Cultural competence/Multicultural Personality Questionnaire

The Multicultural Personality Questionnaire (MPQ) was created by van Oudenhoven and Van der Zee (Van der Zee and van Oudenhoven (2000) ; Van der Zee, K.I., & Van Oudenhoven, J.P. (2001) ;Van Oudenhoven & Van der Zee (2001)

There seem to be two versions.

MPQ revised (2001)

A first version included 138 items and five dimensions and these were reduced to 78 items. Definitions and Sample Items for the five MPQ Dimensions are taken from the Journal of personality article (Van der Zee & Van Oudenhoven, 2001), and are below:

Cultural Empathy (14 items)

The ability to empathize with the feelings, thoughts, and behaviors of individuals from a different cultural background versus an inability to do so

Notices when someone is in trouble (+)

Understands other people’s feelings (+)

Takes other people’s habits into consideration (+)

Has problems assessing relationships (+)

Openmindedness (14 items)

An open and unprejudiced attitude toward different groups and toward different cultural norms and values

Gets involved in other cultures (+)

Finds other religions interesting (+)

Seeks contact with people from a different background (+)

Has a broad range of interests (+)

Emotional Stability (20 items)

The tendency to remain calm in stressful situations versus a tendency to show strong emotional reactions under stressful circumstances

Can put setbacks in perspective (+)

Keeps calm at ill-luck (+)

Is afraid to fail (-)

Takes it for granted that things will turn out right (+)

Social Initiative (17 items)

A tendency to approach social situations in an active way and to take initiatives

Is inclined to speak out (+)

Is often the driving force behind things (+)

Takes the lead (+)

Easily approaches other people (+)MULTICULTURAL PERSONALITY QUESTIONNAIRE

Flexibility (13 items)

A tendency to regard new and unknown situations as a challenge and to adjust one’s behavior to the demands of new and unknown situations

Avoids from adventure (-)

Works mostly according to a strict scheme (-)

Feels uncomfortable in a difffferent culture (-)

Starts a new life easily (+)

MPQ 2000

The four dimensions of the final version of the MPQ (2000) included:

• Openness (27 items)
• Emotional Stability (13 items)
• Social Initiatives (27 items)
• Flexibility (24 items)