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Resumo

Current-day cross-cultural psychology typically attends to a linguistic equivalence requirement for the assessment of one and the same psychological construct in different cultures. The present article suggests loosening the requirement of using identically worded items in all cultures included in a cross-cultural comparison in favor of following a more emic methodology in instrument development. Using purely illustrative material on the relationship of paternal warmth and trust in five cultures (Germany, Moldova–Russian, Togo–French, Zambia–English, and Zimbabwe–Shona), an approach is suggested that develops items autonomously within the cultures included in a comparison, subsequently ascertains structural and measurement equivalence of covariance matrices obtained on the basis of items differently worded in different cultures, and finally validates the measurement by showing the equality of the relationship of the differentially measured latent construct under scrutiny (here, paternal warmth) with the comparison variable (here, trust) in all cultures. The authors hope to offer first steps toward a quantitative emic comparative psychology and discuss further research needs.

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