Short Forms of the Cross-Cultural (Chinese) Personality Assessment Inventory: Reliability, Validity, and Measurement Invariance Across Gender

Filling out long questionnaires can be frustrating, unpleasant, and discouraging for respondents to continue. This is why shorter forms of long instruments are preferred, especially when they have comparable reliability and validity. In present study, two short forms of the Cross-cultural (Chinese) Personality Assessment Inventory (CPAI-2) were developed and validated. The items of the short forms were all selected from the 28 personality scales of the CPAI-2 based on the norm sample. Based on some priori criteria, we obtained the appropriate items and constructed the 56-item Chinese Personality Assessment Inventory (CPAI) and the 28-item CPAI. Then, we examined the factor structure of both short forms with Exploratory SEM (ESEM) and replicated the four-factor structure of the original CPAI-2, reflecting the four personality domains of Chinese people, namely, Social Potency, Dependability, Accommodation, and Interpersonal Relatedness. Further analyses with ESEM models demonstrate full measurement invariance across gender for both short forms. The results show that females score lower than males on Social Potency. In addition, these four factors of both short forms have adequate internal consistency, and the correlation patterns of the four factors, the big five personality traits, and several health-related variables are extremely similar across the two short forms, reflecting adequate and comparable criterion validity, convergent validity, and discriminant validity. Overall, the short versions of CPAI-2 are psychometrically acceptable and have practically implications for measuring Chinese personality and cross-cultural research.

Exploring Attachment and Spirituality among Christians in China

As research on attachment has exploded, theories and studies on attachment and spirituality also flourished in the west. In contrast, similar researches are scarce in China. Are the attachment theories and measurements applicable universally? Are there any links between parental attachment and God attachment? The present study used mixed methods to examine these questions. First, 355 Christians from Mainland China finished the Relationship Structures Questionnaire (ECR-RS), Attachment to God Inventory, God Image Scales, and Chinese Personality Assessment Inventory-2. Next, a sample of 11 participants were purposefully selected for face-to-face interviews to provide an in-depth understanding of the phenomenon through their life stories and spiritual experiences. Survey results showed significant correlations between parental attachment and spirituality and supported the correspondence theory. Additionally, the higher scores on traditional cultural personality traits correlated with higher scores on insecure attachment. Analysis of themes across 11 cases further revealed patterns between secure/insecure parental attachment and God attachment. Application of western attachment scales in the context of Chinese characteristic parenting styles are discussed.

Indigenous Approaches to Testing and Assessment

This chapter discusses the need for culturally relevant tools for testing and assessment in non-Western countries, where it has been a common practice to adopt and translate psychological tests originally developed in Western countries. This etic approach assumes that Western theories and tools are universally applicable. Apart from the challenges of establishing equivalence between the original Western tests and the translated tests, the etic approach has been queried on the lack of relevance of some universal constructs that may be imposed on the local population. The indigenization movement in psychology arose in response to the imposed etic approach. Several indigenization responses in cognitive and personality assessment are presented to illustrate the introduction of emic constructs and measures. Using the combined emic-etic approach, two large-scale indigenous personality measures have been developed in China and South Africa: the Cross-cultural (Chinese) Personality Assessment Inventory (CPAI) and the South African Personality Inventory (SAPI).