Condicionamiento Cultural del MACI: Un Examen del Sesgo de Constructo en Chile

Abstract

Este estudio fue financiado por el Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Científico y Tecnológico de Chile (proyecto FONDECYT 1110383). La correspondencia relativa a este artículo debe ser dirigida a José L. Saiz, Departamento de Psicología, Universidad de La Frontera, Casilla 54-D, Temuco, Chile. E-mail: jose.saiz@ufrontera.cl Condicionamiento Cultural del MACI: Un Examen del Sesgo de Constructo en Chile Cultural Conditioning of the MACI: A Construct Bias Examination in ChileJosé L. Saiz, Eugenia V. Vinet y Ana Barrera-Herrera Universidad de La FronteraAunque el MACI presenta una probada calidad psicométrica en Chile, 6 de sus escalas clínicas diferencian de manera inversa entre adolescentes consultantes y no consultantes y, además, aparecen inversamente asociadas a trastornos psicológicos. Contrariando la teoría del MACI, este patrón de resultados sugiere que estas escalas no estarían evaluando en Chile desajuste psicológico, sino más bien su ausencia, y plantea la posibilidad de sesgo de constructo en estas escalas contra-teóricas (CT). Para examinar tal posibilidad, una muestra intencionada de 49 psicólogos clínicos chilenos evaluó, mediante una escala de 5 puntos, el grado en que la definición del constructo medido por cada escala CT y el contenido de sus ítems reflejaban desajuste psicológico en adolescentes connacionales. Pruebas t de una muestra sugieren que las definiciones de las escalas Sumiso y Egoísta y la casi totalidad de los ítems de las escalas CT presentan sesgo de constructo. Se discuten estos resultados en términos de diferencias culturales en la noción de desajuste adolescente, los criterios de selección original de los ítems y las implicaciones de las escalas CT para la práctica profesional.Palabras clave: adolescentes, MACI, sesgo de constructo, culturaDespite the proven psychometric quality of the MACI in Chile, 6 of its clinical scales differentiate in a reversed fashion between adolescents who seek or receive psychological help and those who do not; in addition, these scales appear inversely associated with psychological disorders. Contrary to the theoretical foundations of the MACI, this pattern of results suggests that these scales might not be assessing psychological maladjustment in Chile but rather the absence of it, which points to the possibility of construct bias in these counter-theoretical (CT) scales. To examine this issue, a purposive sample of 49 Chilean clinical psychologists were asked to assess, using a 5-point scale, the extent to which the definition of the construct measured by each CT scale and the content of their items reflected psychological maladjustment in Chilean adolescents. One-sample t-tests suggest that the definitions of the Submissive and Egoistic scales and nearly all the items of the CT scales show construct bias. These results are discussed in terms of cultural differences regarding the notion of adolescent maladjustment, the original item selection criteria, and the implications of CT scales for professional practice. Keywords: adolescents, MACI, construct bia...

Personality in adolescents of general and clinical samples

“…It has been observed that some personality scales have a counter-theoretical behaviour (Submissive, Dramatizing, Egotistic and Conforming), where the averages obtained by adolescents from general sample are significantly higher than those obtained by adolescents from clinical sample (Hofstede et al, 2010;Saiz et al, 2015;Vinet, 2010). It has been argued that the pattern of inverse results observed could be due to cultural differences between Hispanic and American adolescents (Vinet, 2010) and we can conclude that these differences are also observed in our sample of the Spanish sample, which would be closer to the Latin American sample.…”

“…Some PRP have a counter-theoretical behavior (Submissive, Dramatizing, Egotistic and Conforming), where the averages obtained by adolescents from general sample are significantly higher than those obtained by adolescents from clinical sample (Saiz et al, 2015;Vinet, 20). It has been argued that the observed pattern of inverse results could be due to cultural differences between Hispanic and US adolescents (Vinet, 2010).…”

“…In addition, these PRP, with behavior contrary to what is expected by theory, tend to present inverse associations with various measures of psychopathology in the Latin American population (Vinet, 2010). According to this dimension, high scores do not seem to be measuring psychological maladjustment, but perhaps the absence of maladjustment in Latin American adolescents (Saiz et al, 2015).…”