European Psychologist
© 2006 by the Hogrefe & Huber Publishers
2006 Vol. 11, No. 4, 297-303
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Cross-Cultural Assessment of Emotional States and Personality Traits
Charles D. Spielberger
Center for Research in Behavioral Medicine and Health Psychology, University of South
Florida
ABSTRACT
Biographical information regarding Wilhelm Wundt and William James is briefly
described, and the contributions of these founders of psychology in Europe and the US to
the understanding of emotions and personality are reviewed. Important theoretical
contributions of Darwin and Freud to the historical evolution of emotions and personality
as psychological constructs are also examined. Critical issues and sources of error in the
cross-cultural adaptation of psychological tests of emotional states and personality traits
are evaluated, emphasizing the importance of construct equivalence in the languages of
the tests that are being translated and adapted. The nature of anxiety, anger, depression,
and curiosity as fundamental psychological concepts is discussed, and the importance of
measuring these vital signs in diagnosis and treatment is emphasized.
Keywords: emotions, personality, assessment, anxiety, anger, depression, curiosity
It was, indeed, a great honor to receive the Wilhelm Wundt-William James Award for
contributions to international psychology from the European Federation of Psychologists'
Associations (EFPA) and the American Psychological Foundation (APF) at the 9th
European Congress of Psychology in Granada. I also greatly appreciate the invitation
from Professor Rainer Silbereisen, Editor-in-Chief of European Psychologist, the official
journal of the EFPA, to contribute a brief article based on my award presentation at the
Granada Congress. Receiving this award stimulated me to review the contributions of
Wundt and James to our understanding of emotions and personality, the concepts that
have been of the greatest interest in my own professional work.
In this paper, I will briefly report biographical information about Wundt and James, and
will review and comment on their respective conceptions of emotions and personality. I
will also examine some of the major theoretical contributions of Charles Darwin and
Sigmund Freud to understanding the historical evolution of the concepts of emotion and
personality. Critical issues relating to the measurement of emotions and personality from
a cross-cultural perspective will also be examined. Finally, I will comment on the nature
of anxiety, anger, depression, and curiosity as theoretical concepts, and on the importance
of measuring these psychological vital signs in diagnosis and treatment.
Contributions of Wundt and James to Understanding Emotions and Personality
Wilhelm Wundt and William James are generally considered to be the founders of
psychology in Europe and the US. Born in 1832 in the village of Neckarau in Germany,
Wundt studied medicine at Tübingen, Heidelberg, and Berlin, but was more interested in
the scientific foundation on which medicine was based than in professional practice. He
was appointed assistant professor at the University of Heidelberg in 1864, where he
established the first course in physiological psychology, which focused on sensory
physiology and behavioral reactions. His lecture notes were published in 1873 as his
major work, Grundzüge der Physiologischen Psychologie (Principles of Physiological
Psychology), which was subsequently revised (Wundt, 1897). The establishment of
Wundt's lab at the University of Leipzig in 1879 is generally celebrated as the founding
of experimental psychology as an academic discipline.
Wundt accepted the Spinozean idea of psychophysical parallelism, theorizing that every
physical event has a mental counterpart and vice versa. He developed experimental
introspection, a method in which researchers carefully observed specific internal
experiences in terms of their quality, intensity, and duration. Wundt considered humans
to be “emotional creatures,” and assumed that all mental activities involved emotion,
which preceded cognition. He distinguished between feelings as short-lived experiences,
and emotions as more complex experiences that generally involved several related
feelings. Consequently, he concluded that it was not possible to identify specific
emotions because they tended to blend into each other. Wundt disagreed with the JamesLange Theory, which assumed that a person first responded to a situation and then
experienced an emotion. According to Wundt, introspection demonstrated that emotions
and physiological arousal came first, followed by cognition and behavioral consequences.
In early studies of human emotions, introspective reports were used in efforts to discover
and measure the qualitative feeling states (“mental elements”) that were associated with
different emotions (Titchner, 1879; Wundt, 1897). However, the findings that resulted
from this phenomenological approach were inconsistent and generally unrelated to other
behaviors (Plutchik, 1962; Young, 1943). Consequently, self-reports came to be viewed
with extreme suspicion because they were unverifiable and easily falsified (Duffy, 1941).
The validity of verbal self-reports was further challenged by psychoanalytic formulations
that emphasized the distortions produced by the effects of unconscious mental processes
on mood and thought.
