Psihološka obzorja / Horizons of Psychology, 21, 1, 29-38 (2012) CC = 2223 © Društvo psihologov Slovenije, ISSN 1318-187 UDK = 159.923:159.9.072 Znanstveni raziskovalnoempirični prispevek Construct validity of Croatian version of the Pavlovian Temperament Survey (PTS) Sanja Tatalovic Vorkapic1, Ivana Lucev2 and Meri Tadinac3 'Faculty of Teacher Education, Department of Preschool Education, Rijeka, Croatia 2Institute for Migration and Ethnic Studies, Zagreb, Croatia ^Department of Psychology, University of Zagreb Faculty of Humanities and Social Science, Zagreb, Croatia Abstract: The aim of this study was to examine the construct validity of Pavlovian Temperament Survey (PTS) by determining the relationship between three Strelau's dimensions of temperament (strength of excitation, strength of inhibition, mobility) and basic dimensions of personality as were defined by Eysenck and in the five-factor model of personality. It was expected that strength of excitation and mobility would have significant positive correlations with extraversion and negative correlations with neuroticism, while strength of inhibition would show significant negative correlations with neuroticism. Within two studies (N = 74 female students, M = 22; N = 54 female students, M = 20), Croatian version of PTS, Five-Factor v 1 7 age 7 2 7 age 7 7 Nonverbal Personality Questionnaire FF-NPQ, and Eysenck's Personality Questionnaire EPQ R/A were used. The reliability coefficients for all three instruments were satisfactory, although not very high. Coefficients of correlation determined in the first study were not entirely in agreement with either theoretical expectations or empirical results of other authors, probably due to small sample size. However, the results of the second study were in accord with the expected pattern of significant correlations and that could be considered an indicator of good construct validity of PTS. Since this was a preliminary study the results provide only a general insight into the research aim, and represent a good starting point for future validation studies of the Croatian version of PTS. Key words: construct validity, Pavlovian Temperament Survey, Five-Factor Nonverbal Personality Questionnaire, Eysenck's Personality questionnaire, students Konstruktna veljavnost hrvaške priredbe Vprašalnika temperamenta po Pavlovu Sanja Tatalovic Vorkapic1, Ivana Lučev2 in Meri Tadinac3 'Faculty of Teacher Education, Department of Preschool Education, Rijeka, Croatia 2Institute for Migration and Ethnic Studies, Zagreb, Croatia ^Department of Psychology, University of Zagreb Faculty of Humanities and Social Science, Zagreb, Croatia Povzetek: Namen raziskave je bil oceniti konstruktno veljavnost hrvaške različice Vprašalnika temperamenta po Pavlovu (VTP), in sicer s preučitvijo odnosa med tremi dimenzijami temperamenta in dimenzijami osebnosti, kot jih je definiral Eysenck, ter dimenzijah osebnosti po modelu velikih pet. Na osnovi teorije smo pričakovali, da bosta moč ekscitacije in mobilnost imeli pozitivni korelaciji z ekstravertnostjo ter negativne korelacije z nevroticizmom, medtem ko naj bi dosežek na lestvici moč inhibicije negativno koreliral z nevroticizmom. V prvi raziskavi je sodelovalo 74 študentk (povprečna starost je znašala 22 let), v drugi raziskavi pa 54 študentk (povprečna starost je znašala 20 let). Poleg hrvaške različice VTP so udeleženke izpolnile tudi pet-faktorski neverbalni vprašalnik osebnosti (FF-NPQ) ter Eysenckov vprašalnik osebnosti (EPQ-R/A). Zanesljivost lestvic vseh uporabljenih inštrumentov je bila sprejemljiva. Korelacije med dimenzijami temperamenta in osebnosti v prvi raziskavi se v večini primerov niso prilegale teoretsko osnovanim pričakovanjem in rezultatom sorodnih raziskav. Ta rezultat je najverjetneje posledica majhnosti uporabljenega vzorca. V drugi raziskavi je vzorec korelacij ustrezal pričakovanjem, kar kaže na sprejemljivo konstruktno veljavnost hrvaške različice VTP. Pričujoča raziskava je preliminarne narave, zato rezultati predstavljajo zgolj dobro izhodišče za prihodnje validacisjke raziskave hrvašle različice VPT. Ključne beside: konstruktna veljavnost, Vprašalnika temperamenta po Pavlovu, Pet faktorski neverbalni vprašalnik osebnosti, Eysenck vprašalnik osebnosti, študenti *Naslov/Address: Sanja Tatalovic Vorkapic, PhD, Faculty of Teacher Education, Department of Preschool Education, University of Rijeka, Slavka Krautzeka bb, 51000 Rijeka; e-mail: sanjatv@ufri.hr The Pavlovian Temperament Survey (PTS) was constructed for cross-cultural comparison of the Pavlovian dimensions of temperament and it consists of three subscales: Strength of Excitation (SE), measuring the efficiency in conditions of high levels of stimulation and preference for such situations; Strength of Inhibition (SI), referring to the ability to stop or delay a given behaviour and to refrain from certain behaviours and reactions when