Predicting perseverance of missionary expatriates on overseas assignments: Personality revisited
Personality dimensions have been used to predict facets of cross-cultural effectiveness in expatriate research for decades. Since early research on culture shock and the systematic evaluation of Peace Corps volunteers, scholars have proposed that personality traits predict, at least in part, whether expatriates will succeed on overseas assignments. In attempting to predict success among expatriates, researchers have utilized various measures, including the MMPI-I, the 16PF, and the Big Five personality traits. The present study explored the utility of the MMPI-I, 16PF, and the Big Five in predicting the selection and perseverance of a sample of 151 couples of missionary candidates to an Evangelical mission agency. The present study employed two novel approaches to analysis of expatriate data. First, the MMPI-I, the 16PF, and the Big Five were initially evaluated as unique sets in multiple regression analyses before examine each measures scales or factors as discreet variables. We also examined men and women separately to control for potential non-orthogonal data in each marital dyad. We anticipated that the MMPI-I would have more validity in predicting selection of candidates than the 16PF, while the 16PF would have more validity in predicting perseverance. We further anticipated that persevering missionary expatriates would exhibit lower levels of anxiety, fewer extreme personality traits, and higher levels of ego strength, shrewdness, and extraversion. Both the 16PF and the Big Five personality traits, as sets, were significant predictors of men's second term perseverance status. Stepwise logistic regression equations, which included 16PF factors, allowed for highly significant prediction of selection versus non-selection. Further, both the 16PP and the Big Five contributed significant factors in logistic regression analyses in the prediction of perseverance of expatriates. The resulting logistic regression models were quite sensitive but lacked specificity. Perseverers exhibited significantly higher levels of anxiety on 16PF factor Q3 relative to second term perseverance status. The present study was limited because the sample consisted largely of persevering expatriates, which resulted in insufficient statistical power to consistently differentiate perseverers from non-perseverers. Results are discussed in terms of their practical utility in the screening and selection of missionary candidates with implications for future research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2007 APA, all rights reserved)
https://www.upress.umn.edu/test-division/bibliography/2000-2009/2007/pelo_predicting_2007
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David K Pelo
(2007)
Predicting perseverance of missionary expatriates on overseas assignments: Personality revisited
PhD thesis.