William James was born in New York City in 1842. He entered Harvard in 1861 to study
chemistry, but soon changed to medicine. He went to Germany in 1867 to study
physiology under Helmholtz, returning to Harvard in 1869 to complete his M.D. degree,
but was not interested in a career in medicine. Like Wundt, he preferred to study the
science that was related to medicine. In 1872, James was appointed instructor of
physiology at Harvard, and taught what is considered the first U.S. course on psychology
in 1875. His title at Harvard was changed in 1880 to assistant professor of philosophy; he
became a full professor in 1885. In 1889 James' title was changed to professor of
psychology; his classic book (James, 1890), The Principles of Psychology (2 volumes),
was published the following year. A shorter version, published in 1892 with the subtitle
The Briefer Course, was referred to by students as “The Jimmy” for the next 50 years.
James' books were extremely popular among psychology students and laypersons alike.
He also raised money for a new lab at Harvard, and arranged to hire one of Wundt's
students, Hugo Münsterberg, as its director.
In his books, James devoted an entire chapter to “The Emotions,” which he considered to
be similar to instincts. In describing emotions, James quotes extensively from Darwin and
gives considerable attention to fear, which he defined as “a genuine instinct.” Symptoms
of fear included perspiration (cold sweat), hurried breathing, and increased heart rate and
blood pressure. The importance of anger was also recognized by James, who observed
that when an individual experienced intense anger or rage, “he strikes, kicks, and throttles
whomever he can lay his hands on.” Similar to fear and anger, James also considered
curiosity to be an instinct, which contributed to resolving puzzles and stimulating
reactions to novel situations. Portraits of Wundt and James are shown in Figure 1.
Historical Evolution of Emotions and Personality as Theoretical Concepts
Fear and rage were considered by Darwin (1965/1872) to be universal characteristics of
both humans and animals that were clearly reflected in facial expressions. He theorized
that these emotions evolved over time through a process of natural selection because they
facilitated successful adaptation and survival (Plutchik, 2001). According to Darwin
(1965/1872, p. 176), “If we expect to suffer, we are anxious; if we have no hope of relief,
we despair.” Thus, Darwin explicitly related anxiety to fear and depression. He regarded
fear as “.. . the most depressing of all the emotions; and it soon induces utter, helpless
prostration” (Darwin, 1965/1872, p. 81).
Rage was also considered by Darwin (1965/1872, p. 74) to be a powerful emotion that
motivated “.. . animals of all kinds, and their progenitors before them, when attacked or
threatened by an enemy” to fight and defend themselves. He observed that rage was
reflected in facial expressions, clenched teeth, dilated nostrils, accelerated heart-rate, and
muscular tension, and often resulted in violent behavior. For Darwin (1965/1872, p. 244),
anger was a state of mind that differed “.. . from rage only in degree, and there is no
marked distinction in their characteristic signs.” Thus, Darwin implicitly defined anger as
an emotional state that varies in intensity, from mild irritation or annoyance to intense
fury and rage.
Freud (1924) emphasized the importance of anxiety, which he defined as “something
felt,” a specific unpleasant emotional state or condition that included apprehension,
tension, worry, and physiological arousal. He equated fear with objective anxiety, which
he considered to be an emotional reaction proportional in its intensity to a real danger in
the external world (Freud, 1936). Objective anxiety was generally beneficial because it
served to warn the individual of a danger to which some form of adjustment was
necessary. Consistent with Darwin's evolutionary perspective, Freud's “danger signal”
theory emphasized the adaptive utility of anxiety in motivating behavior that helped a
person to cope more effectively with potentially harmful situations.
Aggression was considered by Freud to be an instinctual drive that motivated anger and
aggressive behavior. Aggressive impulses, accompanied by anger and rage, were
conceptualized by Freud (1959/1933) as resulting from a biologically determined “death
instinct” (thanatos) that motivated people to destroy themselves. However, because
thanatos was inhibited by a more powerful life instinct (libido), the aggressive energy of
this self-destructive drive was directed toward other persons or objects in the
environment. Aggression that could not be expressed against external objects was turned
back onto the self, resulting in depression and other psychosomatic manifestations
(Alexander & French, 1948; Freud, 1936).
The origin of the concept of depression can be traced back to the 5th century B.C.
writings of Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine (Jackson, 1986, 1995). The Greek
term, melancholia, which had the connotation of both anxiety and depression, was used
by Hippocrates to describe a “black mood” that involved prolonged fear and sadness
(Jackson, 1995). Depression (melancholia), fear (anxiety), and anger (hostility, rage)
were considered by Darwin and Freud to be fundamental emotional states that had
powerful effects on thoughts and behavior. Both Darwin and Freud also recognized that
depression resulted from the interaction of anxiety and anger. Like anxiety and anger,
symptoms of depression vary in severity (intensity) and frequency, from feeling sad or
gloomy for a relatively short period of time to the frequent experience of deep despair,
extreme guilt, hopelessness, and thoughts of death that could result in suicide. Persistent
depression may also contribute to physical and behavioral symptoms such as fatigue,
insomnia, frequent crying, chronic aches and pain, and excessive gain or loss in weight
(Rosenfeld, 1999).
