Session Information
20 SES 07 B, Innovative Pedagogies and HE
Paper Session
Contribution
In today's global education environment, international relations are becoming essential to increase students’ work effectiveness. However, research is needed to validate instruments to measure multicultural orientation to train on multicultural skills that could improve long life students learning at the universities. Therefore, the objective of the present study was to examine in a pilot study the relationship between multicultural orientation and individualist-collectivist attitudes among Higher Education students, and validate the Dutch instrument- Multicultural Personality Questionnaire (MPQ, Van der Zee & Van Oudenhoven, 2001) to measure multicultural orientation among Spanish students.
Culture has been conceptualised in different ways, in this study we define culture as a pattern of behaviours which is acquired and transferred through symbols that are shared within a group and serve as a cognitive map or a blueprint for future behaviour (Kluckhohn and Kroeberg, 1952). In order to function effectively within a strange culture the individual has to acquire the blueprint of that specific culture (see Aryee,1997). Therefore, different strategies and factors are relevant to increase the adaptation of the minority members from other cultures to the host culture. In this adaptation process, it is important to take also into account the attitudes of the host culture members in order to get an optimal culture adaptation. Concretely, we focus on individualistic-collectivistic attitudes and personal factors from the host culture members that could influence on the adaptation process. For instance, factors related to the independent and interdependent self-construals. That is, the self may take different forms: individuals may have an independent or an interdependent self-construal (Markus & Kitayama, 1991). The “individuated or independent” self represents a self-concept that differentiates the self from others, which has been associated predominantly with people of individualistic cultures, whereas the “relational or interdependent” self represents a self-concept that reflects integration and inclusion of the self in the social world, which has been associated predominantly with people of collectivistic cultures (Singelis & Brown, 1995).
Therefore, are there differences on students’ multicultural orientation depending on their collectivistic or individualistic attitudes? Do individuals with more collectivistic attitudes contact more often with individuals from different cultures? Could we also use the MPQ instrument to measure multicultural effectiveness among Spanish students?
Previous results have highlighted which factors could explain multicultural effectiveness in different contexts (Van der Zee, 2000; Van der Zee, 2005). Concretely, those factors are Cultural Empathy, Openmindedness, Emotional Stability, Social Initiative, and Flexibility.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Leone. L., Van der Zee, K.I.,Van Oudenhoven, J. P., Perugini, M., & Ercolani, A.P. (2005). The cross-cultural generalizability and validity of the Multicultural Personality Questionnaire. Personality and Individual Differences, 38, 1449–1462. Oudenhoven, J. P., & Van der Zee, K. I. (2002). Predicting multicultural effectiveness of international students: The multicultural personality questionnaire. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 26, 679–694. Singelis, T. M. (1994). The measurement of independent and interdependent self-construals. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 20, 580-591. Singelis, T.M., Triandis, H.C., Bhawuk, D., y Gelfand, M.J. (1995). Horizontal and vertical dimensions of individualism and collectivism: A theoretical and measurement refinement. Cross-Cultural Research: The Journal of Comparative Social Science, 29, 240-275. Van der Zee, K. I., & Van Oudenhoven, J. P. (2000). The multicultural personality : A multidimensional instrument of multicultural effectiveness. European Journal of Personality, 14, 291–309. Van der Zee, K. I., & Van Oudenhoven, J. P. (2001). The multicultural personality questionnaire: Reliability and validity of self- and other ratings of multicultural effectiveness. Journal of Research in Personality, 35, 278–288. Van der Zee, K. I., Van Oudenhoven, J. P., & Bakker, W. (2002). Individual differences in adaptation and well-being. In D. Gorter & K. I. Van der Zee (Eds.), Frisians abroad. Leeuwarden: Fryske Akademy Press. Van Oudenhoven, J. P., Mol, S., & Van der Zee, K. I. (2003). Study of the adjustment of Western expatriates in Taiwan ROC with the multicutural personality questionnaire. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 6, 159–170.
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