Jüri Allik

Simultaneous Administration of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale in 53 Nations: Exploring the Universal and Culture-Specific Features of Global Self-Esteem

The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) was translated into 28 languages and administered to 16,998 participants across 53 nations. The RSES factor structure was largely invariant across nations. RSES scores correlated with neuroticism, extraversion, and romantic attachment styles within nearly all nations, providing additional support for cross-cultural equivalence of the RSES. All nations scored above the theoretical midpoint of the RSES, indicating generally positive self-evaluation may be culturally universal. Individual differences in self-esteem were variable across cultures, with a neutral response bias prevalent in more collectivist cultures. Self-competence and self-liking subscales of the RSES varied with cultural individualism. Although positively and negatively worded items of the RSES were correlated within cultures and were uniformly related to external personality variables, differences between aggregates of positive and negative items were smaller in developed nations. Because negatively worded items were interpreted differently across nations, direct cross-cultural comparisons using the RSES may have limited value.

Why can't a man be more like a woman? Sex differences in Big Five personality traits across 55 cultures.

Previous research suggested that sex differences in personality traits are larger in prosperous, healthy, and egalitarian cultures in which women have more opportunities equal with those of men. In this article, the authors report cross-cultural findings in which this unintuitive result was replicated across samples from 55 nations (N = 17,637). On responses to the Big Five Inventory, women reported higher levels of neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness than did men across most nations. These findings converge with previous studies in which different Big Five measures and more limited samples of nations were used. Overall, higher levels of human development--including long and healthy life, equal access to knowledge and education, and economic wealth--were the main nation-level predictors of larger sex differences in personality. Changes in mens personality traits appeared to be the primary cause of sex difference variation across cultures. It is proposed that heightened levels of sexual dimorphism result from personality traits of men and women being less constrained and more able to naturally diverge in developed nations. In less fortunate social and economic conditions, innate personality differences between men and women may be attenuated.

The Geographic Distribution of Big Five Personality Traits Patterns and Profiles of Human Self-Description Across 56 Nations

The Big Five Inventory (BFI) is a self-report measure designed to assess the high-order personality traits of Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and Openness. As part of the International Sexuality Description Project, the BFI was translated from English into 28 languages and administered to 17,837 individuals from 56 nations. The resulting cross-cultural data set was used to address three main questions: Does the factor structure of the English BFI fully replicate across cultures? How valid are the BFI trait profiles of individual nations? And how are personality traits distributed throughout the world? The five-dimensional structure was robust across major regions of the world. Trait levels were related in predictable ways to self-esteem, sociosexuality, and national personality profiles. People from the geographic regions of South America and East Asia were significantly different in openness from those inhabiting other world regions. The discussion focuses on limitations of the current data set and important directions for future research.

The five-factor model of personality across cultures

Preface A.J. Marsella. Introduction R.R. McCrae, J. Allik. Section I: Trans- and Intercultural Studies. The Cross-Cultural Generalizability of the Five-Factor Model of Personality J.-P. Rolland. Exploring the Sources of Variations in the Structure of Personality Traits Across Cultures K. Konstabel, et al. The NEO Five-Factor Inventory in Czech, Polish, and Slovak Contexts M.H. Kova, et al. Relating the Five-Factor Model of Personality to a Circumplex Model of Affect: A Five Language Study M.S.M. Yik, et al. NEO-PI-R Data from 36 Cultures: Further Intercultural Comparisons R.R. McCrae. Section II: Case Studies in Personality and Culture. The Five-Factor Model in the Philippines: Investigating Trait Structure and Levels Across Cultures A.T. Church, M.S. Katigbak. The Applicability of the Five-Factor Model in a Sub-Saharan Culture: The NEO-PI-R in Shona R.L. Piedmont, et al. Five-Factor Model and the NEO-PI-R in Turkey S. Gulgoz. Vietnamese-American Personality and Acculturation: An Exploration of Relations Between Personality Traits and Cultural Goals A. Leininger. The Five-Factor Model of Personality Measurement and Correlates in the Indian Context P.H. Lodhi, et al. Personality and Culture: The Portuguese Case M.P. de Lima. Applications of the Russian NEO-PI-R T.A. Martin, et al. Section III: Methodological and Theoretical Perspectives. Cross-Cultural Equivalence of the Big Five: A Tentative Interpretation of the Evidence Y.H. Poortinga, et al. A Five-Factor Theory Perspective J. Allik, R.R. McCrae. Author Index. Subject Index.

Toward a Geography of Personality Traits Patterns of Profiles across 36 Cultures

It has long been believed that personality traits vary by geographicallocation, but few studies have examined the worldwide distribution of personality profiles. Using the five-factor model of personality—a comprehensive and apparently universal trait structure—we conducted secondary analyses of data from 36 cultures. Distance from the equator and mean temperature were not meaningfully related to personality factors. However, cluster analysis showed that geographically proximatecultures often have similar profiles, and multidimensional scaling showed a clear contrast of European and American cultures with Asian and African cultures. The former were higher in extraversion and openness to experience and lower in agreeableness. A second dimension reflected differences in psychological adjustment. Observed differences between cultures may be the result of differences in gene pools or in features of culture; acculturation studies and the analyses of other natural experiments are needed to understand the origins of geographical differences in personality traits.

