Personality Characteristics of the Nentsy in the Russian Arctic

• Published in: American Behavioral Scientist
• Main Authors: DRAGUNS, JURIS G., KRYLOVA, ANNA V., ORYOL, VALERY E., RUKAVISHNIKOV, ALEXEY A., MARTIN, THOMAS A.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: SAGE Publications 2000
• Subjects: Arctic; nenets
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/00027640021956026; http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/00027640021956026

Fifty female and 30 male students of Nenets ethnicity were compared with 46 female and 34 male students of Russian ethnicity by means of the Russian adaptations of the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) and the Personal Orientation Inventory (POI). On the NEO-PI-R, there were 14 significant differences out of the 35 comparisons, and on the POI, 8 out of 10. Nenets participants scored lower in Openness to Experience and Extraversion on the NEO-PI-R and lower on Self-Actualization, Spontaneity, and Self-Acceptance on the POI. These results are integrated with other psychological and anthropological findings about the Nentsy, and several lines of follow-up research are proposed.