The meaning of Eysenck's personality constructs and scales for Zimbabwean male students

Two studies of the utility of Eysenckian scale constructs for male African university students are reported. One confirms the previous findings that the EPQ, with some item changes, remains substantially reliable across cultures. The second was based on a larger item pool and shows that: (i) the integrity of the Neuroticism factor is confirmed, though fear-of-success items might usefully be added for African students; (ii) Sociability is the most robust component of Extraversion for this group, though the relationship with Impulsivity remains, contrary to predictions based on knowledge of African socialization; (iii) a factor of Restraint, Responsibility and Seriousness-of-purpose emerges, which could be interpreted as the converse of Impulsivity, or as a reflection of African values or motivation in this particular item pool; (iv) Motivation-for-success items group factorially, though their endorsement may reflect Social Desirability. These findings are interpreted both as a confirmation of Eysenck's personality theory for educated Africans, and as indicating the need for further exploration of scales which take the local behavioural referents of the Eysenckian factors into account.