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)

A first version includes 138 items and five dimensions.

Definitions and Sample Items for the five MPQ Dimensions from the Journal of personality article (Van der Zee & Van Oudenhoven, 2001) 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 (+)

---

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

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

References