The five factor model of personality and individualism/collectivism in South Africa: an exploratory study

PINS, 2009, 37, 39-54 THE FIVE FACTOR MODEL OF PERSONALITY AND INDIVIDUALISM / COLLECTIVISM IN SOUTH AFRICA: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY Liesl Vogt and Sumaya Laher Department ofPsychology School of Human and Community Development University of the Witwatersrand P O Wits 2050 Abstract. The Five-Factor Model (FFM) of personality is one of the prominent models in contemporary psychology and defines personality in terms of five broad factors, namely, Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness. Recent research, however, questions the comprehensiveness of the FFM with evidence indicating the presence of other factors not addressed in the FFM most notably Individualism/Collectivism. Therefore, this study investigated the relationship of the FFM of personality to Individualism/Collectivism in a sample of 176 students from the University of the Witwatersrand using the Basic Traits Inventory and the Individualism/Collectivism scale. Results indicate that there were no significant relationships between the five factors and Individualism/Collectivism. In addition no significant difference was found between race and the five factors and Individualism/Collectivism. There were also no significant differences between home language and the five factors and Individualism/Collectivism. Key words: collectivism, culture, five factor model, language, individualism, personality, race According to McCrae and Costa (1990, cited in McCrae, Costa, Del Pilar, Rolland, & Parker, 1998:173), “the Five Factor Model (FFM) is an organisation of personality traits, and traits in turn are dimensions of individual differences in tendencies to show consistent patterns of thoughts, feelings, and actions”. McCrae (2001:819) further defines traits as “endogenous basic tendencies that, within a cultural context, give rise to habits, attitudes, skills, beliefs, and other characteristic adaptations”. Thus traits are relatively stable or enduring individual differences in thoughts, feelings and behaviours (Church, 2000). Different theorists sometimes gave different names to the underlying five factors. However, the creation of the NEO-Personality Inventory (NEO-PI) by Costa and McCrae went some way in bringing about consensus as to the labels attached to the five factors (Church, 2000; Rolland, 2002). In brief, the five factors are: Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness (Costa & McCrae, 1992; Church, 2000; 39 Rolland, 2002). Neuroticism is defined as a general tendency to experience negative affects such as fear, sadness, embarrassment, anger, guilt, and distrust. It is the degree to which a person is calm and self-confident as opposed to anxious and insecure. Extraversion is regarded as a general tendency toward sociability, assertiveness, activeness and being talkative. Thus it is the degree to which a person is sociable, leaderlike and assertive as opposed to withdrawn, quiet and reserved. Individuals willing to entertain novel ideas and unconventional values are described by the openness to experience trait. Openness to Experience is defined as the degree to which a person is imaginative and curious as opposed to concrete minded and narrow thinking. Agreeableness encapsulates constructs of sympathy, co-operativeness, and helpfulness towards others. It is described as the degree to which a person is good natured, warm and co-operative as opposed to irritable, uncooperative, inflexible, unpleasant and disagreeable. The final factor, Conscientiousness, may be described as the degree to which a person is persevering, responsible and organised as opposed to lazy, irresponsible, and impulsive. This dimension summarizes the more specific traits that mark careful, responsible and dependable people in contrast to people who are lazy and lack self-discipline (Costa & McCrae, 1992; McCrae, et al, 1998; Rolland, 2002). An examination of research suggests the universality of the FFM (Allik & McCrae, 2004; McCrae & Terracciano, 2005), but evidence also exists that suggests that the FFM is not comprehensive in its description of personality (see Church, 2000; Cheung, Leung, Zhang, Sun, Gan & Song, 2001; Katigbak, Church, Guanzon-Lapena, Carlota & Del Pilar, 2002; Piedmont, Bain, McCrae & Costa, 2002; Cheung, 2004; Teferi, 2004; Ashton & Lee, 2005; McCrae & Terraccianno, 2005; Saucier & Skrzypinska, 2006). Furthermore studies on the NEO-PI-R in cross-cultural situations found variations in the five factor structure between Western and Asian cultures (see Church, 2000; Cheung, et al, 2001; Cheung, 2004; McCrae & Terraccianno, 2005). McCrae (2004) interpreted this as the likely consequence of the differences between the individualistic societies of the West and the collectivist societies of Asia (Rolland, Parker & Stumpf, 1998; McCrae, 2004). Research in the Chinese context sought to establish the universality and sufficiency of the FFM. Both the NEO-PI-R and the Chinese Personality Assessment Inventory (CPAI), a personality inventory developed specifically for the Chinese context, were used in this study. Through factor analysis a unique factor that did not have factor loadings on any of the facets of the NEO-PI-R was obtained from the CPAI scales. This factor has been called Interpersonal Relatedness, which emphasizes the concern of interdependence in Chinese personality (Cheung et al, 2001). The issue then became whether the Interpersonal Relatedness factor was unique to Chinese societies, or whether in fact this domain of personality pertained to other cultures as well. Cheung et al (2001) replicated this study on a culturally diverse group of Hawaiian students and found that the Interpersonal Relatedness factor could be identified in this group. Cheung, Cheung, Leung, Ward and Leong (2003) found similar results with the English version of the CPAI. This research provided empirical support for arguments on the comprehensiveness of the FFM particularly as they pertained to the Individualism/Collectivism dimension. 40 INDIVIDUALISM AND COLLECTIVISM. Individualism and Collectivism are at present amongst the most widely used constructs in research about cultural differences (Triandis, 2001; Oyserman, Coon & Kemmelmeier, 2002; Triandis & Suh, 2002; Green, Deschamps & Páez, 2005; Schimmack, Oishi & Diener, 2005). These constructs, together with “power-distance”, “masculinity-femininity” and “uncertainty- avoidance” were first described as overarching patterns of cultural variation in the workplace by Geert Hofstede in 1980 (Earley & Gibson, 1998; Oyserman et al, 2002; Shulruf, Hattie & Dixon, 2003). According to Hofstede’s model, derived through factor analysis, Individualism-Collectivism can be viewed as opposite poles representing an independent stance from groups on the one hand to a dependence on groups on the other (Gouveia & Ros, 2000). However, individualism and collectivism are complex constructs which have been subject to d (...truncated)