Die gebruik van spreekwoorde en uitdrukkings in verbloemde persoonlikheidsmeting

[摘要] English: Despite the large-scale use of the questionnaire method for personality assessment and the fact thatit is regarded as an objective measuring instrument, it causes numerous problems. One of the mainproblems is the style of response. The study endorses the viewpoint that response styles areundesirable and their influence should be curbed. In an effort to develop a test free of distortion,Bass ( 1956) compiled a questionnaire of proverbs and idiomatic expressions to combine thecharacteristic of disguised projection techniques with the objectivity of the score key ofquestionnaires.The purpose of the study was to investigate the possibility of using a collection of idiomaticexpressions as items in disguised personality assessment, like Bass did. Two preliminary versionsof a collection of 252 idiomatic expressions were compiled. In one the meaning of the particularidiomatic expressions and proverbs was given in brackets, and in the other it was left out toinvestigate to what extent the respondents were acquainted with the expressions. Two randomlyselected groups of 100 each indicated their concurrence with these proverbs in the two differentversions. The variances of the 252 items of both tests as well as the percentage of respondents whoselected the unknown response category were calculated. On the basis of the data obtained it wasdecided that the version without explanations was the best test as far as usefulness, applicability andthe time of application were concerned.To eliminate the less well-known items and items with low variances, all items in the first versionto which 6% or more respondents selected the unknown response category and/or which had avariance lower than 1,00, were excluded. Where two proverbs were variants of the same idea, theone with the smallest variance was left out. According to this method 65 of the original 252 itemswere retained.During the final application a questionnaire consisting of 65 items was used along with Cattell'ssixteen-factor personality questionnaire (16-PF). The test sample consisted of 239 first-year studentsat the UOFS and 180 National Servicemen.Thereafter the 65 items of this questionnaire were correlated, the eigenvalues of the correlationmatrix obtained were calculated and a main factor analysis (first-order factor analysis) was done.Five factors were withdrawn and rotated to simple structure by means of a varimax rotation.Significant loads (0,30 and higher) were found on only three of the five factors. It appears that thefirst factor reflects a concurrence with general knowledge of the world, the second factor representsan element of cynicism and the third factor reflects a measure of.conservatism and prudence. Thereliability quotients were 0,87 (Factor I), 0, 77 (Factor II) and 0, 75 (Factor III) respectively.For each respondent a score was calculated on each of these factors and these scores along with theirscores on the 16-PF scales, which had to serve as marker variables, were correlated and subjectedto a second-order factor analysis. Subsequently eight factors were retained, which were rotated tosimple structure by means of the direct oblimin procedure. The three proverb factors showed highloads on the same factor whereas none of the 16-PF scales registered similar loads. It suggests thatthe proverb factors define an own factor independent of the 16-PF factors. Thus the study does notsuggest that concurrence with idiomatic expressions can be successfully used to assess personality.

[发布机构] University of the Free State