scholarly journals Investigating the factor structure of the South African Personality Inventory – English version

2019 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadia Morton ◽  
Carin Hill ◽  
Deon Meiring ◽  
Leon T. De Beer

Orientation: Most psychological measuring instruments developed in Western, educated, industrial, rich, democratic (W.E.I.R.D.) countries have been found to inadequately capture and represent personality outside the borders of these countries. Consequently, culturally informed or indigenous measuring instruments need to be developed.Research purpose: This study aimed to inspect whether an overlap exists between the empirical data obtained and the theoretical six-factor SAPI framework, providing evidence for an indigenous personality structure in a multi-cultural context.Motivation for the study: Psychological professionals in South Africa have been criticised for using culturally biased instruments that do not display an accurate representation of the 11 official cultural groups. The South African Personality Inventory (SAPI) aims to address these criticisms, highlighting the importance of establishing the cultural applicability of the model through model-fit analyses.Research approach/design and method: A quantitative, cross-sectional design was used to administer the SAPI-English version to a sample of employed, unemployed and employment-seeking South Africans (N = 3912). Exploratory Structural Equation Modelling (ESEM) was used to model the data.Main findings: The results revealed that the model was a good fit to the data and that the SAPI factors accurately represent personality in a multi-cultural context.Practical/managerial implication: Using a well-researched indigenous personality assessment like the SAPI can assist South African organisations to fairly and reliably assess people across the 11 official cultural groups.Contribution/value-add: This study advances the processes surrounding indigenous test development through the establishment of a personality model and measure that encapsulates personality traits exhibited in a multi-cultural context.

2013 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Carin Hill ◽  
Jan Alewyn Nel ◽  
Fons J.R. Van de Vijver ◽  
Deon Meiring ◽  
Velichko H. Valchev ◽  
...  

Orientation: A multicultural country like South Africa needs fair cross-cultural psychometric instruments.Research purpose: This article reports on the process of identifying items for, and provides a quantitative evaluation of, the South African Personality Inventory (SAPI) items.Motivation for the study: The study intended to develop an indigenous and psychometrically sound personality instrument that adheres to the requirements of South African legislation and excludes cultural bias.Research design, approach and method: The authors used a cross-sectional design. They measured the nine SAPI clusters identified in the qualitative stage of the SAPI project in 11 separate quantitative studies. Convenience sampling yielded 6735 participants. Statistical analysis focused on the construct validity and reliability of items. The authors eliminated items that showed poor performance, based on common psychometric criteria, and selected the best performing items to form part of the final version of the SAPI.Main findings: The authors developed 2573 items from the nine SAPI clusters. Of these, 2268 items were valid and reliable representations of the SAPI facets.Practical/managerial implications: The authors developed a large item pool. It measures personality in South Africa. Researchers can refine it for the SAPI. Furthermore, the project illustrates an approach that researchers can use in projects that aim to develop culturally-informed psychological measures.Contribution/value-add: Personality assessment is important for recruiting, selecting and developing employees. This study contributes to the current knowledge about the early processes researchers follow when they develop a personality instrument that measures personality fairly in different cultural groups, as the SAPI does.


2020 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-21
Author(s):  
Velichko H. Fetvadjiev ◽  
Tia Neha ◽  
Fons J. R. van de Vijver ◽  
Martin McManus ◽  
Deon Meiring

Indigenous personality research often remains limited to its cultural context of origin. Previous cross-cultural examinations of indigenous models have typically focused on East–West comparisons and have paid scant attention to the predictive validity of indigenous models in new contexts. The present study addresses the replicability of the South African Personality Inventory (SAPI) and its predictive validity for family orientation and well-being in New Zealand European ( n = 428) and Māori students ( n = 226). The structure of the SAPI in New Zealand was equivalent to the structure identified in South Africa and had metric invariance between the two New Zealand groups. The SAPI social-relational scales explained additional variance above neuroticism, extraversion, conscientiousness, and openness in family orientation, but not in well-being. Mediation path analyses suggested that personality played a similar role for family orientation and well-being in the two groups when assessed by the SAPI, although group differences were suggested when using the Big Five Inventory. Our findings indicate that indigenously derived models, developed with the aim to represent culturally salient concepts, can be relevant well beyond their culture of origin and offer an enriched understanding of personality’s role for important outcomes across cultures.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carin Hill ◽  
Mpho Hlahleni ◽  
Lebogang Legodi

