Methods

The Students Styles Questionnaire (SSQ) developed by Oakland, Glutting &

Horton (1996) was used for the international cross-cultural comparative study. The questionnaire is based on the Jungian approach of personality, but emphasizes the ecological perspective inasmuch as it emphasizes the consequences of types in regard to preferred forms of accommodation to characteristics of the environment. The questionnaire utilizes four bipolar dimensions: extraversion-introversion, practical-imaginative, thinking-feeling, organized-flexible. The authors briefly characterize persons on the extraversion-introversion dimension according to which situations energize the person: participation in social groups or solitude. Preferences in the practical-imaginative dimension indicate the type of stimuli preferred in information processing. Characteristics in the thinking-feeling dimension determine the preferred methods and viewpoints of decision making, while the organized-flexible dimension maps the temporal sequencing of the decision-making process.

In the questionnaire, the different items describe a situation and two alternative behavioural reactions and the subjects have to choose one of them. The original evaluation of the questionnaire also suggests a type viewpoint of the original authors, as the choice expressed regarding bipolar dimensions are “either-or” in their nature and after summing the weighted points, the sums designating the two ends of the bipolar dimensions have to be subtracted from each other, and the direction of result on the bipolar dimension characterizes the person. Thus the 64 possible combinations of the possible 16 outcomes characterize persons.

This item-structure may also be evaluated as situation-oriented, as items always depict a concrete situation in which preferences have to be expressed. At the same time as a result of questionnaire development, responses always have to be made between

alternatives. The alternatives are paired in a fashion to depict a preference of one of the endpoints of a bipolar dimension. In this sense it may be conceptualized as a situation-based Osgood-type scale. As pointed out by cross-cultural research (Ratner & Hui, 2003) and research on national stereotypes (Hunyady, 1996) it would be important not only to verify positive–negative connotations, but also the degree to which the given characteristic is seen important or characteristic. As this research was conducted as a part of a larger study limitations were placed on the amount of data that could be gathered for our purposes across countries. Further research should aim to implement such an approach – meanwhile an idiographic analysis of results could approximate such endeavours.

The original questionnaire was standardized on school-children aged between 8 and 17 years of age (N=7902) and confidence limits for prevalence-based standardized T-scores for the four dimensions SEM 4.47 – 5.75 with a limit set at 90% between 7.38 and 9.48 (Student Styles Questionnaire [SSQ], Oakland, Glutting & Horton, 1996).

Coefficients characterizing stability in a seven-month interval on the dimensions of extraversion-introversion, practical-imaginative, thinking-feeling and organized-flexible are 0.80, 0.76, 0.70 and 0.78 respectively with an average of 0.74. Similar response patterning was identified in the case of Afro-American, Anglo-American and Hispanic children (Stafford, 1994; Stafford & Oakland, 1996a; Stafford & Oakland, 1996b). Factor-structures proved to be stabile in case of diverse ethnic groups. The factor-analysis of the questionnaire confirmed the theoretically postulated structure of SSQ and the factors are independent of intellectual abilities. Factor congruence as a function of age is high, 0.90 or above in the different age-groups. The original questionnaire was presented to students as publishes by PsyCorp (Oakland, Glutting

& Horton, 1996).

Leisure-time activity preferences

We looked for content validation via a short, 14+1-item questionnaire that was administered regarding preferred leisure-time activities (see Table A-1 for the details of the questionnaire) in which rank ordering of activities were requested. In order to provide for totally individual choices a category of “other” was made available. The listed leisure time-activities were identified on the basis of lists compiled by adolescents participating in the pilot-study of this research. The items selected from the lists were chosen on the basis of hypothesized characteristic preferences of activities proposed to harmonize with given dimensions of the SSQ. On the extraversion-introversion dimension playing chess, computer strategy games, reading, writing a diary or poems and participating in role-play (when the person can hide behind the facade of the role) were thought of as prevalent leisure-time activities typical of a preference for introversion; and being with friends, dancing and playing typically social games (e.g. darts, snooker, cards) was included as activities characteristically preferred by extroverts. The activities characteristically thought to differentiate on the thinking feeling dimension were: playing chess and strategic games, snooker and cards on preference for thinking style, while reading going to the theatre and movies, dancing (as an expression of feelings) and being with friends typically connected to a preference for a feeling style. On the practical imaginative dimension a preference for a practical style was thought to harmonize with activities where “doing”, i.e. physical activity are important i.e. sports, dancing, photography and drawing, playing & listening to music, while activities markedly necessitating a preference for utilizing imagination are role-playing, writing poems and diary and maybe some of the strategy games – even playing chess (foretelling the next move of the partner). On the dimension of organized-flexible the activities which would specifically require a planning on the part of the person (independent of others) would be loaded on the organized side e.g. writing and photography, while activities where peers would be involved would tend to load on flexibility – in response to adjusting to others’ needs, e.g. going to the movies, listening to music, etc..

Focus group interviews

Interviews were undertaken with the purpose of being able to provide a more comprehensive information base for the interpretation of data. The interviews – where possible were conducted in person – if this proved to be impossible – e-mail communication was utiilized. Interviewees were taken from the schools where the SSQ was originally administered – although not necessarily only those participated who had originally filled in the questionnaire. In cases where it was viable, focus group interviews were conducted with students regarding the value of schooling in general in the given society, how do students evaluate different schools – are some more prestigious than others – if so, what attributes of the school contribute to its prestigious standing, what importance is attached to schooling by parents and the students themselves, as well as a brief description of students’ daily school-life as a subjective back-drop. This latter includes daily schedules, types of classes, teachers’

preferred mode of class structuring and methods, the role of homework and independent seatwork, opportunities for students to make choices based on individual preferences, basis of assigning students to classes, system of behaviour management adopted on a school-wide basis. (For questions routinely brought up in focus-interviews see appendix Figure A-1). The results of focus-interviews will be utilized to describe the sample.

Administration of tests

I requested the help of colleagues – school psychologists – in the respective countries (except for Vietnam, where a teacher came to my aid). In every instance the school-psychologists administered the test during a class-period. Detailed written instructions were provided and helpers were instructed to read it out aloud to students before administering the test. Also, in order to increase the reliability of obtained measures, sample items were also provided, as in the original questionnaire.

Basically there were three rounds of test administration: one as a pilot study – involving about 30 students from each country with the goal of identifying any further problematic items originally not envisioned by the translation-back-translation

procedure; on the second occasion the full sample was utilized, and on a third -6-7 months after the original test administration, a retest was performed.