Establishing explicit perspectives of personality for a sample of Xhosa-speaking South Africans

• Main Author: Nopote, Nomvuyiseko Minty
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University 2009
• Subjects: Personality assessment > South Africa Cross-cultural studies; Psychological tests > South Africa > Cross-cultural studies; Language and languages > Ability testing > South Africa; Xhosa language > South Africa > Comparison
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/1145

Cross-cultural assessment in South Africa has become more prominent since the first democratic elections held in April 1994, as stronger demands for the cultural appropriateness of psychological tests have been made. The use of psychometric testing, including personality assessment in the workplace, is now strictly controlled by legislation, among others the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (Act 108 of 1996), the Labour Relations Act (66 of 1995), and the Employment Equity Act (55 of 1998), and the Health Professions Act (56 of 1974). The present study forms part of the development process of the South African Personality Inventory (SAPI), which seeks to explore the indigenous personality structure of all the 11 official language groups found in South Africa and to then develop a personality inventory based on this. The present study aimed to explore and describe the personality facets and clusters that were found among a sample of 95 Xhosa-speaking South Africans. An exploratory descriptive research method was used and participants were selected by means of non-probability purposive sampling. Data were gathered by administering a biographical questionnaire and a tape-recorded 10- item interview questionnaire. Content analysis was used to analyse and reduce the data obtained from interviews into personality descriptors. Of the 1872 personality-descriptive words obtained from the interview questions, 164 facets of different personality characteristics were finally configured as a consequence of a data-reduction process. These facets were further categorised into a total of 37 personality sub-clusters and nine personality clusters which were labelled as Extraversion, Soft-heartedness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, Intellect, Openness, Integrity, Relationship Harmony and Facilitating. These clusters and their sub-clusters resonate well with significant aspects and values of the Xhosa culture (e.g., Ubuntu). There also seems to be a moderate correspondence between the clusters and sub-clusters identified in the Xhosa-speaking sample and factors of the Five-Factor Model, especially with respect to the six clusters of Extraversion, Soft-heartedness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, Intellect, and Openness. Nonetheless, differences in the composition of the clusters/facets were found, some of which are due to the more unique facets and sub-facets of personality identified in the Xhosa-speaking sample. The limitations of the study are identified and suggestions are made for further research.