Personality assessments are frequently used to make decisions and predictions, creating a demand for assessments that are non-discriminatory. South African legislation requires psychological tests to be scientifically proven to be valid, reliable, fair and non-biased. In response to the necessity for a measure sensitive to indigenous differences, South African and Dutch researchers developed the South African Personality Inventory (SAPI). The SAPI represents a theoretical model of personality that uses an indigenous (emic) and universal (etic) approach to capture South Africa’s rich multicultural and multilingual view of personhood. The development of SAPI items and its simultaneous translation from English into all official languages necessitated the investigation of all the translated language versions’ psychometric properties. This study used Exploratory Structural Equation Modelling to examine the factor structure and model fit of two indigenous language versions of the SAPI, targeting the Tshivenda and the Southern Sotho languages. To accomplish this objective, Study 1 (N = 290) was done in South Africa among the Tshivenda ethnic group, while Study 2 (N = 293) was conducted in South Africa among the Sesotho ethnic group. An acquiescence response pattern was noticed in both studies, possibly to adhere to group consensus and emphasizing harmony within relationships. The ESEM solutions generated an excellent fit for both language versions, and most facets loaded acceptably on their expected factors. The Neuroticism factor proved to be problematic in both language versions. Within the Tshivenda version, the Emotional Stability facet did not generate adequate loadings on any SAPI factors. In contrast, neither Emotional Stability nor Negative Emotionality loaded sufficiently on the Neuroticism factor for the Southern Sotho version. While the overall fit of the six-factor model was excellent, the language in which a person completes a personality questionnaire seems to influence such an assessment’s factor structure. The Tshivenda and Sesotho versions of the SAPI cannot yet be positioned as equitable alternatives when using an indigenous version of the SAPI is needed. The implications of the results and proposals for future studies are discussed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Khensani Magagula ◽  
Eugine T. Maziriri ◽  
Musawenkosi D. Saurombe

Orientation: Research has been conducted regarding work readiness in a various contexts. However, there are deficiencies in studies that have focused on the precursors of work readiness in an African context.Research purpose: The primary objective of this study was to determine the impact of career self-efficacy (CSE), career exploration (CE) and self-perceived employability (SPE) on work readiness (WR) of students in the South African context, particularly in the Gauteng Province.Motivation for the study: There is an unequivocal gap between what educational institutions teach as well as what the South African labour market requires, highlighting a misalignment and one of many reasons graduates struggle to find work.Research approach/design and method: To close the research gap, the current study used a quantitative approach using the cross-sectional survey research design. A structured questionnaire was administered to 254 randomly selected students. The collected data were analysed using structural equation modelling.Main findings: The hypotheses testing results revealed that the WR was influenced significantly and positively by CSE, CE and SPE.Practical/managerial implications: The present research provides implications from which managers of institutions of higher learning can benefit. For instance, ensuring that experiential learning is involved in all the programmes. This will be more advantageous to students who would like to evaluate themselves to determine if they are work ready.Contribution/value-add: This study adds fresh understanding regarding the precursors that stimulate work readiness among students in a South African context.


2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 274-289
Author(s):  
Nadia Morton ◽  
Carin Hill ◽  
Deon Meiring ◽  
Fons JR van de Vijver

We are interested in the psychometric properties of the South African Personality Inventory, a personality measure developed to apply equally to speakers of all official languages in South Africa, by testing for measurement invariance across the four ethnocultural groups in South Africa. We conducted an exploratory structural equation modelling analysis to eliminate any restrictions on the variables and to allow them to covary. While measurement invariance was found on configural and metric levels, scalar invariance was not found. The results advance the aim of the South African Personality Inventory to comply with stipulations in South Africa’s Employment Equity Act regarding fair and unbiased assessments.