required; and Mobility (MO), measuring the ability to quickly and adequately react to changes in the environment (Strelau, 1983). Temperament refers to stylistic, formal behavioural characteristics (such as typical intensity with which individual reacts). These relatively stable individual differences manifest early in life, occur in animals as well as humans and are largely biologically determined. Majority of authors agree that temperament can be mostly attributed to genetic factors (see Buss & Plomin, 1984; Strelau, 1983; Zuckerman, 1991). Temperament traits are considered universal for all human beings regardless of their specific cultural environment (Strelau, Angleitner, & Newberry, 1999). However, behaviours in which these dimensions manifest can be, and indeed often are somewhat culturally specific. Cross-cultural studies in psychology often encompass two basic goals: describing specificity of psychological phenomena or behaviour depending on the cultural conditions (the emic approach) and determining similarities of psychological phenomena in different cultures (the etic approach). In order to obtain valid measures of universal temperament dimensions that would include items that refer to behaviours relevant for expression of temperament traits in particular language and culture, Strelau and his colleagues (1999) devised specific process for construction of different language versions of Pavlovian temperament survey. Definitional components that refer to different aspects of the three PTS scales were determined: 7 for SE (such as "The individual is prone to undertake activity under highly stimulating conditions" and "Under conditions of high stimulative value, the individuals performance does not decrease significantly") and 5 each for SI ("The individual easily refrains from behaviour which for social reasons is not expected or desired" and "If circumstances require, the individual is able to delay his/her reaction to acting stimuli"), and MO scale ("The individual reacts adequately to unexpected changes in the environment", "The individual prefers situations which require him/her to perform different activities simultaneously"). These definitional components were starting point for generating universal pool of items. For each new language version of PTS universal item pool of 252 items is translated and administered to a sufficiently large sample of participants (N > 400). Then items that most coherently represent PTS dimensions are selected for the final version. The etic approach reflects in universal facets of scales and universal item pool which presents a basis for all versions of PTS, while process of selecting items that are the most representative for universal temperament dimensions in a given culture comprises the emic approach. Croatian version of the PTS was constructed in 2002 (Lučev, Tadinac-Babic, & Tatalovic, 2002). It consists of 69 items (23 for each dimension) and represents all of the defining components of the PTS. Total of 414 participants (134 males and 280 females), students of Universities in Zagreb and Rijeka, their family and friends were included in the construction sample. Age span of participants was between 16 and 85 (M = 22). Validation sample consisted of 101 male and 362 female university and high school students from Zagreb and Rijeka, 17-26 years old (M = 18) (Lučev, Tadinac, & Tatalovic Vorkapic, 2006). Cronbach a coefficients determined in the construction and validation study were aSE = .87, aSI = .81, aMo = .88, and aSE = .80, a, = .79, aMo = .83, respectively (Lučev et al., 2002; Lučev et al., 2006). Reliability of PTS scales determined in other studies with Croatian samples was also acceptable, Cronbach a coefficients were all over .75 (see Table 1), which is considered acceptable by most authors (DeVellis, 1991; Nunnally, 1978) and in the range of values attained for other language versions of the inventory (Strelau et al., 1999). In the validation study, factor analysis on the defining components of the PTS was conducted. The factor structure was comparable to those established for other versions of PTS (Bodunov, 1993) and in accordance with the theoretical concept: three oblique factors that could be interpreted as SE, SI and MO (Lučev at al., 2006). As can be expected from Pavlov's theoretical assumptions as well as empirical studies with earlier version of inventory (STI) (Strelau, Angleitner, Bantelmann, & Ruch, 1990) and other language versions of PTS (Newberry et al., 1997; Strelau et al., 1999), scales of Croatian version of the PTS were not orthogonal. Statistically significant correlations between PTS dimensions were found on construction and validation samples (Table 1), as well as other studies that included Croatian version of the Pavlovian temperament survey (Čekolj, 2007; Lučev, 2007). Since different language versions of PTS vary in number of items that comprise the