A Cross-Cultural View of Positive Mental Health

Abstract

Student teachers, working teachers, and retired teachers (N = 595) from four countries (France, Germany, Greece, and the United States) completed a questionnaire containing 186 items in Likert format with instructions to describe the mentally healthy person. Principal component analyses of item responses showed two cross-culturally invariant orthogonal factors, which were interpreted as High versus Low Mental Health and High versus Low Behavior Control. Factor loadings revealed a circumplex structure similar to that repeatedly found by Becker in studies of self-description of personality. Four scales were constructed representing the two main axes and the two diagonals of the circumplex structure. The scales were named Mental Health, Behavior Control, Social Adaptation versus Social Maladaptiveness, and Self-Actualization versus Inhibition. Analyses of variance showed cultural and age differences, which were interpreted as reflecting different degrees of permissiveness, varying self-concepts, and of differences in economic wealth of the countries studied.

Values, spirituality, and psychotherapy.

“…Another related issue to bear in mind is the cultural boundedness of treatment goals (Marsella & White, 1982; Minsel, Becker, & Korchin, 1991). Levine and Padilla (1980) noted that the goals of therapy in any culture can range from the removal of symptoms to attitude change, behavior change, insight, improved relaticins with others, social effectiveness, personal adjustment, and preventive health.…”

Identification of unique cultural response patterns by means of item response theory.

“…In earlier research, based on data from French ( N = 191), German ( N = 205), American ( N = 98), and Greek ( N = 101) subjects, intracultural factor analyses were conducted (Minsel, 1986). From these analyses, three subscales were constructed from items that correlated highly in all four cultural-linguistic groups.…”

Evaluation of Attitude Survey Translations: An Investigation Using Item Response Theory

“…A factor analysis of the combined data from French, German, American, and Greek subjects indicated that the survey consists of three subscales: (1) an Emotional Lability scale with 31 items, (2) a Social Adaptability scale with 34 items, and (3) a Self-Actualization scale with 15 items (Minsel 1986). The Emotional Lability scale contains items that indicate neuroticism, rigidity, anxiousness, and hostility.…”