Theoretical Framework

The Five-Factor Model (FFM) is crucial for recognising valid predictors of personality traits and for making generalisations (Costa and McCrae, 2009, p. 307; Barrick and Mount, 2012, p. 227), and it has been used successfully for higher education analysis (Block, 2010, p. 8). The framework is based on the dimensions of neuroticism (emotional stability), extroversion, openness to experience, agreeableness and conscientiousness (Rothmann and Coetzer, 2003, p. 69). The particular value of FFM is that it describes most variance in personality using a simple set of variables (McCrae, et al., 2008, p. 442). The current researcher used FFM because it is a factor- analytic model that seems to capture variability in personality (Carver and Miller, 2006, p. 2). According to Gurven, et al. (2013, p. 354), it also brings order to the chaotic profusion of personality measures.

Numerous studies highlight FFM as a valid theoretical framework across cultures (Silva and Laher, 2012, p. 22). McCrae and Terracciano (2005, p. 547) that explore FFM personality traits among college students representing 50 cultures. From this and similar research, various authors have concluded that the FFM is universal (Bouchard and Loehlin, 2001, p. 246; Gebauer, et al., 2014, p. 1075; McCrae and Suttin, 2007, p. 429). Its universality is supported by findings showing

that the FFM transcends cultural differences and that there is a covariance among traits in people of different cultural histories, lifestyles, beliefs and many other cultural and behavioural distinctions (Gurven, et al., 2013, p. 364). The FFM’s universal applicability (McCrae and Sutin, 2007, p. 429) justifies its use in this research.

Within the broader literature on personality traits, studies that relied on the FFM most commonly used the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO PI-R) developed by Costa and McCrae (1995, p. 21), the fathers of the Big Five personality framework. Due to licensing costs of $70 per 10 questionnaire booklets (Miller, et al., 2017, p. 336), few academics use it for research purposes. Researchers instead devised the International Personality Item Pool (IPIP-NEO) in 1996 (Goldberg, et al., 2006, p. 86; Maples, et al., 2014, p. 1070), which contains similar but differently worded items (Johnson, 2014, p. 78). Another benefit of IPIP-NEO over NEO-PI-R is that it is free and can be accessed on a public-domain resource developed by Lewis Goldberg (Johnson, 2014, p. 79).

The IPIP-NEO and NEO PI-R both measure five broad dimensions of FFM: neuroticism, extroversion, openness to experience, agreeableness and conscientiousness. IPIP-NEO’s reliability and convergent validity with the corresponding NEO PI-R scales has been established (Gomez-Fraguela, et al., 2014, p. 54; Maples, et al., 2014, p. 1071), with some studies showing that IPIP-NEO was more efficient at predicting health behaviours (Mottus, Pullman and Alik, 2016, p. 154). The IPIP-NEO items have been used in 581 published studies and translated into 61 languages (Maples, et al., 2014, p. 1071).

The IPIP-NEO is gaining popularity for the following reasons: (1) free access, (2) ability to administer the questionnaire via the Internet without needing to ask permission and (3) the provision of scoring keys for the IPIP-NEO scales (Goldberg, et al., 2006, p. 84). However, it should be noted that researchers’ freedom to use the IPIP-NEO idiosyncratically raises concerns about the possibility of fragmentation in personality research, which occurs when researchers

favour one questionnaire over another (Goldberg, et al., 2006, p. 85). Regardless, the IPIP-NEO- 120 is a reliable and accessible tool for measuring the Big Five personality traits. This instrument will be more thoroughly described in section 4.6.2. ‘Surveying Instruments’.

The following text outlines and discusses the dimensions of the FFM’s Big Five personality traits: 1) Neuroticism, or emotional stability, ‘captures the degree to which one experiences negative affect, such as anger, guilt, anxiety and sadness and includes the notion of how susceptible one is to stress’ (Swangler and Jome, 2005, p. 528). This dimension also refers to the extent of emotional stability. Constantine, Okazaki and Utsey (2004, p. 231) reports that individuals who score high on this dimension are at risk of psychiatric issues. They tend to have irrational ideas and deal improperly with stress (Rothmann and Coetzer, 2003, p. 72). At the same time, social actors who demonstrate low neuroticism are more emotionally stable, calm and relaxed even in stressful situations (Rothmann and Coetzer, 2003, p. 69). Research shows that neuroticism is negatively related to intercultural adaptation and that accordingly, emotional stability is positively associated with intercultural adaptation (Wilson, Ward and Fischer, 2013, p. 900). The proposed explanation for this finding is that emotionally stable international students are better at coping with cultural differences and, hence, better at establishing effective communication with peers with different cultural backgrounds (Wilson, Ward and Fischer, 2013, p. 905).

