Compiling Measurement Invariant Short Scales in Cross-Cultural Personality Assessment Using Ant Colony Optimization

Examining the influence of culture on personality and its unbiased assessment is the main subject of cross-cultural personality research. Recent large-scale studies exploring personality differences across cultures share substantial methodological and psychometric shortcomings that render it difficult to differentiate between method and trait variance. One prominent example is the implicit assumption of cross-cultural measurement invariance in personality questionnaires. In the rare instances where measurement invariance across cultures was tested, scalar measurement invariance—which is required for unbiased mean-level comparisons of personality traits—did not hold. In this article, we present an item sampling procedure, ant colony optimization, which can be used to select item sets that satisfy multiple psychometric requirements including model fit, reliability, and measurement invariance. We constructed short scales of the IPIP-NEO-300 for a group of countries that are culturally similar (USA, Australia, Canada, and UK) as well as a group of countries with distinct cultures (USA, India, Singapore, and Sweden). In addition to examining factor mean differences across countries, we provide recommendations for cross-cultural research in general. From a methodological perspective, we demonstrate ant colony optimization's versatility and flexibility as an item sampling procedure to derive measurement invariant scales for cross-cultural research. © 2020 The Authors. European Journal of Personality published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Association of Personality Psychology     

Examining the cross‐cultural validity of the positive affect and negative affect schedule between an Asian (Singaporean) sample and a Western (American) sample

The positive affect and negative affect schedule (PANAS) is a popular measure of positive (PA) and negative affectivity (NA). Developed and validated in Western contexts, the 20‐item scale has been frequently administered on respondents from Asian countries with the assumption of cross‐cultural measurement invariance. We examine this assumption via a rigorous multigroup confirmatory factor analysis, which allows us to assess between‐group differences in both strength of scale item‐to‐latent factor relationship (metric invariance test) and mean of each scale item (scalar invariance test), on a large sample of 1,065 respondents recruited from Singapore (Asian sample) and the United States (Western sample). We found that two items assessing PA (“excited” and “proud”) and three items assessing NA (“guilty,” “hostile,” and “ashamed”) exhibited metric noninvariance whereas 11 of the remaining metric invariant items exhibited scalar noninvariance, suggesting that the PA and NA constructs differ from what the PANAS is expected to measure for Asian respondents. Our findings serve as a cautionary note to researchers who intend to administer the PANAS in future studies as well as to researchers interpreting the results of past studies involving respondents from Asian countries.     

Affective structure,measurement invariance,and reliability across different experience sampling protocols

While affect is frequently measured with experience sampling methodology (ESM), the affective structure at the between- and within-person level has not been thoroughly investigated. We investigated the affective structure at the between- and within-person level, its invariance across different ESM protocols, and its reliability. Participants (N = 147) were randomly assigned to receive either a 30 or 60 item questionnaire three, six, or nine times per day, resulting in 72–75 participants per questionnaire length and 48–50 participants per sampling frequency. Momentary affect was assessed with 8 or 18 items. At both levels, a structure with two correlated factors showed the best fit compared to an orthogonal and a unidimensional model. A structure with additional freed residual correlations was invariant across protocols at the within-person level and showed high reliability. We observed indications of a more discrete affective structure within than between persons.     

The Satisfaction With Life Scale: Measurement invariance across immigrant groups

The current study examined measurement invariance of the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS; Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985) across three immigrant groups, namely, immigrants from the Former Soviet Union (FSU) in Israel, Turkish-Bulgarians, and Turkish-Germans. The results demonstrate measurement invariance of the SWLS across groups. The findings that Turkish-Bulgarian and FSU immigrants in Israel scored significantly lower on the SWLS compared to Turkish-Germans can be explained by assimilative policies in Israel and Bulgaria. In conclusion, our results suggest the SWLS is feasible for cross-cultural comparisons of immigrants of various age groups. Future investigation of measurement invariance over time is needed to use the SWLS in a developmental perspective.     