The Attractive Female Body Weight and Female Body Dissatisfaction in 26 Countries Across 10 World Regions: Results of the International Body Project I

This study reports results from the first International Body Project (IBP-I), which surveyed 7,434 individuals in 10 major world regions about body weight ideals and body dissatisfaction. Participants completed the female Contour Drawing Figure Rating Scale (CDFRS) and self-reported their exposure to Western and local media. Results indicated there were significant cross-regional differences in the ideal female figure and body dissatisfaction, but effect sizes were small across high-socioeconomic-status (SES) sites. Within cultures, heavier bodies were preferred in low-SES sites compared to high-SES sites in Malaysia and South Africa (ds = 1.94-2.49) but not in Austria. Participant age, body mass index (BMI), and Western media exposure predicted body weight ideals. BMI and Western media exposure predicted body dissatisfaction among women. Our results show that body dissatisfaction and desire for thinness is commonplace in high-SES settings across world regions, highlighting the need for international attention to this problem.

Individualism-Collectivism and Social Capital

Many social scientists have predicted that one inevitable consequence of modernization is the unlimited growth of individualism, which poses serious threats to the organic unity of society. Others have argued that autonomy and independence are necessary conditions for the development of interpersonal cooperation and social solidarity. We reanalyzed available data on the relationship between individualism-collectivism and social capital within one country (the United States) and across 42 countries. In America, the states with a high level of social capital (higher degree of civic engagement in political activity, where people spend more time with their friends and believe that most people can be trusted) were found to be more individualistic. A correspondingly strong association between individualism and social capital was observed in the comparison of different countries. These results support Durkheim’s view that whenindividualsbecomemoreautonomous and seemingly liberated from social bonds, they actually become even more dependent on society.

Patterns and Universals of Adult Romantic Attachment Across 62 Cultural Regions Are Models of Self and of Other Pancultural Constructs

As part of the International Sexuality Description Project, a total of 17,804 participants from 62 cultural regions completedthe RelationshipQuestionnaire(RQ), a self-reportmeasure of adult romanticattachment. Correlational analyses within each culture suggested that the Model of Self and the Model of Other scales of the RQ were psychometrically valid within most cultures. Contrary to expectations, the Model of Self and Model of Other dimensions of the RQ did not underlie the four-category model of attachment in the same way across all cultures. Analyses of specific attachment styles revealed that secure romantic attachment was normative in 79% of cultures and that preoccupied romantic attachment was particularly prevalent in East Asian cultures. Finally, the romantic attachment profiles of individual nations were correlated with sociocultural indicators in ways that supported evolutionary theories of romantic attachment and basic human mating strategies.

Meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies for personality

Personality can be thought of as a set of characteristics that influence peoples thoughts, feelings and behavior across a variety of settings. Variation in personality is predictive of many outcomes in life, including mental health. Here we report on a meta-analysis of genome-wide association (GWA) data for personality in 10 discovery samples (17 375 adults) and five in silico replication samples (3294 adults). All participants were of European ancestry. Personality scores for Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness were based on the NEO Five-Factor Inventory. Genotype data of ∼2.4M single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs; directly typed and imputed using HapMap data) were available. In the discovery samples, classical association analyses were performed under an additive model followed by meta-analysis using the weighted inverse variance method. Results showed genome-wide significance for Openness to Experience near the RASA1 gene on 5q14.3 (rs1477268 and rs2032794, P=2.8 × 10−8 and 3.1 × 10−8) and for Conscientiousness in the brain-expressed KATNAL2 gene on 18q21.1 (rs2576037, P=4.9 × 10−8). We further conducted a gene-based test that confirmed the association of KATNAL2 to Conscientiousness. In silico replication did not, however, show significant associations of the top SNPs with Openness and Conscientiousness, although the direction of effect of the KATNAL2 SNP on Conscientiousness was consistent in all replication samples. Larger scale GWA studies and alternative approaches are required for confirmation of KATNAL2 as a novel gene affecting Conscientiousness.

The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale: its dimensionality, stability and personality correlates in Estonian

Abstract The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) was adapted to the Estonian language. By all relevant psychometric properties the developed Estonian version of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (ERSES) was identical to the original construct measuring a persons overall evaluation of his or her worthiness as a human being. Both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses revealed that global self-esteem can be best represented as a single dimension. The temporal stability of the ERSES was also very similar to the original version demonstrating an exponential decay over time. Like previously reported findings, individuals with high self-esteem tended to obtain similar and individuals with low self-esteem divergent total self-esteem scores on two subsequent occasions. A joint factor analysis of the ERSES and the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) scales led to a five-factor structure which replicated the normative North-American structure, self-esteem loading significantly only on the Neuroticism factor. The pattern of correlations between the ERSES and the Five-Factor model of personality dimensions was very similar to that obtained in Hong Kong and Canada [Kwan, V. S. Y, Bond, M. H., & Singelis, T. M. (1997). Pancultural explanations for life satisfaction: adding relationship harmony to self-esteem. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73, 1038–1051] suggesting that the relationship between personality and self-esteem is universal, not depending on a particular language and/or culture. The correlations between the ERSES and two other personality measures, the Self-Consciousness Scale (SCS) and the Self-Concept Clarity Scale (SCCS), also supported cross-cultural generalizability of the relationships between personality and self-esteem.