2) According to Lukaszewski and Roney (2011, p. 409), extroversion includes personality traits such as assertiveness, expressiveness and sociability. Individuals who score high on this dimension are usually optimistic and energetic and they tend to enjoy social situations (Rothmann and Coetzer, 2003, p. 69). They are perceived as highly effective social agents (McCrae and Sutin, 2007, p. 424). On the contrary, social actors with low extroversion are characterised as reserved (Block, 2010, p. 9). According to Wilson, Ward and Fischer (2013, p. 913), international students with extroversion tend to demonstrate a higher adaptability to new cultural environments than

students who score low on this personality dimension. Thus, extroversion is positively correlated with ICC (Wilson, Ward and Fischer, 2013, p. 900).

3) Openness to experience ‘relates to people’s desire to share personal information’ (Lustig and Koester, 2010, p. 256). Open-minded individuals appreciate art, adventure, unusual experiences and emotion (Christensen, et al., 2011, p. 203). Social actors who score low on this personality dimension tend to be conservative, preferring the familiar to the novel, and their emotional responses to external factors are predominantly muted (Curseu, Stoop and Schalk, 2007, p. 125). On the contrary, social actors with high openness to experience tend to be more prepared to entertain new ideas (Gurven, et al., 2013, p. 366). Accordingly, research finds that international students who score high on the trait of openness find it easier to adapt to new cultural environments and establish effective communication with peers from different cultures, which explains their high ICC scores (Swangler and Jome, 2005, p. 528).

4) Agreeableness reflects the level of general concern for social harmony (McCrae and Sutin, 2007, p. 423). An agreeable individual is fundamentally altruistic, sympathetic to others and eager to help and in return believes that others will be equally helpful; disagreeable or antagonistic people place their own interests above those of colleagues or peers and are usually egocentric and sceptical of others’ thoughts and intentions (Rothmann and Coetzer, 2003, p. 69). McCrae, et al. (2008, p. 442) state that international students’ cooperative nature may positively affect their ability to communicate with peers from other cultural backgrounds. The evidence for this notion comes from studies showing that highly agreeable international students tend to be more interculturally competent than students who score low on agreeableness (Novikova, et al., 2017, p. 336; Ramirez, 2016, p. 103; Wilson, Ward and Fischer, 2013, p. 900). Novikova, et al. (2017, p. 337) explain such findings by noting that agreeable students, precisely because of their need for empathy and supportive relationships, increase their social learning opportunities and tend to approach rather than avoid social situations when they find themselves in new educational and

cultural contexts. These students’ frequent engagement in social interactions enhances their ICC (Ramirez, 2016, p. 99).

5) Conscientiousness is another dimension of FFM, which refers to self-control and the process of planning, organising, performing and assessing tasks (Rothmann and Coetzer, 2003, p. 69). Fiske (2004, p. 75) reports that conscientious people are purposeful and determined. Social actors who score high on this dimension tend to demonstrate self-discipline and planned rather than spontaneous behaviour (Rothmann and Coetzer, 2003, p. 69). Individuals who score low on conscientiousness may be associated with compulsive or fastidious behaviour (Rothmann and Coetzer, 2003, p. 69). In their study, Ward, Bochner and Furnham (2001, p. 174) find that high scorers on this personality dimension demonstrated high productivity and performance. High conscientiousness also has been implicated in high ICC, primarily because conscientious students tend to be culturally intelligent, meaning that they pay attention to cultural differences during communication with individuals from different cultural backgrounds (Huff, Song and Gresch, 2014, p. 157).

Based on this analysis of different personality traits, the FFM appears to be a useful vantage point for exploring the relationship between international students’ personality traits and ICC. As noted, research has found that all Big Five personality traits are relevant for enhancing students’ intercultural adaptation (Huff, Song and Gresch, 2014, p. 157; Swangler and Jome, 2005, p. 528; Wilson, Ward and Fischer, 2013, p. 900), which could lead the present researcher to expect that all five traits should be associated with ICC. Still, the correlation between the Big Five personality traits and ICC, albeit significant, is not particularly large. For instance, a meta-analysis by Wilson, Ward and Fischer (2013, p. 900) finds small to moderate effect sizes in the association between the Big Five personality traits and intercultural adaptation, including agreeableness (r=0.16), conscientiousness (r=0.22), openness to experience (r=0.29), extroversion (r=0.29) and neuroticism (r=-0.32). These findings suggest that the Big Five personality traits may not be the

most relevant factors for predicting international students’ ICC. Other factors, such as cultural empathy and cross-cultural self-efficacy, can be stronger predictors of international students’ ICC than their personality traits (Peek and Park, 2013, p. 128; Wilson, Ward and Fischer, 2013, p. 900). Thus, although FFM is a useful framework for exploring the association between personality traits and ICC, this research must consider other factors that may predict students’ ICC levels, such as demographics (i.e. age, gender and country of origin) and contextual factors (i.e. length of stay in Saudi Arabia, language proficiency, type of housing, meeting a cultural advisor, working as a volunteer, attending an orientation programme and conducting a cross-cultural research project).