The relationship of personality traits and communal orientation among afghan and Indian students studying at Indian universities in Punjab

Personality Traits

Each individual has different personality traits that make him or her different from other individuals (Roberts, Wood, & Caspi, 2008). Every individual Personality traits can be explained by the differences of their behavior (Costa & McCrae, 1992). In order to explore the individual behavior, we need to study and use the differences of their behavior characteristics in various aspect of their study. Conscientiousness and neuroticism are the best personality traits for predicting work-related achievements and motivation (Salgado, 1997). Learners with high conscientiousness and readiness to new experience are more eager towards learning and upgrading their knowledge (Ross, Rausch, and Canada, 2003;

Communal Orientation

A research was carried out by Bonnie M. Le, Emily A. Impett, Aleksandr Kogan, Gregory D. Webster & Cecilia Cheng, (2012) which found out high level communal oriented characteristic people have high level sense of self-worth when compared with those low in communal orientation. Moreover, it also presented that communally oriented people experiencing greater positive emotion in daily life, which in turn contributes to experience rewards in personal and interpersonal wellbeing. Furthermore, the finding showed that greater personal well-being or satisfaction with one’s social bonds prompts communally oriented people to feel positive emotion; communal orientation significantly predicted experiencing lower levels of daily negative emotion. Finally, the finding of this study also showed that individual with high level of motivation towards communal care for the desire and needs of other individuals have high level of positive emotion and low level of negative emotion in their daily life. Furthermore, another characteristic of these individuals is love for the humanity, poorness, and homelessness.

There was a lack of literature on variables of personality traits and communal orientation among Afghan and Indian students studying at Indian universities in Punjab. Henceforth, this study was designed to find out the correlation between personality traits and communal orientation among Afghan and Indian students. This study hypothesizes that it is expected that there is a positive/negative correlation between personality traits (Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, Openness to Experienc- es) and Communal Orientation among Afghan Students and Indian Students.

METHODOLOGY

Design:

The study is aimed to find out the correlation between personality traits (Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, Openness to Experiences) and communal orientation among Afghan and Indian students. A total of hundred students comprising 50 Afghan and 50 Indian students who are currently studying in Indian universities in Punjab were selected as the study group of the study. The data was collected through distributing the standard questionnaires among Afghan and Indian students. The respondents were provided with proper instructions to answer to the questionnaires.

Measures:

Communal Orientation

Communal Orientation Scale developed by Clark et al . (1987). This scale measures how much an individual believes that others’ needs and feelings are important in social relationships. In addition, it also measures how much one believes that people should help others and care for one another’s welfare.

Ten-Item Personality Inventory

Ten Item Personality Inventory (TIPI) developed by Gosling et al. (2003). TIPI is a short instrument measuring the Big-Five dimensions (Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, and Openness to Experiences).

RESULTS

The Inter-correlation analysis was applied to assess the inter-relationship between Communal Orientation and Personality traits (Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, Openness to Experiences) among Afghan and Indian students.

Table 1. Inter-correlations for various variables of both groups

Table 1 : Inter-correlation of Both Groups on Various Variables
Groups	Afghan Students                         \	Indian Students
Variables	Communal Orientation
E	-.18**	0.04
A	.11*	.19*
C	0.03	.19*
ES	.34**	.23**
OE	-.34**	-.22**
p≤0.01** p≤0.05*

DISCUSSION

The aim of the study was to assess the correlation between personality traits and communal orientation among Afghan and Indian students. Hence, the beneath findings were generated from the data analysis.

The results showed that there is a significant positive correlation between communal orientation and agreeableness amongst Afghan and Indian students. The researchers believed that both Afghan and Indian students are building friendly relationships with each other. In addition, personality trait of agreeableness supports more trusting, affectionate, altruistic, as well as other general prosocial behaviors. Diehl et al., 2004; Markus & Kitayama, 1991 found that higher agreeableness among communion-oriented individuals possibly relates to their concern for interpersonal harmony. Costa & McCrae, 1992; Diehl et al., 2004 found that Communion attributes have positive correlations with extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness which means that such individuals are more sympathetic and self-controlled in their behavior toward others.

The result also presented that there is a significant negative correlation between communal orientation and openness to expe- rience among Afghan and Indian students. The reason behind the results was that students studying in Indian universities are from different communal background where they entered to variety of cultural norms. In addition to that, personality trait of openness to experience also refers to accept new concepts and ideas at academic as well as personal level. Albury (1993), found that African American students’ performance on a vocabulary task was better for those who worked in communal groups than for those who worked in learning contexts. She also found out that black students’ performance in communal and reward-contingent cooperative conditions did not differ, and group work is more important to African American students than rewards. Albury also found that African American children who studied communally were more positive in their rating of affective variables, including liking for the study and members of their group, sharing ideas, and caring about members of the group.

The result presented that there is a significant negative correlation between communal orientations and extraversion among Afghan students. The reason behind the results was that every Afghan student is so much busy in academics and daily routine. Therefore, Afghan students are not able to give time and help each other. Several researchers also found that people from Non-Euro-Western cultures often did not immediately perform well on western cognitive assessments; they showed evidence of the requisite skills expressed with reference to their own sensibilities of their environments (Rogoff & Wadell, 1982; Scribner, 1977; Serpell, 1979).

Based on the findings, there is no significant correlation between communal orientations and extraversion among Indian students. The researchers believed that due to being so much busyness in their daily-life, Indian students are not able to help and care for each other. Moreover, personality trait of extraversion encompasses involving in social activities, enjoying being with people, and participating in social gathering. Albury (1993), found that European American students who studied in individualistic or competitively structured learning environments performed better on a vocabulary task than those who studied communally.

CONCLUSION

The aim of the study was to find out the correlation between personality traits and communal orientation among Afghan and Indian students. A total of hundred 50 Afghan and 50 Indian students who are currently studying in Indian universities in Punjab were selected for the study. The results of this study found out that there is a significant positive correlation between emotional stability, agreeableness with communal orientation among Afghan and Indian students. The results also presented that there is a significant negative correlation between communal orientation and openness to experience among Afghan and Indian students. The results further indicated that there is a significant negative correlation between communal orienta- tions and extraversion among Afghan students. Conversely, there is no significant correlation between communal orientation and extraversion among Indian students. The results also showed that there is no significant correlation between communal orientation and conscientiousness among Afghan students. However, there is a significant positive correlation between communal orientation and conscientiousness among Indian students.

The outcome of the study helps teachers, universities, education systems, stakeholders, and counsellors to design appropriate interventions, incorporate effective strategies into teaching practices, upgrade service programs for learning development, and to make collaborative learning environment for their students.