| 英文摘要 |
People want to present themselves as different from others by mimicking a high-class lifestyle. This behavior may be driven by vanity. Western scholars have defined vanity as having a concern for and a positive even inflated view of one's personal achievements and physical appearance and developed a measure. Researchers have tested whether this measure can be applied across different cultures, especially eastern cultures. The results indicated that the vanity scale could be applied to different countries under some particular constraints. However, the vanity scale may be not applicable to eastern cultures. Using a western scale to probe Chinese phenomenon easily results in the imposed-etic problem. Hence, we adopted an indigenous approach to conceptualize vanity in Chinese culture and developed a measurement tool for Chinese people. Based on the fundamental lexical hypothesis, we started by analyzing Chinese adjectives and proverbs in order to conceptualize vanity. We found that Chinese vanity is conceived of as someone who attempts to pursue the praise or enviableness from others through material products, celebrity friends, or an admirable reputation and achievement in order to satisfy their own need to make a positive impression. It includes three theoretical dimensions, namely physical vanity, achievement vanity, and interpersonal vanity. Next, we generated 98 items based on the theoretical dimensions. 18 items were removed from the item pool as they were only indirectly related to vanity. An expert group inspected and evaluated each remaining item. They removed 20 items due to vague connotations. The initial version of the Chinese Vanity Inventory (CVI) consisted of 60 items with three dimensions: appearance vanity (22 items), achievement vanity (22 items), and interpersonal vanity (16 items). Items were measured with a Likert-type scale ranging from 1(very untrue of me) to 7 (very true of me). Study 1 developed the new CVI measure. A total of 605 Taiwanese participants (371 college students, 234 adults; 179 males, 426 females) were recruited online. They filled out the CVI and demographic information. We used hierarchical factor analysis and exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to determine the number of factors and delete inappropriate items. The results identified 40 items with four dimensions, namely socialite vanity, appearance vanity, achievement vanity, and popularity vanity. Socialite vanity (13 items) emphasized showing status by being the friends with a celebrity to gain praise and envy and satisfy one's need to make a positive impression. A sample item is: ＂I believe that associating with a celebrity will help my life.＂ Appearance vanity (13 items) is use of fashionable or enviable products to present themselves to gain praise and envy to satisfy one's need to make a positive impression. A sample item is: ＂If a new or limited product makes a debut, I will try to get it.＂ Third, achievement vanity (8 items) emphasizes presentation or boasting about one's abilities in order to gain an enviable reputation and satisfy one's need to make a positive impression in work performance. A sample item is: ＂I want to be better than others, no matter what kind of competition.＂ Lastly, popularity vanity (6 items) is when someone seeks to be Mr./Ms. Popularity in order to satisfy one's need to make a positive impression as being popular and beloved. A sample item is: ＂I would like others to consider me a people person.＂ The Cronbach'sα coefficient for socialite, appearance, achievement, and popularity vanity were .86, .91, .80, and .77 respectively. Study 2 tested the validity of the CVI. For the construct validity, we used confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to confirm that the inventory had four factors (socialite vanity, appearance vanity, achievement vanity, and popularity vanity). We re-tested measurement invariance in two random samples with multi-group CFAs to re-examine construct validity. For criterion-related validity, following the past research, we regarded materialism, money attitude, narcissism and conspicuous consumption as criterion-related indicators. Consumption choice for gifts and personal use was also regarded as an indicator of validity to reinforce convergent validity and discriminant validity. A total of 1,070 Taiwanese participants (male = 467, female = 589, unknown = 14; M_(age) = 22.32, SD_(age) = 3.58) were recruited online and asked to fill out the CVI, the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (40 items), the Taiwanese Materialism Scale (TMS), Conspicuous Consumption Orientation (CCO), the Consumption Scale for Gift and Personal Use, and the Multidimensional Chinese Personality Inventory (MCPI). In order to decrease fatigue from watching the screen too long, the full questionnaire was divided in two: questionnaire A (N = 586) and questionnaire B (N = 484). In addition, to test construct validity of the vanity scale, we randomly divided participants into two groups: the calibration sample (N = 535) and the validation sample (N = 535). To examine construct validity of the CVI, we first used the calibration sample for confirmatory factory analysis (CFA) to test whether the inventory had a 4-factor structure. The results showed that 4-factor model did indeed fit most of the criteria (χ^2/df =3.31, RMSEA = .066, SRMR = .067, NNFI = .806, CFI =.817) and had the lowest AIC value. Moreover, we tested the chi-square difference testing across models and found that the 4-factor model was significantly different from the 3-factor model (Δχ^2 = 390.53, Δdf = 3, p < .001). Next, the multiple-group CFA was used to test the equivalence of the 4-factor model across the calibration sample and the validation sample. The results showed that the factor structure, loading, and intercepts and error variance of items were invariant across the two random samples. For criterion-related validity, the simple correlation and partial correlation analyses were used to test the relationship between criterion-related indicators and Chinese vanity. The results showed that appearance vanity was positively correlated with Narcissism's exhibitionism, Materialism's conformity and possession pleasure, as well as conspicuous consumption. Socialite vanity was positively correlated with Narcissism's entitlement, Materialism's money first, and conspicuous consumption. Achievement vanity was positively correlated with Narcissism's authority. Finally, popularity vanity was positively correlated with Materialism's possession pleasure and conformity. In sum, the subscales of the CVI had clear convergent validity and discriminant validity. To reinforce convergent and discriminant validity, regression analysis was used to test the relationship between consumption behavior and vanity. The results showed that appearance vanity positively predicted gift-giving behavior (β= .12, p < .01) and appearance vanity (β= .19, p < .01) and achievement vanity (β= .09, p < .05) positively predicted consumption behavior for personal use. That is, whether consumption was for a gift or personal use, people high in appearance vanity had a tendency to buy higher-class products; people high in superiority vanity had a tendency to purchase higher-class products for personal use. The main propose of this paper was to conceptualize the constructs associated with vanity in Chinese culture and to develop an instrument. Based on a theoretical analysis, we developed the Chinese vanity inventory and found four dimensions: appearance vanity, socialite vanity, achievement vanity and popularity vanity. Compared with the concept of vanity in Western culture, vanity in the Chinese culture presents not only through people's appearance and achievements, but also through interpersonal interaction with celebrities (socialite vanity) or with general others (popularity vanity). In addition to these dimensions, the connotations of vanity in the two cultures were different. In Western culture, vanity was identified by an inflated opinion of the self and an excessive concern for oneself. However, in a Chinese society, vanity included an inflated view of oneself, and also the pursuit of praise from others. Overall, the findings of the current research make an important theoretical contribution to the concept of vanity in the context of Chinese culture. The Chinese vanity inventory has good reliability and validity. The limitations of this paper are discussed and possible direction for future study are indicated. |
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