The cross-cultural application of the Social Axioms Survey in the South African Police Service

EMPIRICAL RESEARCH   The cross-cultural application of the Social Axioms Survey in the South African Police Service     Adi BarnardI; Sebastiaan RothmannI; Deon MeiringII IWorkWell, Research Unit for People, Policy and Performance, North-West University, South Africa IIDepartment of Industrial Psychology, Stellenbosch University, South Africa Correspondence     ABSTRACT the objectives of this study were to investigate the replicability, construct equivalence, item bias and reliability of the Social Axioms Survey (SAS) in the South African Police Service (SAPS). A cross-sectional survey design was used. the participants consisted of applicants who had applied for jobs in the SAPS (N = 1535), and the SAS was administered to them. An exploratory factor analysis utilising target rotation applied to all 60 items of the SAS revealed four interpretable factors (Social Cynicism, Reward for Application, Fate Control, and Spirituality/Religiosity). Values of Tucker's phi higher than 0,90 were found for seven language groups (Zulu, Sotho, Tswana, Swati, Tsonga, Venda and Pedi). Analyses of variance found that item bias was not a major disturbance. Unacceptable alpha values were found for some of the scales of the SAS. Keywords: Social axioms, equivalence, validity, reliability, item bias     “Full text available only in PDF format”     REFERENCES Abrahams, F. (1996). The cross-cultural comparability of the Sixteen Personality Factor Inventory (16PF). Unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa.         [ Links ] Abrahams, F. (2002). Fair usage of the 16PF (SA 92) in South Africa: A response to C. H. Prinsloo & I. Ebersohn. South African Journal of Psychology, 32, 58-61.         [ Links ] Abrahams, F. & Mauer, K.F. (1999a). The comparability of the constructs of the 16PF in the South African context. Journal of Industrial Psychology, 25, 53-59.         [ Links ] Abrahams, F. & Mauer, K.F. (1999b). 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