scales, it is not possible to directly compare results on different PTS versions. In order to compare results, scores are expressed as average per-item responses on a 4 point rating scale. Again, average scores of Croatian participants on scales of PTS (Table 1) are comparable to values obtained on construction samples for other Table 1. Standardized means and standard deviations for PTS scales and correlations between PTS scales obtained on different Croatian samples Correlations between scales N Subscales M SD a r SE-SI r SE-MO r SI-MO Construction sample SE 2.38 0.40 .87 (Lucev et al, 2002) 414 SI 2.79 0.34 .81 .27** .67** .21** MO 2.72 0.41 .88 Validation sample 463 SE 2.42 0.35 .80 (Lucev et al, 2006) SI 2.71 0.36 .79 .30** .58** .25** MO 2.79 0.38 .83 Lucev, 2007 252 SE 2.53 0.42 .87 SI 2.82 0.33 .76 .13* .67** .07 MO 2.76 0.42 .88 Cekolj, 2007 332 SE 2.51 0.39 .83 SI 2.78 0.34 .77 .22** .64** .26** MO 2.74 0.39 .84 Note: SE = Strength of Excitation; SI = Strength of inhibition; MO = Mobility * p < .05, **p < .01 17 language versions: mean results varied from 2.23 to 2.86 for SE, from 2.08 to 3.03 for SI and from 2.21 to 2.99 for MO scale (Bucik, 2002; Newberry et al., 1997; Strelau et al., 1999). One of the main issues with cross-cultural studies on personality and temperament concerns the equivalence of the constructs measured in different cultures (Strelau & Angleitner, 1994). Similar psychometric properties that are found for different language versions of PTS and comparable correlations between scales indicate that parallel versions of PTS measure universal temperamental traits the way original authors of this instrument intended. The aim of this study was to examine the construct validity of PTS. An instrument with good construct validity represents a successful operationalization of the theoretical constructs it purportedly measures. If the obtained correlations with other instruments (that are supposed to measure similar or different constructs) fit the expected pattern and are in agreement with the theoretical assumptions, it is considered evidence of the construct validity of the instrument in question. Information about construct validity was gathered for many different language versions of PTS. Since Strength of Excitation refers to the ability of nervous system to withstand high levels of stimulation and preference for such situations, it was logical to expect that people with pronounced extraversion who are talkative, assertive and energetic will also have higher levels of SE. This assumption was confirmed in many studies and with different measures of SE (STI, PTS) and Extraversion (EPQ-R, NEO-FFI, NEO-P, NEO-P-R) (Strelau et al., 1999). Significant positive correlations between MO and E were also found by different authors (Angleitner & Ostendorf, 1994; Strelau et al., 1999). Mobility includes subscales that refer to behaviour under changing conditions and preference for situations that demand performing different activities simultaneously, which are behaviours characteristically present in extraverts, due to their tendency to seek higher levels of excitement. As for the Strength of Inhibition, one study found a weak, but significant positive correlation between SI and Extraversion (Strelau et al., 1990). However, the interpretation of this relation remains unclear. In the meta-analysis of six studies by Strelau and his colleagues (1999) it was determined that average correlation between SI and E was not statistically significant. Neuroticism refers to emotional instability, and one of the facets of SE relates to negative emotions: performance of activity under social and/or physical load is not evoking emotional disturbances. According to Pavlov, weak nervous system with low SE and SI typically exhibits fearfulness, which is a type of behaviour encompassed in Neuroticism (Ruch, 1992). Therefore, it is not surprising that significant negative correlations were found between Neuroticism and SE, as well as between Neuroticism and MO (Angleitner & Ostendorf, 1994; Strelau et al., 1999), the last one probably due to high and significant correlations consistently established between SE and MO (Cekolj, 2007; Lucev et al. 2002; Lucev et al., 2006; Strelau et al., 1999). Somewhat lower but still statistically significant negative correlations were found between Neuroticism and SI on various samples (Strelau et al., 1999). This could also be explained by Pavlov's conception of weak nervous system type which, as it is dominated by fear, facilitates development of neurotic behaviour. High levels of Psychoticism, as measured by EPQ -R, imply poorer impulse control, and hence this trait could be expected to negatively correlate with SI, i.e. the ability to control one's behaviour. This was confirmed by the meta-analysis of eight different studies: P was significantly, although weakly, negatively related to SI, the average correlation