Equivalence and faking issues of the aggression questionnaire and the conditional reasoning test for aggression in Korean and American samples

Abstract

Researchers have raised concerns about measurement equivalence in comparing personalities across cultures using personality assessments. The self-reported personality measurements often do not assess the same construct, trigger different response styles (i.e., extreme response style), or use behavioral exemplars that are inappropriate across cultures (Byrne&Watkins, 2003; Chen, 2008; Poortinga, van de Vijber,&van Hermert, 2002, van de Vijver&Leung, 1997). James et al. (2005) developed a new measurement system for aggression that is different from traditional personality assessment. It is referred to as the Conditional Reasoning Test for Aggression (CRT-A). The CRT-A is an indirect measure for assessing unconscious motives to be aggressive that was developed in the USA. It has not been studied with people from different cultures. Study 1 investigated the equivalences of the Aggression Questionnaire (AQ) and the CRT-A by administering both to groups of Americans (n=432) and Koreans (n=363). Results based on the exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses and DIF analyses showed that the AQ and CRT-A are not invariant across these cultures. Study 2 replicated LeBreton et al.(2007) study regarding faking issues of the CRT-A with the Korean population. Study 2 found that on the CRT-A, Koreans were able to identify aggressive alternatives when they were told to do so, and Korean students and employees did not score differently on the CRT-A. Implications and future directions of the study are discussed herein.