The cross-cultural validation of the South African personality inventory – English version

Abstract: South Africa is known for its rich cultural history, however, the implications thereof on psychological assessments have mainly been overlooked. Consequently, researchers and practitioners were and are to some degree still depending on the results obtained from measuring instruments developed in Western, educated, industrial, rich, democratic (W.E.I.R.D) countries that do not capture psychological constructs such as personality outside the country in which the instrument was developed. At the back of the Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998 stipulating for measuring instruments to adhere to the criteria of reliability, validity, fairness and no bias, the South African Personality Inventory-project was initiated. The South African Personality Inventory (SAPI) aims to rectify the possible negative consequences of imported measuring instruments, by assessing personality attributes unique to the multi-cultural context within the South African borders. This thesis contributed to the overall SAPI project by establishing the model-fit and measurement invariance of the SAPI, prior to validating the SAPI within the organisational context. The model-fit and measurement invariance were investigated and established with the SAPI-English version being administered to a sample of South Africans (N=3912) being employed, unemployed or seeking employment. While confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and exploratory structural equation modelling (ESEM) was used for the model-fit, only the latter was used to determine the invariance of the SAPI. The results obtained indicated that the six underlying factors of the SAPI (Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Neuroticism, Openness, and Positive- and Negative Social-Relational Disposition) are applicable to the South African context, while the Positive- and Negative Social-Relational Disposition factors have been identified as unique to the South African context and emphasise a positive orientation towards interpersonal relationships. The Conscientiousness factor also demonstrated a strong presence within the data. Consequently,...D.Com. (Industrial Psychology