being r = -.18 (Strelau et al., 1999). It is harder to speculate on relationship of Psychoticism with the other two PTS scales, although significant positive correlations between SE and P were found in some empirical studies, with average correlation of r = .17 reported by Strelau and his colleagues (1999). Correlations between MO and P were not statistically significant (Strelau et al., 1999). Eysenck (1994) asserted that Agreeableness and Conscientiousness, as measured by NEO inventories, are in fact components of Psychoticism. If that was indeed so, we could expect these two dimensions to show significant correlations with SI, as Psychoticism does, but in opposite direction. Amelang and Borkenau (1982) suggested that Conscientiousness (C) was a measure of impulse control, in which case we could also expect significant correlations with SI. On the other hand, if we consider Conscientiousness as a will-to-achieve factor, as proposed by Digman and Takemoto-Chock (1981), we could expect C to significantly correlate with SE and MO. Conscientiousness, as measured by NEO inventories, refers to both impulse control and will-to-achieve, hence positive correlations with all three Pavlovian dimensions can be expected. According to Strelau and colleagues (1999) meta-analysis, Openness to experience and Conscientiousness are unrelated or only weakly positively related to SE, SI and MO (average correlation ranging from r = .04 to r = .22), while Agreeableness has somewhat higher positive correlation with SI (r = .33). In the study with the Croatian version of PTS, on a sample of 332 adult participants, Pavlovian scales were related to EPQ dimensions. Extraversion was in significant positive correlations with SE (r = .35) and MO (r = .56); Neuroticism was significantly negatively correlated with all three temperament dimensions: r = -.44 with SE, r = -.31 with SI and r = -.37 with MO; while Psychoticism was significantly correlated with SE (r = .18) and SI (r = -.20) (Čekolj, 2007). These findings are completely in accordance with both theoretical expectations and the results of earlier studies. In this study, we decided to examine the construct validity of Croatian PTS scales by relating them to basic dimensions of personality as defined by Eysenck (E, P, N, L) and in the five-factor model of personality (e, N, C, A, O). It was expected that SE and MO would have significant positive correlations with Extraversion and negative correlations with Neuroticism, while SI would have a significant negative correlation with Neuroticism. Eysencks' Psychoticism should be in weak negative correlations with SI, while other three scales of NEO inventory should be weakly, if at all, correlated with PTS scales. Furthermore, we expect that scales of PTS will be in statistically significant inter correlations, while levels of reliability and mean results will be in the range of results attained in previous studies with different language versions of PTS. Method Participants First study was conducted on a convenience sample of 74 female students from various departments of University in Rijeka (Faculty of Teacher Education, Psychology, Languages, Mathematics, Physics, Information Technology), with average age of 22. Second study included a sample of 54 female psychology students, with average age of 20, recruited from the other study. Instruments In the first study, Pavlovian temperament dimensions were assessed with Croatian version of PTS (Lučev et al., 2002), while five basic dimensions of personality were measured by Five-Factor Nonverbal Personality Questionnaire, FF-NPQ (Paunonen, Ashton, & Jackson, 2001), i.e. its Croatian adaptation (Tatalovic Vorkapic, Lučev, & Morosini Turčinovic, 2007). As was described earlier, 69-item PTS measures three central nervous system (CNS) dimensions. Typical item of the Strength of excitation subscale is: "I like very demanding jobs"; for Strength of inhibition subscale: "I can hide my anger if needed"; and for Mobility subscale: "When my job changes, I'm quick to adjust". Subjects rated their agreement with the PTS-items using Likert's 5-point scale (from 1 - totally disagree to 5 - totally agree). The FF-NPQ consists of 60 nonverbal items presented as illustrations in Picture Booklet (for more details see Tatalovic Vorkapic et al., 2007). It measures five factors, each with 12 items: Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Openness to experience, and Neuroticism. All subjects were instructed to look at each illustration and to rate the likelihood of engaging in the type of behaviour shown at the picture. Seven-point Likert scale was used for ratings (ranging from 1 - extremely unlikely that I would to perform this type of behaviour to 7 -extremely likely that I would to perform this type of behaviour). In the second study subjects completed PTS as well as EPQ R/A, which measures personality dimensions as