Characteristics of Peace Corps Host Countries and The Behavior of Volunteers

To test the hypothesis that intercountry variability in the average performance of Volunteers is associated with characteristics of Peace Corps countries, 10 overseas criterion measures of Volunteer behavior were correlated with nine socio-economic and linguistic indices for 44 host countries. Of several correlations supporting the behavior-environment hypothesis, the relationships between completion-of-service rates and linguistic standardization indices were most striking. By interpreting the linguistic standardization index as reflecting the extent to which intercultural communication may have affected host country nationals' perceptions of foreigners, a cultural exposure hypothesis was derived. It was argued that in countries characterized by relatively little cultural exposure, Volunteers may be more successful since their credibility as agents-of-change is enhanced by their cultural unusualness, as perceived both by themselves and by the country nationals.