Hong Kong Scholar Translates Super’s Work Values Inventory-revised into Chinese
By Donald G. Zytowski, Ed.D.
Kuder, Inc. Senior Director of Research
Fan Zhang, a student at the Chinese University of Hong Kong converted the English version of Super’s Work Values Inventory-revised (SWVI-r) into Chinese. Zhang, a fourth-year student, sought its use in a study of personality factors and gender. After translating the assessment into Chinese, she turned it over to a Chinese-American scholar who then “back- translated” it into English. The two then worked together to resolve differences in meanings to produce a final version.
Under the direction of Dr. F. M. Cheung, Chinese University of Hong Kong chairperson & professor of psychology, Zhang administered the SWVI-r to 353 Chinese college students. She also administered to this group a Chinese personality inventory similar to the American Big 5 (which measures five broad factors, or dimensions, of personality traits: Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and Openness to Experience) and the Bem Sex Role Inventory (which measures traditional gender roles).
Donald G. Zytowski, Ed.D.
Fan Zhang
Zhang found that the Chinese students’ results bore remarkably similar reliabilities and factor structure to those of Americans, identifying an “intrinsic” factor (Achievement, Creativity, Variety, Independence, and Challenge) and “extrinsic” factor (Income, Co-Workers, Prestige, Security, Supervision, Workplace, and Lifestyle). The intrinsic factor was found to correlate with high social potency, while the extrinsic factor was relatively strongly linked to Femininity on the Bem Sex Role Inventory.
Zhang, now completing her Bachelor’s degree, has applied for graduate study at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Cambridge University in England.
For more information on the Chinese version of the SWVI-r, please contact international@kuder.com.