Multi-factorial scale of individualism and collectivism: elaboration and validity

• Autor(es):

  Gouveia, Valdiney V. (Universidade Federal da Paraíba);

  Andrade, Josemberg M. de (Universidade Federal da Paraíba);

  Jesus, Girlene R. de (Universidade Federal da Paraíba);

  Meira, Maja (Universidade Federal da Paraíba);

  Soares, Nilton F. (Universidade Federal da Paraíba).

• Fonte:

  Psicologia: Teoria e Pesquisa; volume 18, número 2, páginas 203-212. Agosto 2002.

• Assuntos:

  Individualism;

  Collectivism;

  Attitudes;

  In-Group Identification.

• Resumo:

  This study aimed at introducing a multi-factorial measure of individualist and collectivist attitudes, by checking its construct and convergent validities. We departed from the Triandis' typology (1995), adding two new components of these constructs: protoindividualism and expressive individualism. 304 respondents participated in this study, most of them being woman (62.5%), with mean age around 29 years. They answered the Multi-Factorial Scale of Individualism and Collectivism (MSIC), the In-Group Identification Scale and a list of demographic variables. The multi-factorial structure of the MSCI was proved through a confirmatory factor analysis, which revealed acceptable goodness of fit indexes (chi2/g.l. = 2.38, AGFI = .85, and RMSEA = .07). The Cronbach's Alphas for the factors ranged from .34 (horizontal individualism) to .68 (horizontal collectivism). All factors of individualism and collectivism were correlated directly with its respective theoretical attribute; the only non significant correlation was that of the expressive individualism with the expressive personal attribute (r = .08, p > .05). We then concluded that, compared with previous measures, this one showed itself appropriate, although the elaboration of new items is recommended to contemplate the dimension of horizontal individualism.

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