Dispositional Factors Among Youth: An Examination of their Relationship to Academic Achievement in a Collectivistic Tight Culture

Abstract

With globalization and increasing interdependence between countries, cross-cultural differences between collectivistic and individualistic cultures have become a topic of increasing interest. In this study we examine the predictive validity of dispositional factors in a cross-cultural context. Three dispositional factors: Emotional Intelligence, Locus of Control and Self-Esteem were examined in the collectivistic and socially oriented culture of Oman. This study statistically assessed the prediction power of the three dispositional factors on academic achievement. A sample of 545 university students from a private university in Oman were surveyed. The findings show a strong correlation between Self-Esteem variables and grade point average. A significant finding in our study was that Self-Esteem was negatively related to achievement. The interpretation of the negative relation suggests that in tight cultures, individuals may negatively self-rate their Self-Esteem to compensate for the high achievement in their collective social context.   This study has several important implications for future research in understanding the dynamics and predictability of personality and disposition in a collectivistic culture