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Abstract

The Adjective Check List is intended for cross-cultural as well as intracultural research, and in fact has been widely used in such inquiry. Translations should attend to psychological attributes of the items, such as social desirability, as well as to linguistic equivalence. Endorsement rates in self-description give still another index of the comparability of items in two versions of a test. Ratings of the desirability of ACL items in English, French, and Italian were obtained from small panels of American, French, and Italian judges. Inter-judge alphas ranged from .89 to .98, and cross-national correlations among the panels ranged from .82 to .88. Within this pattern of general consistency, individual items were identified that showed significant differences, either in regard to the gender of the person being described or to the language in which the item was stated. These items tended to reflect sex-role stereotypes, or folk notions about national character. Item desirability ratings and endorsement rates can provide useful information concerning the degree of equivalence between a test in its original and translated formats.

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References

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English,French,and Italian Adjective Check Lists

Abstract

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References