regression. Relationships between NDVI in early spring and grain yield of cereals were very strong for Croatia, Czechia, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Slovakia. This means that the yield prediction for these countries can be as far back as 4 months before the harvest. The increase of NDVI in early spring was related to the increase of grain yield by about 0.5–1.6 t/ha. The cumulative of averaged NDVI gives more stable prediction of grain yield per season. For France and Belgium, the relationships between NDVI and grain yield were very weak.

scholarly journals Depression and loneliness of older adults in Europe and Israel after the first wave of covid-19

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josefine Atzendorf ◽  
Stefan Gruber
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
Epidemic Control ◽  
Government Response ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Interaction Terms ◽  
Share Data ◽  
Using Data

AbstractEpidemic control measures that aim to introduce social distancing help to decelerate the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, their consequences in terms of mental well-being might be negative, especially for older adults. While existing studies mainly focus on the time during the first lockdown, we look at the weeks afterward in order to measure the medium-term consequences of the first wave of the pandemic. Using data from the SHARE Corona Survey, we include retired respondents aged 60 and above from 25 European countries plus Israel. Combining SHARE data with macro-data from the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker allows us to include macro-indicators at the country level, namely the number of deaths per 100,000 and the number of days with stringent epidemic control measures, in addition to individual characteristics. The findings show that both macro-indicators are influential for increased feelings of sadness/depression, but that individual factors are crucial for explaining increased feelings of loneliness in the time after the first lockdown. Models with interaction terms reveal that the included macro-indicators have negative well-being consequences, particularly for the oldest survey participants. Additionally, the results reveal that especially those living alone had a higher risk for increased loneliness in the time after the first COVID-19 wave.

Suicidal Ideation Among International Students: The Role of Cultural, Academic, and Interpersonal Factors

2021 ◽  
pp. 001100002110024
Author(s):  
Andrés E. Pérez Rojas ◽  
Na-Yeun Choi ◽  
Minji Yang ◽  
Theodore T. Bartholomew ◽  
Giovanna M. Pérez
Keyword(s):  
International Students ◽  
Suicidal Ideation ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Structural Equation Models ◽  
The United States ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Thwarted Belongingness ◽  
Perceived Burdensomeness ◽  
Using Data

We examined two structural equation models of international students’ suicidal ideation using data from 595 international students in two public universities in the United States. The models represented competing hypotheses about the relationships among discrimination, cross-cultural loss, academic distress, thwarted belongingness, perceived burdensomeness, and suicidal ideation. The findings indicated there were direct, positive links between discrimination, cross-cultural loss, and academic distress to perceived burdensomeness; a direct, positive link between perceived burdensomeness and suicidal ideation; and indirect, positive links between discrimination, cross-cultural loss, and academic distress to suicidal ideation via perceived burdensomeness. The only predictors that related to thwarted belongingness were cross-cultural loss and academic distress, and there were no indirect links to suicidal ideation via thwarted belongingness. In fact, with all other variables in the model, thwarted belongingness was unrelated to suicidal ideation. Finally, academic distress was directly related to suicidal ideation. We discuss implications of the findings.

Social Response to Age-Gap Sex Involving Minors

2010 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 113-125
Author(s):  
Bruce Rind
Keyword(s):  
Moral Panic ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Social Response ◽  
Contemporary Culture ◽  
Scarlet Letter ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
Age Gap ◽  
The Us ◽  
Trauma Response

Social response to age‐gap sex involving minors has become increasingly severe. In the US, non‐coercive acts that might have been punished with probation 30 years ago often lead to decades in prison today. Punishment also increasingly includes civil commitment up to life, as well as scarlet‐letter‐like public registries and onerous residence restrictions for released offenders. Advocates and the general public approve, believing that age‐gap sex with minors is uniquely injurious, pathological, and criminal. Critics argue that public opinion and policy have been shaped by moral panic, consisting of unfounded assumptions and invalid science being uncritically promoted by ideology, media sensationalism, and political pandering. This talk critically examines the basic assumptions and does so using a multi‐perspective approach (empirical, historical, cross‐cultural, cross‐species) to overcome the biases inherent in traditional clinical‐forensic reports. Non‐clinical empirical reviews of age‐gap sex involving minors show claims of intense, pervasive injuriousness to be highly exaggerated. Historical and cross‐cultural reviews show that adult‐adolescent sexual relations have been common and frequently socially integrated in other times and places, indicating that present‐day Western conceptualizations are socially constructed to reflect current social and economic arrangements rather than expressions of a priori truths. Analogous relations in primates are commonplace, non‐pathological, and not infrequently functional, contradicting implicit assumptions of a biologically‐based “trauma response” in humans. It is concluded that, though age‐gap sex involving minors is a significant mismatch for contemporary culture—and this talk therefore does not endorse it—attitudes and social policy concerning it have been driven by an upward‐spiraling moral panic, which itself is immoral in its excessive adverse consequences for individuals and society.

scholarly journals Analyzing Measurement Invariance of the Students’ Engagement Instrument Brief Version: The Cases of Denmark, Finland, and Portugal

2017 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 297-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. E. Virtanen ◽  
P. Moreira ◽  
H. Ulvseth ◽  
H. Andersson ◽  
S. Tetler ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Student Engagement ◽  
Measurement Invariance ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
School Contexts ◽  
Invariance Testing ◽  
National School ◽  
Cultural Research ◽  
Cross Cultural Research ◽  
Different Levels ◽  
Cross National

The promotion of students’ engagement with school is an internationally acknowledged challenge in education. There is a need to examine the structure of the concept of student engagement and to discover the best practices for fostering it across societies. That is why the cross-cultural invariance testing of students’ engagement measures is highly needed. This study aimed, first, to find the reduced set of theoretically valid items to represent students’ affective and cognitive engagement forming the Brief-SEI (brief version of the Student Engagement Instrument; SEI). The second aim was to test the measurement invariance of the Brief-SEI across three countries (Denmark, Finland, and Portugal). A total of 4,437 seventh-grade students completed the SEI questionnaires in the three countries. The analyses revealed that of the total 33 original instrument items, 15 items indicated acceptable psychometric properties of the Brief-SEI. With these 15 items, cross-national factorial validity and invariances across genders and students with different levels of academic performance (samples from Finland and Portugal) were demonstrated. This article discusses the utility of the Brief-SEI in cross-cultural research and its applicability in different national school contexts.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document