Barkauskienė, Rasa

In cross-national studies, mean levels of self-reported phenomena are often not congruent with more objective criteria. One prominent explanation for such findings is that people make self-report judgements in relation to culture-specific standards (often called the reference group effect), thereby undermining the cross-cultural comparability of the judgements. We employed a simple method called anchoring vignettes in order to test whether people from 21 different countries have varying standards for Conscientiousness, a Big Five personality trait that has repeatedly shown unexpected nation-level relationships with external criteria. Participants rated their own Conscientiousness and that of 30 hypothetical persons portrayed in short vignettes. The latter type of ratings was expected to reveal individual differences in standards of Conscientiousness. The vignettes were rated relatively similarly in all countries, suggesting no substantial culture-related differences in standards for Conscientiousness. Controlling for the small differences in standards did not substantially change the rankings of countries on mean self-ratings or the predictive validities of these rankings for objective criteria. These findings are not consistent with mean self-rated Conscientiousness scores being influenced by culture-specific standards. The technique of anchoring vignettes can be used in various types of studies to assess the potentially confounding effects of reference levels.

In cross-national studies, mean levels of self-reported phenomena are often not congruent with more objective criteria. One prominent explanation for such findings is that people make self-report judgements in relation to culture-specific standards (often called the reference group effect), thereby undermining the cross-cultural comparability of the judgements. We employed a simple method called anchoring vignettes in order to test whether people from 21 different countries have varying standards for Conscientiousness, a Big Five personality trait that has repeatedly shown unexpected nation-level relationships with external criteria. Participants rated their own Conscientiousness and that of 30 hypothetical persons portrayed in short vignettes. The latter type of ratings was expected to reveal individual differences in standards of Conscientiousness. The vignettes were rated relatively similarly in all countries, suggesting no substantial culture-related differences in standards for Conscientiousness. Controlling for the small differences in standards did not substantially change the rankings of countries on mean self-ratings or the predictive validities of these rankings for objective criteria. These findings are not consistent with mean self-rated Conscientiousness scores being influenced by culture-specific standards. The technique of anchoring vignettes can be used in various types of studies to assess the potentially confounding effects of reference levels.

Tyrimo tikslas. Įvardinti ikimokyklinio amžiaus vaikų aktyvumo ir dėmesio sutrikimo ankstyvosios diagnostikos galimybes. Tyrime dalyvavo 863 1,5–5 metų vaikai (410 mergaičių ir 453 berniukai), tėvai ir auklėtojos. Tyrimui naudos T. M. Achenbacho empirinio vertinimo sistema pagrįstos metodikos: klausimynai tėvams CBCL/1½-5 ir auklėtojams C-TRF, Klinikinis ikimokyklinio amžiaus vaikų aktyvumo ir dėmesio sutrikimo vertinimo klausimynas. Tyrimas vykdytas dviem etapais: 1) pirminis (atrankinis) ikimokyklinio amžiaus vaikų aktyvumo ir dėmesio sunkumų įvertinimas; 2) klinikinis interviu su aktyvumo ir dėmesio sutrikimo riziką turinčių vaikų tėvais. Kiekybinė pirmojo tyrimo etapo duomenų analizė parodė reikšmingas aktyvumo ir dėmesio sunkumų sąsajas su kitais sunkumais: elgesio, emocijų, raidos bei atskleidė, kad aktyvumo ir dėmesio sutrikimai šiuo amžiaus tarpsniu nebuvo izoliuoti, bet pasireiškia kartu su kitais sutrikimais. Ikimokyklinio amžiaus vaikų aktyvumo ir dėmesio sutrikimai, remiantis tėvų, bet ne auklėtojų vertinimu, susiję su vaiko amžiumi. Remiantis auklėtojų vertinimu, berniukų aktyvumo ir dėmesio sutrikimai išreikšti labiau nei mergaičių. Per pirmąjį tyrimo etapą, remiantis gautais duomenimis, išskirta ADHD riziką turinčių vaikų grupė toliau analizuota taikant individualaus klinikinio interviu su tėvais metodą. Šio etapo duomenų analizė, taikant atvejų analizės metodą, parodė, kad ikimokyklinio amžiaus vaikų aktyvumo ir dėmesio sutrikimas dažniausiai nėra atskira diagnostinė kategorija, o jo simptomai pasireiškia su kitais galimais sutrikimais. Tyrimas parodė, kad ankstyvajai vaikų aktyvumo ir dėmesio sutrikimo diagnostikai būtinas išsamus klinikinis vaiko raidos įvertinimas.

Altogether, 1448 individuals from six neighbouring countries of Russia in the Baltic Sea region (Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Belarus) described a typical member of their own nation and a typical Russian, as well as rated their own personality, using the National Character Survey (NCS). Results suggest that national character stereotypes are widely shared, temporally stable and moderately related to assessed personality traits, if all assessments are made using the same measurement instrument. In all studied countries, agreement between national auto-stereotypes and assessed personality was positive and in half of the samples statistically significant. Although members of the six nations studied had a relatively similar view of the Russian national character, this view was not related with self-rated personality traits of Russians but moderately with the Russian auto-stereotype.