Big Five Personality Traits: A Comparative Study of University Students in Six Arab Countries

This study aimed to compare the Big Five personality traits among university students of both genders across six Arab countries: Qatar, Jordan, Iraq, Tunisia, Oman, and Bahrain (N = 1,729). Participants completed the Arabic version of the Big Five Personality Inventory, enabling a cross-national analysis of personality trait distributions. The results indicated distinct national patterns: Jordanian students scored the highest on Extraversion, Iraqi students on Neuroticism, Bahraini students on Agreeableness and Conscientiousness, and Qatari students on Openness. In contrast, Tunisian students had the lowest mean scores for Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness, while Bahraini students had the lowest mean for Neuroticism, and Jordanian students the lowest for Openness. These findings suggest that levels of social, political, and economic stability may be associated with variations in Big Five personality traits. Gender-based differences were also observed: men scored higher than women on Extraversion, while women scored higher than men on Neuroticism and Agreeableness. A principal component analysis revealed a single overarching factor, labelled “Balanced Personality versus Neuroticism,” aligning with the emerging concept of a “General Factor of Personality” at the top of the hierarchical personality structure. The findings of the study recommend the development of culturally sensitive counselling programs, with an emphasis on fostering positive personality traits such as extraversion, openness, and agreeableness—particularly in countries where these traits were found to be low—in order to promote mental health.