title: Temperament and character in cross-cultural comparisons between Swedish and Iranian people and Iranian refugees in Sweden--personality in transition?
abstract: The aim of the study was a cross-cultural comparison of personality traits between individuals from two very different cultures and refugees who resettled several years before from one to the other. Four hundred forty four Swedish individuals of the normal population; and 100 Iranian refugees in Sweden, and a group of 335 individuals from Tehran, capital of Iran, were investigated by means of the Temperament and Character Inventory, a questionnaire to assess temperament and character Iranians are those that are most frequently correctly classified followed by the Swedish based on temperament scores by means of a Discriminance analyses. Iranian refugees in Sweden were classified to about 50 per cent as Swedish and to slightly more then one-third as Iranians. Especially concerning character, 4 per cent only could be correctly classified as refugees. The results give some perspective on the adaptation process and personality changes in refugees several years after resettlement in another country with a complete different culture.
authors.affiliation: University Hospital of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Rostock University, Germany.
authors.forename: Jörg
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Richter
authors.forename: Sven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Brändström
authors.forename: Habib
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Emami
authors.forename: Mehdi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ghazonour
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007492:Iran / Q000208:ethnology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010555:Personality Inventory; D012036:Refugees / Q000523:psychology*; D013548:Sweden / Q000208:ethnology; D013694:Temperament