Author(s):  
Jan Christoff Visagie ◽  
Michael M. Jones ◽  
Herman L. Linde

The South African workplace is confronted with many leadership challenges, specifically those relating to the employment relationship between subordinates and their supervisors. A high-quality relationship is essential, considering the work-family spillovers employees experience. Limited research has been conducted on the potential positive and negative consequences of the leader-member exchange (LMX) dyadic relationship. In this study, we used a cross-sectional research design, and drew an employee sample (N = 120) from a commuter transport engineering company. A five-point Likert scale was employed and statistical analyses were carried out using the SAS statistical program. We calculated Pearson correlation coefficients and used structural equation modelling to test the proposed conceptual model to indicate possible correlations between the different variables. The main finding of the study was that the nature of the LMX relationship quality in the relevant company appeared to be high and positively related to work-home enrichment but negatively related to work-home conflict and role overload. The article concludes by making a number of suggestions to respond to challenges.


2013 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 95 ◽  
Author(s):  
N Clenzos ◽  
N Naidoo ◽  
R Parker

Background. Pain is the most common complaint for which patients seek the help of a physiotherapist. Furthermore, pain has been identified as the fifth vital sign, indicating the attention with which physiotherapists should be assessing pain. Previous studies have found deficits in pain knowledge among healthcare providers. Poor knowledge about pain is recognised to lead to poor assessment ability, and subsequently, to poor pain management.Objective. To investigate the pain knowledge of sports and orthopaedic manipulative physiotherapists in South Africa (SA).Methods. Data were collected online by means of a demographic questionnaire and Unruh’s Revised Pain Knowledge and Attitudes Questionnaire (RPKAQ). Participants were members of the Sports Physiotherapy Group and Orthopaedic Manipulative Physiotherapy Group of the South African Society of Physiotherapy.Results. The mean score for the RPKAQ was 65.5% (standard deviation (SD) ±8.6). Only 14.45% of the physiotherapists scored ≥75%. Lowest scores were obtained for the ‘assessment and measurement of pain’ (47.6%; SD ±15.6) and ‘developmental changes in pain perception’ (58.7%; SD ±20.8) sections of the RPKAQ, while the highest mean score was obtained for the ‘physiological basis of pain’ section (76.8%; SD±14.6). Gender, ethnicity (defined by home language), academic training and clinical experience did not contribute significantly to overall pain knowledge.Conclusion. There is an inadequate level of pain knowledge among members of the sports and orthopaedic manipulative physiotherapy groups in SA, particularly in the areas of the assessment and measurement of pain, and developmental changes in pain perception.


2021 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Doret Botha

Orientation: South Africa has been suffering from persistently high levels of unemployment since 2008. The youth is regarded as the most at-risk group in the South African labour market and unemployment amongst the youth is considered one of the most critical socio-economic problems in South Africa. Increasing one’s employability is essential to securing employment and enhancing one’s well-being.Research purpose: This study aimed to explore the self-perceived employability of undergraduate students at a South African university.Motivation for the study: Currently, there is a scarcity of published research on the self-perceived employability amongst undergraduate students at higher education institutions in South Africa.Research approach/design and method: The study was conducted within a positivistic research paradigm. A quantitative-based cross-sectional survey design was used. Convenience sampling was used to select the students who were included in the survey. Data were collected through a web-based survey, using a standardised coded questionnaire that consisted of a five-point Likert-type scale.Main findings: The results indicated that the respondents were relatively confident about their internal employability, but they were less confident about their opportunities in the external labour market.Practical/managerial implications: Understanding one’s employability and the accompanied issues creates awareness of one’s potential, skills and knowledge to become a successful citizen and employee.Contribution/value-add: The study shed light on the self-perceived employability of undergraduate students at a South African university and consequently contributes to the existing literature on employability in the South African context.


2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 94-103
Author(s):  
Maelekanyo Christopher Tshilongamulenzhe

This study assesses the psychometric properties of the Stakeholders Inputs (SI) scale which is designed for the South African occupational learning context. A quantitative, non-experimental cross-sectional survey design was used and data were collected from a sample of 652 respondents. Data were analysed using SPSS and Winsteps software. The findings reveal that the SI scale is a psychometrically robust instrument suitable for application in the South African occupational learning context. The measure shows a good person and item separation indices and no evidence of item misfit. All items contribute to a single trait measurement.


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