A Study Of Chinese Exchange Student Personality’s Influence On Their Intercultural Contact Experience

In recent years, the overall number of Chinese study abroad students has been growing exponentially. The number of China’s short-term study abroad programs is also rapidly expanding. The United States is Chinese students’ largest studying abroad destination. China is currently the largest exporter of Chinese students to the U.S as well.In previous research, many studies have identified a number of factors that can affect the cross-cultural contact:personality, tradition and cultural background, the early trips and cultural experiences etc. Some research introduced psychology personality theory and its application to address cross-cultural issues in the past."Big Five Factor Model" of personality theory has been widely applied. Several studies have demonstrated some personality traits in "Big Five Factor Model" affect cross-cultural experience. However, how do the changes come into effect? What is the process like? Questions like these cannot be answered by quantitative research but they still hold great importance. Thus, this paper is aimed at answering two questions:1. How do Chinese students define intercultural contact?2. How do different personality traits influence Chinese students’ intercultural contact experience?In order to better understand the role of personality in the process of cross-cultural contacts, I conducted in-depth interviews with two Chinese exchange students who went on the same study abroad program. Using semi-structured interview questions interviewing two participants, the qualitative data collected will be presented as2cases. As it relates to personality traits, two participants in the study took "Big Five Personality Test" before the interviews. The results showed that personality has an impact on initial intercultural experiences and the interpretation of the experience. Different personality traits have influence on both intercultural contact while is it happening and students’ interpretation of their experience. Neuroticism, Openness and Agreeableness are three traits in "Big Five Factor Model" that have the most salient effect on students’ intercultural contact experience. Low scores on Neuroticism, high scores on Openness and Agreeableness induced the participant to give a more positive evaluation of the same study abroad program. Positive experiences and interpretations will make students have more contact, thus they could resolve cultural conflicts more readily.