American and finnish college students’ traits and interactions with their instructors

This cross-cultural investigation sought to compare American and Finnish university students’ communication and personality traits (i.e., argumentativeness, assertiveness, Machiavellianism, and verbal aggressiveness) as well as out-of-class communication with their instructors. American (N = 286) and Finnish (N = 113) university students completed several self-report measures. The results of a MANOVA, an independent samples t-test, Pearson correlational analyses, and Fisher’s z tests revealed significant cultural differences, although the relationships between students’ traits and their out-of-class communication with instructors remained relatively similar in both samples.