"big five" factors and intercultural sensitivity in Russian University Students

The relevance of the research is conditioned by the necessity of studying the intercultural competence which is viewed as one of the means for preventing and solving the intercultural conflicts and not only as a social but also as a personal phenomenon. In connection to this, the research presented in this paper is aimed at revealing the correlation of particularities of intercultural competence and sensitivity with the Big Five factors. The leading method for diagnosing the intercultural sensitivity was the author adaptation of the technique "Intercultural sensitivity scale" of O.E. Khukhlaev and M.Yu. Chibisova as modified by Yu.A. Logashchenko that allows comprehensively viewing the intercultural competence on the basis of M. Bennet's Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity. This model gives an opportunity to reveal stages of the rise of intercultural competence such as minimization, absolutization, ambivalence and acceptance. As a result of surveying 388 students (65,5% of them being girls) from two major Russian universities, it has been found that most factors of the Big Five (apart from neuroticism) are associated with the extent of parameters of intercultural sensitivity, except minimization. The materials of the paper are of practical value for elaborating the programs of development and formation of the intercultural competence while taking into account the revealed specific character of personality factors and particularities of a polycultural educational space of today's universities. © Serials Publications.