Title

The validity and structure of culture-level personality scores: Data from ratings of young adolescents

Department/School

Psychology, Professional

Date of this version

2010

Document Type

Article

Abstract

We examined properties of culture-level personality traits in ratings of targets (N=5,109) ages 12 to 17 in 24 cultures. Aggregate scores were generalizable across gender, age, and relationship groups and showed convergence with culture-level scores from previous studies of self-reports and observer ratings of adults, but they were unrelated to national character stereotypes. Trait profiles also showed cross-study agreement within most cultures, 8 of which had not previously been studied. Multidimensional scaling showed that Western and non-Western cultures clustered along a dimension related to Extraversion. A culture-level factor analysis replicated earlier findings of a broad Extraversion factor but generally resembled the factor structure found in individuals. Continued analysis of aggregate personality scores is warranted.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.2010.00634.x

Volume

78

Issue

3

Published in

Journal of Personality

Citation/Other Information

McCrae, R. R., Terracciano, A., De Fruyt, F., De Bolle, M., Gelfand, M. J., Costa, P. T., & Collaborators of the Adolescent Personality Profiles of Cultures Project. (2010). The validity and structure of culture-level personality scores: Data from ratings of young adolescents. Journal of Personality, 78(3), 815-838. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.2010.00634.x

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