title: The validity and structure of culture-level personality scores: data from ratings of young adolescents.
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.
authors.affiliation: National Institute on Aging, USA. RRMcCrae@gmail.com
authors.forename: Robert R
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: McCrae
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Terracciano
authors.forename: Filip
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: De Fruyt
authors.forename: Marleen
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: De Bolle
authors.forename: Michele J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Gelfand
authors.forename: Paul T
authors.initials: PT
authors.lastname: Costa
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D003469:Culture; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010551:Personality; D010555:Personality Inventory