Cross-cultural differences in personality, motivation and cognition in Asian vs. Western societies

The Oxford Happiness Questionnaire (OHQ), Goal Orientation Questionnaire (GOQ), Revised Study Process Questionnaire (R-SPQ-2F), and Academic Volitional Strategy Inventory (AVSI) plus a brief demographics questionnaire were administered to 395 Thai, and 313 Australian undergraduate students to investigate cross-cultural differences in personality, motivation, learning styles and academic achievement (measured via GPAs). Equivalence of English- and Thai-language measures was ensured using a well-established standard translation-backtranslation procedure. Australian students exhibited higher AVSI scores, whereas Thai students scored more highly on Psychological Wellbeing, as well as on Study Approach, Self-Efficacy Enhancement, Stress Reducing Actions, and Negative-Based Incentives. Nevertheless, our findings provide some evidence that Asian and Western learning style stereotypes may be breaking down in the modern digitally connected world.