In theory and research on psychopathology, anxiety and anger have been recognized as
major contributors to depression and other emotional disorders for the last 100 years
(Freud, 1924, 1936; May, 1977/1950). The measurement of anxiety in psychological
testing and treatment planning has also received significant attention for more than half a
century (Spielberger, 1983; Taylor, 1953). While the assessment of anger has been
relatively neglected, evidence from research on Type A behavior and heart disease
(Spielberger, 1976; Spielberger & London, 1982), demonstrating that anger was the lethal
component of the Type A syndrome, has stimulated the development of measures of the
experience, expression, and control of anger (Spielberger, 1980, 1988, 1999; Spielberger
et al., 1985).
Freud (1936, 1959) viewed the insecurity caused by anxiety as the major instigator of
exploratory behavior, thus implicitly linking curiosity to anxiety. Although Freud did not
directly address the nature of curiosity, he considered exploratory behavior to be
determined by instinctive biological urges and ego mechanisms that served to reduce
threat and insecurity (Aronoff, 1962). Strongly influenced by Darwin's (1965/1872)
views on evolution, William James (1890) also proposed an instinct theory of curiosity.
James considered attraction to novel stimuli to be adaptive because it facilitated survival,
but fear (anxiety) aroused by novel situations was also adaptive because the novel
stimulus might prove to be dangerous. Like Freud, James recognized a potentially
antagonistic relationship between curiosity and fear, which often resulted in the
simultaneous arousal of these emotions.
Broadly defined, curiosity involves the motivation to acquire new knowledge and
experience, which motivates exploratory behavior (James 1890; Loewenstein, 1994;
McDougall, 1921). Although scientific interest in curiosity has been reflected in the
history of the discipline of psychology for more than 100 years, research on curiosity has
received only passing attention (Spielberger & Starr, 1994). Daniel Berlyne (1949, 1950),
clearly the most influential contributor to experimental research on curiosity, identified
two types of curiosity; perceptual curiosity defined as “the curiosity which leads to
increased perception of stimuli” (Berlyne, 1954, p. 180), and epistemic curiosity as “the
drive to know” (p. 187). Berlyne (1960) also differentiated between two types of
exploratory behavior, which he labeled diversive and specific. Feelings of boredom
motivate diversive exploration; specific exploration is motivated by the desire to acquire
information about novel stimuli.
Cross-Cultural Assessment of Emotional States and Personality Traits
Hambleton (1994; Hambleton & Patsula, 1999) has reviewed a wide range of general
issues and sources of error that are encountered in the cross-cultural adaptation of
psychological tests. These included cultural and language differences, technical and
methodological problems, and factors that influence the interpretation of test results.
Cultural differences have a greater influence on the assessment of emotions than they do
on abilities and achievement because emotions are more subjective and less clearly
defined (Anastasi, 1988). While construct equivalence in different cultures is an essential
requirement in the adaptation of tests, it is especially important for measures of emotion
and personality because there is, as yet, relatively little agreement regarding the criteria
for defining these dimensions. Special attention must also be given to the state-trait
distinction (Cattell & Scheier, 1960; Spielberger, 1966), and the concept of item-intensity
specificity (Anastasi, 1988; Spielberger, Gorsuch, & Lushene, 1970).
In the cross-cultural adaptation of psychological tests, the key words for an item in the
original language may have several different translations that are equally acceptable in
the target language. Different key words for two or more items in the source language
may also be represented by a single word in the target language. Where the literal
translation of a test item is not possible, it is essential to retain the meaning of the key
words by selecting synonyms in the target language. For test items that contain idiomatic
expressions, special care must be given to translating the feeling connotation of an idiom,
rather than the literal meaning of individual words (Guthrie & Lonner, 1986). Identifying
comparable idiomatic expressions in the target language is generally preferable to the
literal translation of the original idiom. Clearly, the cross-cultural equivalence of the
theoretical concepts that are being measured is essential.
