Abstract
Historical use of psychological assessments in South Africa has led to racially and culturally biased results. Currently the use of personality assessments in South Africa still raises some controversies as the use of personality assessments in contexts other than those for which they were initially designed leads to unintended culturally biased results, leading to unfair treatment of test takers. There is thus a need for locally developed, culture-sensitive personality assessments that should be availed in languages in which test takers are comfortable. The current study introduced an isiZulu version of the South African Personality Inventory (SAPI-Z). The purpose of the study was to inspect the factor structure of the SAPI-Z and establish construct validity of the SAPI-Z. A quantitative cross-sectional study was used, in which a paper-and-pencil version as well as an online version of the SAPI-Z was administrated to 223 South African isiZulu speakers. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was employed to uncover a two-factor structure, labelled General Personality Factor and Negative Social Relational Disposition. Construct validity for the SAPI-Z factor structure was then confirmed by correlating Negative Social Relational Disposition (SRD) with Negative Social Disposition, as well as General Personality Factor with Positive Social Desirability to confirm convergent validity. The findings of this study also contributed to ongoing efforts of ensuring that organisations have access to personality assessments that are appropriate for the South African cultural context, are available in the various official South African languages and comply with legislative requirements of the Employment Equity Act (No. 55 of 1998).
M.Phil. (Industrial Psychology)