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

Abstract: 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..