AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF MEASUREMENT EQUIVALENCE WITH THE INDCOL MEASURE OF INDIVIDUALISM AND COLLECTIVISM: IMPLICATIONS FOR VALID CROSS‐CULTURAL INFERENCE

Abstract

The INDCOL measure of individualism and collectivism ( Singelis et al., 1995 ) has been used increasingly to test complex cross‐cultural hypotheses. However, sample differences in translation, culture, organization, and response context might threaten the validity of cross‐cultural inferences. We systematically explored the robustness of the INDCOL, for various statistical uses, in the face of those 4 threats. An analysis of measurement equivalence using multigroup mean and covariance structure analysis compared samples of INDCOL data from the United States, Singapore, and Korea. The INDCOL was robust with regard to the interpretability of correlations, whereas differences in culture and translation pose an important potential threat to the interpretability of mean‐level analyses. Recommendations regarding the interpretation of the INDCOL and issues in the analysis of measurement equivalence in cross‐cultural research are discussed.