Understanding and assessing personality across cultures: A scoping review

Summary

This scoping review examines whether personality can be validly understood and measured across cultures, organising the evidence around McAdams's three-layer framework of dispositional traits, characteristic adaptations, and life narratives. The authors systematically searched scientific databases, leading personality and assessment journals, and instrument-specific repositories, screening publications to map which models and measures have cross-cultural support. From 233 included publications, they catalogued personality models that are empirically or theoretically supported across cultural settings. Particular attention is given to instruments that show structural equivalence across cultures and demonstrate strong validity within non-Western populations. The review highlights gaps in cross-cultural evidence, especially for characteristic adaptations and life narratives relative to broad traits, and offers guidance for assessing personality more equitably worldwide.