defined in Eysenck's theory (Eysenck & Eysenck, 1994). Eysenck's Personality Questionnaire - Revised version is used to measure the levels of extraversion, neuroticism, psychoticism and social desirability. This instrument consists of 106 items: 23 items in the Extraversion subscale (item example: "Do you have many friends?"); 32 items in the Psychoticism subscale (item example: "Do you enjoy to insult people who you love?"); 24 items comprising the Neuroticism subscale (item example: "Have you often felt guilty? "); and 21 items that make up the Social conformity subscale (item example: "Have you ever damaged or lost others stuff?"). Participants answered to EPQ-R items with YES or NO. Sum of answers on each EPQ-subscale indicate the position of the individual on the corresponding personality dimension. Procedure Participants were approached during their usual classes and they were familiar with the aim of this study, i.e. the validation of different personality dimensions questionnaires. All subjects participated voluntarily and they received course credit. Students were asked to complete the questionnaires answering sincerely and informed that the data will be used in research purposes only. Since both studies included convenience samples, only female subjects participated, homogenous by age and study programs, as well as their academic interests. Considering that, it is important to notice that this validation study has significant limitations and its findings need to be further verified. In addition, data from the second study was collected as a part of study on relationship between evoked potentials and questionnaire measures of personality and temperament. Therefore, data presented in this report are the result of the first study that examined construct validity of PTS in Croatia and should be considered an interesting starting point for the future relevant studies in this field. Results Descriptive statistics Reliability coefficients for all three instruments used in this research were satisfactory, although not very high. Cronbach alpha reliability coefficients (and their lower bounds of 95% confidence interval) for PTS scales in the first study were a = .82 (.77) for SE, a = .66 (.56) for SI and a = .78 (.72) for MO scale, while the coefficients determined in the second study were a = .86 (.81) for SE, a = .78 (.70) for SI and a = .89 (.85) for MO scale. Except for reliability for SI and MO scale found in first study, values were in the range of findings reported for 16 different language versions of PTS (Strelau et al., 1999). According to Nunnally and Bernstein (1994) satisfactory level of reliability for instruments used in early stages of construct validation research is about .70 or higher, while they consider increasing reliabilities much beyond .80 is a waste of time with instruments used for basic research. Therefore, all of the reliability coefficients (and their assessed lower bounds) determined for instruments used in the two studies were adequate except for reliability of SI scale found in the first study which was somewhat lower. Strelau and his colleagues (1999) reported lower average reliability, as well as larger variance in values of reliability coefficients for different language versions of SI scale, and Strelau suggested this could be explained by the fact that SI scale was more saturated by cultural factors than MO or SE. Some of the items that indicate low levels of SI might be under greater influence of social desirability than others. For instance, admitting to "It is hard for me to control my curiosity when I have the chance to look at someone else's things or notes" is probably less desirable than agree with statement "It is difficult for me to interrupt Table 2. Descriptives for PTS subscales (SE = Strenght of excitation, SI = Strenght of inhibition, MO = Mobility) and FF-NPQ subscales (Extraversion, Agreeableness, Consciousness, Openness, Neuroticism) in the first study Subscales M (M per item) SD Total range Skewness coefficients and their SEs Kurtosis coefficients and their SEs PTS SE 55.37 (2.41) 7.89 38-76 .29 (.30) -.11 (.59) SI 63.58 (2.76) 5.91 48-79 .26 (.30) .36 (.59) MO 60.31 (2.62) 6.78 48-77 .48 (.29) -.29 (.57) E 48.18 9.64 26-69 .09 (.28) -.59 (.55) O A 67.88 8.65 46-83 -.52 (.28) -.03 (.55) i C 54.52 9.55 31-82 .07 (.28) .50 (.55) tu Cu O 59.44 9.50 38-81 .22 (.28) .01 (.55) N 47.09 9.70 22-72 -.57 (.28) .62 (.55) Table 3. Descriptives for PTS subscales (SE = Strength of excitation, SI = Strength of inhibition, MO = Mobility) and EPQ-R/A subscales (Extraversion, Neuroticism, Psychoticism and Social Desirability) in the second study Subscales M (M per item) SD Total range Skewness coefficients and their SEs Kurtosis coefficients and their SEs PTS SE 53.82 (2.34) 8.75 34-72 .16 (.32) -.62 (.64) SI 65.06 (2.83) 6.92 50-82 .42 (.32) .02 (.64) MO 66.24 (2.88) 9.41 45-89 .34 (.32) .09 (.64)