A Cross-Lingustic Analysis of Language Effects on Personality Measures in Spanish-English Bilinguals

The Big Five inventory is a 44-item scale that classifies participants based on five dimensions of personality with versions available in English and Spanish. Previous studies have found differences in BFI dimensions of Spanish-English bilinguals. We asked if Spanish-English bilinguals described themselves differently when answering in different languages. The present study investigated how Spanish-English bilinguals are classified when answering the BFI in both languages. In a cross-linguistic design, we assessed a sample of Spanish-English bilinguals. We hypothesized that we would find that bilinguals would score significantly different in both languages in the dimensions of extraversion and conscientiousness, with English scores being expected to be significantly higher than Spanish scores. Results revealed significantly different scores in Spanish and English in all five dimensions of the BFI. These results emphasize the issue of language in psychological evaluations, with the possibility of language dependence skewing the results for bilingual patients.