Processing of compound-word characters in reading Chinese: An eye-movement-contingent display change study

Readers’ eye movements were monitored as they read Chinese two-constituent compound words in sentence contexts. The first compound-word constituent was either an infrequent character with a highly predictable second constituent or a frequent character with an unpredictable second constituent. The parafoveal preview of the second constituent was manipulated, with four preview conditions: identical to the correct form; a semantically related character to the second constituent; a semantically unrelated character to the second constituent; and a pseudocharacter. An invisible boundary was set between the two constituents; when the eyes moved across the boundary, the previewed character was changed to its intended form. The main findings were that preview effects occurred for the second constituent of the compound word. Providing an incorrect preview of the second constituent affected fixations on the first constituent, but only when the second constituent was predictable from the first. The frequency of the initial character of the compound constrained the identity of the second character, and this in turn modulated the extent to which the semantic characteristics of the preview influenced processing of the second constituent and the compound word as a whole. The results are considered in relation to current accounts of Chinese compound-word recognition and the constraint hypothesis of Hyönä, Bertram, and Pollatsek (2004 Hyönä, J., Bertram, R. and Pollatsek, A. 2004. Are long compound words identified serially via their constituents? Evidence from an eye-movement-contingent display change study. Memory & Cognition, 32: 523–532. (doi:10.3758/BF03195844)[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). We conclude that word identification in Chinese is flexible, and parafoveal processing of upcoming characters is influenced both by the characteristics of the fixated character and by its relationship with the characters in the parafovea.     

Measurement Equivalence/Invariance of the Abusive Supervision Measure Across Workers From Taiwan and the United States

Growing international research interest in negative-leadership behaviors prompts the need to examine whether measures of ineffective leadership developed in the United States are equivalent across countries outside the United States. B. J. Tepper's (2000) abusive supervision measure has been used widely inside and outside the United States and merits research attention on its construct equivalence across different cultural settings. The authors conducted a series of multigroup confirmatory factor analyses to investigate the measurement equivalence of this measure across Taiwan (N = 256) and the United States (N = 389). Configural invariance was established, suggesting that both U.S. and Taiwanese samples perceive abusive supervision as a single-factor concept. Furthermore, the establishment of partial metric invariance and partial scalar invariance suggests that the abusive supervision measure is applicable to crosscultural comparisons in latent means, construct variance, construct covariances, and unstandardized path coefficients with the caution that workers from different cultures calibrate their responses differently when answering some items.     

Item-response theory modeling of IQ gains (the Flynn effect) on crystallized intelligence: Rodgers' hypothesis yes,Brand's hypothesis perhaps

Potential explanations for generational intelligence test score gains continue to be subject to intense debate and scrutiny in the scientific community. However, the explanatory value of some of the proposed causes remains difficult to determine, since only little empirical evidence is available. To clarify the role of two scarcely investigated theories accounting for the Flynn effect, this study set out to examine the role of changing test-taking behavior (Brand's hypothesis) and of a narrowing of the IQ ability distribution (Rodgers' hypothesis). Archival records of crystallized intelligence test performance over a time-span of 17 years of a large number of psychiatric inpatients and outpatients in Austria were investigated (N = 5445; 1978–94). This sample was particularly suitable to investigate our hypotheses since participants were under no pressure to perform which makes observed changes in test taking behavior attributable to personal style and ability rather than differential performance in pressure situations. Analytical approaches of both classical test theory and item response theory (IRT) yielded gains of 1.0 to 2.4 IQ points per decade. Test-taking behavior indicative of guessing and decreasing population IQ variability appeared to contribute both to IQ test score gains. IRT-based analyses showed that gains were largely preserved when controlling for highest educational qualification, while the test instrument showed measurement invariance between cohorts. However, IRT-based results also suggested that changes in test-taking behavior might not necessarily reflect increased guessing, but item drift instead. In all, this evidence emphasizes better performance of individuals of the lower tail of the IQ ability distribution in more recent years as one important contributing factor for generational IQ test score gains.     

Facets of the Childhood Anxiety Sensitivity Index Among Serbian Youth

Data from factor analytic studies using the Child Anxiety Sensitivity Index (CASI) suggest that global anxiety sensitivity (AS) is best represented by three or four underlying factors or facets. The aim of this study was to identify facets best representing the CASI structure in its Serbian version. Confirmatory factor analysis was used on data collected from 456 non-referred children in Serbia. A 13-item version of the CASI provided a better fit to the data than the original 18-item version. The four-factor model of the CASI-13 with disease, unsteady, mental incapacitation, and social concerns facets provided the best fits for the data and it was found to be fully invariant (configural, metric, and scalar invariance) across gender and age. Among Serbian children, hierarchical structure was found for a 13-item CASI version with a single higher-order factor of global AS represented by four underlying facets. Future research will consider these AS facets and their role in the development, maintenance, and exacerbation of anxiety symptoms in children.