Personality in Swahili culture: A psycho-lexical approach to trait structure in a language deprived of typical trait-descriptive adjectives.

This study was an endeavor to map out a personality trait structure of the Swahili language that may be used to develop indigenous eastern African personality assessment instruments. We followed the psycho-lexical approach where we not only identified trait terms from the Swahili dictionary but also from free descriptions collected from indigenous Swahili speakers. In combination, these two routines led to a pool of 3,732 personality-relevant terms, which was reduced in several steps to a set of 948 terms, identified as the most relevant trait-descriptive terms, including a small set of 26 adjectives, a large set of 531 nouns, and a substantial set of 391 verbs.

Taxonomy and structure of the Romanian personality lexicon.

We identified 1746 personality-relevant trait-adjectives in a Romanian dictionary, of which 412 were classified as descriptors of dispositions by 10 judges. Self-ratings were collected from 515 participants on those 412 adjectives, and the ratings were factored using principal components analysis. Solutions with different numbers of factors were analysed.

The relations between conscientiousness and mental health in a North-European and a West-Asian culture.

Background: The relationship between conscientiousness, mental health and mental illness has been an issue for the last two decades.

Aims: By using a dual model of mental health, the present study examined a non-linear relationship between conscientiousness and healthy or non-healthy symptoms in two different cultures.

Method: Participants in this study were 296 Iranian and 310 Swedish university students (18-24 years of age).

The Psycho-Lexical Approach in Exploring the Field of Values: A Reply to Schwartz.

We reply to each of the issues raised by Schwartz in a commentary on our article on a comparison of value taxonomies. We discuss two approaches, mentioned in that commentary, the lexical approach and the theory-driven approach, especially with respect to their capacities in covering the domain of values and with respect to the representation of important values in a useful structure. We refute the critique by Schwartz that the lexical approach is superfluous, because his theory "toward universals in values" would already cover all values, and that their mutual relationships are relevant to individuals around the globe.

The factor structure of Lithuanian personality-descriptive adjectives of the highest frequency of use.

We developed the Lithuanian taxonomy of personality traits according to the psycho-lexical approach. This was done in two studies. First, trait descriptive terms were selected from a Lithuanian dictionary.

Taxonomy and structure of Persian personality-descriptive trait terms.

We described the development of a taxonomy of Persian personality-descriptive terms in two studies. In Study 1, judges scanned Persian dictionaries and several Persian novels for person-descriptive terms. The resulting set of person-descriptive terms was classified into different categories of description, including the category of dispositional trait-descriptive adjectives.

Psycho-lexically based virtue factors in Spain and their relation with personality traits.

The psycho-lexical approach was used to identify virtues in a Spanish population. A total of 209 descriptors were identified as virtues and administered to 485 participants, who were instructed to indicate the extent to which each virtue term applied to them. Principal Components Analysis revealed seven factors: Self-confidence, Reflection, Serenity, Rectitude, Perseverance & Effort, Compassion, and Sociability.

Are virtues national, supranational, or universal?

Many studies investigated cultural differences in values, most notably by Hofstede and Schwarz. Relatively few have focused on virtues, a related and important concept in contemporary social science. The present paper examines the similarities and differences between nations, or blocks of - culturally related - nations on the perceived importance of virtues.

Only three factors of personality description are fully replicable across languages: a comparison of 14 trait taxonomies.

We tested the hypothesis that only 3 factors of personality description are replicable across many different languages if they are independently derived by a psycholexical approach. Our test was based on 14 trait taxonomies from 12 different languages. Factors were compared at each level of factor extraction with solutions with 1 to 6 factors.

A new taxonomy of Dutch personality traits based on a comprehensive and unrestricted list of descriptors.

A list of 2,365 personality descriptive items was selected from a computerized database of the Dutch language. The list included terms from various word classes, such as trait adjectives, trait nouns, and trait verbs, and from expressions in which the meaning was drawn from a combination of words. The items were administered to 1,466 participants, who provided self- or other-ratings.

A six-factor structure of personality-descriptive adjectives: solutions from psycholexical studies in seven languages.

Standard psycholexical studies of personality structure have produced a similar 6-factor solution in 7 languages (Dutch, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Korean, Polish). The authors report the content of these personality dimensions and interpret them as follows: (a) a variant of Extraversion, defined by sociability and liveliness (though not by bravery and toughness); (b) a variant of Agreeableness, defined by gentleness, patience, and agreeableness (but also including anger and ill temper at its negative pole); (c) Conscientiousness (emphasizing organization and discipline rather than moral conscience); (d) Emotionality (containing anxiety, vulnerability, sentimentality, lack of bravery, and lack of toughness, but not anger or ill temper); (e) Honesty-Humility; (f) Intellect/Imagination/Unconventionality. A potential reorganization of the Big Five factor structure is discussed.

The substantive nature of psycholexical personality factors: a comparison across languages.

The psycholexical approach to personality structure in American English has led to the Big Five factors. The present study considers whether this result is similar or different in other languages. Instead of placing the usual emphasis on quantitative indices, this study examines the substantive nature of the factors.