The words used in different languages to describe emotional states and personality traits
generally have a wide range of connotations (Rogler, 1999; Wierzbiecka, 1994). Even
within a particular language, the same word may have a variety of meanings in different
subcultures (Anastasi, 1988). As noted by Wierzbiecka (1994, p. 135), “The set of
emotion terms available in any given language is unique and reflects a culture's unique
perspective on peoples' ways of feeling.” Examples of subcultural differences in the
meaning of Spanish words are noted in Table 1, which clearly indicate that culture can
have a profound impact on key words even in the same language (Cabrera, 1998).
The process of “back-translation” is traditionally used to facilitate adapting
psychological tests from one language to another (Brislin, 1970, 1986). In the backtranslation of test items, the literal translation of words is emphasized. However, backtranslation of an original item for measuring emotions and personality is often less
adequate than constructing a new item based on the equivalent cross-cultural conceptual
definition of the emotional state or personality dimension that is being measured
(Spielberger & Diaz-Guerrero, 1983). This is especially true in adapting items that
contain idiomatic expressions. Given the difficulties encountered in translating key words
and idiomatic expressions in the cross-cultural adaptation of measures of emotions and
personality, a substantially larger pool of items should be constructed than will eventually
be needed. Statistical procedures can then be used to determine which items have the best
psychometric properties for measuring the specified construct.
In developing adaptations of the STAI State (S-Anxiety) and Trait (T-Anxiety) Scales
(Spielberger, 1983; Spielberger et al., 1970), the unique psycholinguistic properties of
different languages have been utilized. In Spanish, for example, there are two forms of
the verb “to be,” ser and estar. Ser denotes a relatively stable or permanent characteristic
of a person or situation, whereas estar has the connotation of a transitory state or
temporary condition (Spielberger, Gonzalez-Reigosa, Martinez-Urrutia, Natalicio, &
Natalicio, 1971). The Portuguese distinction between the two verbs is very similar to
Spanish, but with a greater emphasis on temporary and relatively persistent psychological
concepts (Wikipedia, 2005). Verbs in the Hindi language also correspond to describing
transitory states and relatively stable personality traits (Spielberger, Sharma, & Singh,
1973).
The fact that the state-trait distinction is intrinsic to the Spanish/Portuguese and Hindi
languages, as indicated by the psycholinguistic structure of these very different language
systems, strongly supports the fundamental need to distinguish between the intensity of
emotional states and individual differences in personality traits. The state-trait distinction
is also clearly reflected in particular words that have the connotation of anxiety and anger
as transitory states that vary in intensity, such as feeling upset or furious, and by items
such as “I have disturbing thoughts,” which imply a more persistent and frequently
experienced trait (Spielberger, 1983).
Given the strong evidence for the state-trait distinction that is inherent in the linguistic
structure of Spanish, Portuguese, Hindi, and other languages, it is important to assess the
full range of the intensity of emotional states and individual differences in how often
personality traits are experienced (Spielberger & Sharma, 1976). Individual differences in
anxiety, anger, and depression as personality traits can be evaluated in terms of the
frequency that these emotions are experienced. Similar to the variations in magnitude that
are evaluated by physiological measures such as heart rate and blood pressure, self-report
scales for assessing emotional states must be sensitive to evaluating variations in
intensity.
In adapting measures of emotions and personality for cross-cultural assessment,
identifying words in different languages that denote varying levels of item-intensity
specificity is an essential requirement. Clearly, feeling annoyed or furious reflects
different levels of the intensity of anger as an emotional state. Items that describe positive
feelings, such as calm and secure, and that correlate substantially and inversely with
items indicating the presence of anxiety, such as feeling tense and nervous, should be
used for assessing low levels of the intensity of emotional states. In measuring anxiety
and depression, it is also important to include items that describe positive feelings,
indicating the absence of these emotions, in order to assess the full range of the emotional
intensity in normal populations.
Measuring Psychological Vital Signs in Diagnosis and Treatment
Emotions motivate behavior and have a significant impact on health and psychological
well-being. It is, therefore, essential to evaluate and monitor emotional states in diagnosis
and treatment, just as physicians in medical examinations routinely measure pulse rate,
blood pressure, and temperature, the vital signs that provide essential information about
physical health. When a physician detects an abnormal pulse during a physical
examination, this finding signals a potentially significant problem in the functioning of
the cardiovascular system. A high fever may be symptomatic of a serious medical
condition, indicating that the immune system is not protecting the person from harmful
viruses.
Intense anxiety and anger are analogous to elevations in pulse rate and blood pressure,
whereas depression may be considered as roughly analogous to having a fever. While
fevers can usually be reduced by aspirin or acetaminophen in patients with colds or the
flu, the emotional conflicts that contribute to clinical depression are not likely to be
substantially relieved by either drugs or simple behavioral interventions. Because the
threshold for seeking psychological treatment tends to be higher than for using
medication to alleviate fever or pain, the problems that cause the emotional fever of
depression are more likely to persist to a point of crisis before help is sought.
