The Five Personality Factors Model received tremendous empirical attention in the conceptualization of personality structure in the current literature. This model is comprised of five factors: Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness.

Examining differences between Kuwaiti and Egyptian undergraduates in the Five Personality Factors.

The participants were 3915 first year undergraduates: 2109 Kuwaitis (900 males and 1209 females; mean age = 19.47±1.14) and 1806 Egyptian (888 males and 918 females; mean age = 19.87±1.33). The Arabic version of NEO-PI-R was administered to participants. Alpha reliability and two-way ANOVA were used in this study.

Internal consistency was satisfactory for the Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness subscales respectively (Cronbach’s alpha = .83, .82, .79, .81, .84) for Kuwaitis and (Cronbach’s alpha = .84, .78, .78, .82, .85) for Egyptians. The results revealed significant cultural differences where the Egyptians obtained a higher score than Kuwaitis did on neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness and conscientiousness. Moreover, the results revealed significant gender differences in which Kuwaiti males obtained a higher score than females on extraversion and conscientiousness, while females obtained higher scores than males in neuroticism and openness. Additionally, there were significant gender differences in the Egyptian sample in where females obtained higher scores than males on neuroticism and agreeableness. Furthermore, the results demonstrated an interaction between genders and cultures on neuroticism, extraversion and agreeableness.

The current data provides strong evidence that the interaction between both genders and cultures on personality deserves further investigation.