The Cross-Cultural Utility of the SAPQ — Bias or Fruitful Differences?

The article is a reply to Taylor and Boeyens's (1990, 1991) investigation of the cross-cultural utility of the SAPQ. Although their conclusions about a lack of evidence favouring utility are agreed with, it is argued that certain important variables operate in the domain of cross-cultural personality assessment, necessitating a different interpretation of traditional concepts relating to bias and item incomparability. The guiding assumption of a search for dimensions that remain unitary or invariant is also questioned. Based on this analysis, a pragmatic test construction strategy is advocated where causes behind differences in patterns of responding are investigated in order to yield core constructs that may vary in cross-cultural application. Such a test construction strategy also has the potential of yielding indices of acculturation.