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Exploring the personality structure in the 11 language groups in South Africa.

Nel, A., Valchev, V.H., Rothmann, S., Van de Vijver, F.J.R. Meiring, D., De Bruin, G.

Journal of Personality, Vol 80, Issue 4, Pages 915-944

The present study, part of the development of the South African Personality Inventory (SAPI), explores the implicit personality structure in the 11 official language groups of South Africa by employing a mixed-method approach. In the first, qualitative part of the study, semistructured interviews were conducted with 1,216 participants from the 11 official language groups. The derived personality-descriptive terms were categorized and clustered based on their semantic relations in itera- tive steps involving group discussions and contacts with language and cultural experts. This analysis identified 37 subclusters, which could be merged in 9 broad clusters: Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, Extraversion, Facilitating, Integrity, Intellect, Openness, Relationship.

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