Anxiety, anger, and depression are the psychological vital signs that are most critical to
an individual's well-being. Variations in the intensity and duration of these emotional
states provide essential information about a person's mental health, and can help to
identify recent events, as well as long-standing conflicts, that have particular meaning
and impact on an individual's life. Assessing emotional vital signs and providing timely
and meaningful feedback during treatment will enhance a patient's awareness and
understanding of her/his feelings. Helping patients to cope with their feelings can also
help them to deal more effectively with the underlying problems and contribute to a more
favorable treatment outcome.
Symptoms of anxiety are typically found in almost all emotional disorders. Freud (1936,
p. 85) regarded anxiety as the “fundamental phenomenon and the central problem of
neurosis.” According to de la Torre (1979), helping people to cope with their feelings of
anxiety should be a major priority in all forms of psychotherapy, and especially in crisis
intervention and dynamic treatments that focus on the specific problems of a patient or
client. Recent research findings, as well as observations of daily life, suggest that
problems with anger are especially ubiquitous. In a series of studies, Deffenbacher (1992)
and his associates (Deffenbacher, Demm, & Brandon, 1986; Deffenbacher, Story, Stark,
Hogg, & Brandon, 1987; Hogg & Deffenbacher, 1986) found that persons high in anger
as a personality trait frequently experienced angry feelings across a wide range of
situations. Consequently, careful assessment of the experience, expression, and control of
anger is essential in diagnosis and treatment planning (Sharkin, 1988; Spielberger, 1988,
1989).
Depression has been described as “the common cold of mental health problems that
strikes the rich and poor as well as the young and the old” (Rosenfeld, 1999, p. 10).
Depression also contributes to behavioral and physical symptoms, such as fatigue,
insomnia, impotence, frequent crying, chronic aches and pain, and excessive gain or loss
in weight (Rosenfeld, 1999). The World Health Organization estimates that 340 million
people currently suffer from clinical depression. According to the WHO (2001),
depression will become “the leading cause of disability and the 2nd leading contributor to
the global burden of disease by the year 2020.” Clearly, depression is a complex,
multifaceted syndrome that is comprised of a number of underlying dimensions. Like
anxiety and anger, the assessment of the intensity of depression as an emotional state and
individual differences in how often depression is experienced as a personality trait is
essential in diagnosis and treatment.
What does curiosity add to the assessment of emotional vital signs? As a motivator of
creativity and exploratory behavior, curiosity may be considered as a positive vital sign
that contributes to personal adjustment and the successful adaptation to environmental
stimuli. Research has shown that anxiety, anger, and depression are inversely related to
curiosity, indicating that negative emotions interfere with and inhibit curiosity's positive
and adaptive effects. Thus, curiosity may be considered as a positive vital sign and a
strong indicator of an individual's psychological well-being.
In summary, substantial progress has been made in clarifying the nature and
measurement of emotional states and personality traits, and their use in cross-cultural
research. Recognition of the major influence of anxiety, anger, depression, and curiosity
in everyday life, along with the substantial findings in empirical research, clearly indicate
that these emotional states and personality traits will have a profound impact on behavior,
and will continue to be topics of substantial interest in psychological, social, and medical
research.
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Engelmann. (Reprinted Bristol: Thoemmes, 1999; first published in German as W.
Wundt (1896). Grundriss der Psychologie. Leipzig: Wilhelm Engelmann.)
Young, P.T. (1943). Emotion in men and animal. New York: Wiley
Charles D. Spielberger, PhD, is Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus of
Psychology and Director of the Center for Research in Behavioral Medicine and Health
Psychology at the University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, USA. His measures of
state and trait anxiety and the experience, expression, and control of anger are currently
widely used in research, with translations and adaptations in many European languages.
This paper is an expanded version of the award address given by the author at the 9th
European Congress of Psychology in Granada, Spain, in July 2005, following his receipt
of the Wilhelm Wundt-William James Prize. For further details please see www.efpa.be
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Charles D. Spielberger,
Center for Research in Behavioral Medicine and Health, Psychology, PCD 4118G,
University of South Florida 4202 East Fowler Avenue, TampaFL 33620-7200, USA
E-mail: spielber@cas.usf.edu
Table 1. Examples of differences in the meaning of Spanish words in different
cultures
Figure 1. Portraits of Wilhelm Wundt and Williams James, who are generally regarded
as the founders of psychology in Europe and America