To assess and understand the association between personality traits and ICC among international students, the present longitudinal study used a mixed methodological approach, which ‘opens the door to multiple methods, different worldviews and different assumptions, as well as to different forms of data collection and analysis’ (Creswell, 2014, p. 11). Incorporating both surveys and interviews ‘can help develop rich insights into various phenomena of interest that cannot be fully understood using only a quantitative or a qualitative method’ (Venkatesh, Brown and Bala, 2013, p. 1). Furthermore, unlike a single-method approach of inquiry, data collected through the mixed- method approach reinforce the reliability and validity of the results while also generating more comprehensive data. Drawing on both surveys and interviews instruments allows the researcher to strengthen the advantages of both approaches and minimise their limitations (Creswell, 2014, p. 264).
Thus, in the current research, surveys and interviews are employed sequentially to gain a complete understanding of the topic. The survey phase was useful for quantifying participants’ scores on the measures assessing ICC at two different times using the Assessment of Intercultural Competence approach (Fantini, 2009, p. 205) and identifying personality traits using the IPIP-
NEO-120 (Johnson, 2014, p. 79). Rasinger (2010, p. 52) notes that the primary strength of quantitative studies is their ability to assess the association between specific variables through statistical analyses. Statistical analyses also derive other vital conclusions from the data relating to demographics, trends and possible group differences (Rasinger, 2010, p. 52). Another strength of quantitative approaches is that they, in so far as the researcher ensures well-designed participant selection procedures and high representativeness of the sample, allow generalisation of the findings to a broader population (Bernard and Bernard, 2012, p. 87). By using valid and reliable assessment tools, quantitative studies can produce consistent, precise and reliable data (Mertens, 2014, p. 108). Using the quantitative approach in this research was useful for obtaining reliable data, for assessing the association between various demographic and contextual factors, ICC and personality traits and for generalising the findings to the broader population of international students in Saudi Arabia.
As discussed previously, quantitative studies reveal significant, albeit small, correlations between personality traits and ICC (Wilson, Ward and Fischer, 2013, p. 900). As noted by Mertens (2014, p. 111), interview studies can add clarity to quantitative findings by exploring individual participants’ perspectives. Thus, by triangulating the data via the use of mixed methodology, this longitudinal study aims to overcome the gaps in the literature due to a lack of attempts to ensure the validity of findings on the link between personality traits and ICC.
This study sought to achieve these aims by adopting the survey methodology, whereby participants completed valid and reliable tools for measuring ICC and Big Five personality traits. The FFM was chosen over other models because its measurement tools have been adequately validated in cross-cultural samples. Thus, the adoption of the interview method in this research contributes to the literature by estimating the relationship between personality traits and ICC via the use of a tool with reliability and validity in international settings.
The method of interviewing, however, is not without its limitations. The primary weakness of this method relates to its over-reliance on numerical data (Mertens, 2014, p. 111). As noted by Resinger (2010, p. 55), quantitative assessment tools are problematic, because they provide limited response options. Thus, it is unclear whether individuals’ scores on questionnaires fully reflect the variety and depth of their internal experiences, because people do not always have accurate insight into their internal states (Choy, 2014, p. 101). This notion was evident in the present research as well, as many international students underestimated or overestimated their Arabic language proficiency.
To compensate for such weaknesses of quantitative methodology, various authors suggest using qualitative research approaches (Denzin and Lincoln, 2011, p. 28; Silverman, 2016, p. 39). The primary strength of qualitative studies is that exploring participants’ internal perceptions provides more in-depth information about their emotions, beliefs, experiences, attitudes and personality (Silverman, 2016, p. 84). Qualitative studies (e.g. interviews) can result in a more detailed understanding of specific phenomena than quantitative studies (Mertens, 2014, p. 120). This analysis showed that a qualitative approach was useful to delineate international students’ perceptions of the degree to which their personality traits and other factors contributed to their ICC.
The particular value of conducting interviews was that this method produced results that conflicted those obtained in the survey, which encouraged further exploration and discussions. For instance, students in the survey indicated that their living arrangements (e.g. whether they lived with international students or locals) did not affect their ICC. Yet, in interviews, students expressed distress because of their lack of contact with locals, which limited their ICC. Without both approaches, this issue would be neither identified nor explored.
Qualitative studies also have fundamental limitations. According to Hagger and Chatzisarantis (2011, p. 266), qualitative studies often do not implement sufficiently rigorous approaches to data
analysis, which decreases their objectivity. Moreover, the results of qualitative research are not easily generalisable to the broader population due to low sample sizes (Denzin and Lincoln, 2011, p. 47). The best solution to overcome these limitations is a mixed-methods approach (Hagger and Chatzisarantis, 2011, p. 266; Mertens, 2014, p. 165). The divergent or convergent results produced from combining surveying and interviewing methods, for instance, enhance understanding of the phenomena being studied. Thus, the absence of one method may leave the research questions partially or totally unanswered (Hashemi, 2013, p. 829). In the present study, if only the survey methodology was adopted, the conclusion would be that living or not living with locals does not affect ICC. If only interviews were adopted, the researcher would conclude that not living with locals reduces ICC. The most balanced conclusion was reached by combining and negotiating both perspectives.
In line with the adoption of the mixed-methods approach, this research involved two distinct phases. This mixed-methods study followed a sequential, explanatory design using a quantitative study at two different times and a qualitative method for further analysis. This design helped refine both survey and interview results. It also explained the qualitative data by building on the quantitative one and vice versa (Fraenkel and Wallen, 2009, p. 561; Creswell, 2014, p. 15). In the first phase, quantitative data were collected at time 1 from 95 non-Arab students of Umm Al Qura University through two self-report surveys assessing participants’ demographic characteristics, various contextual variables, ICC and personality traits. Of those 95, 53 participated in ICC re- measurement at time 2. In the second phase, 12 participants of the same sample were invited for interviews depending on their quantitative data to explore which personality traits helped them to enhance their intercultural competence in this specific context. Specific methodological aspects of the survey and interview methodology are described in sections 4.5. and 4.6., respectively.