For over a decade the Middle East has monopolized news headlines in the West. Journalists and commentators regularly
speculate that the region's turmoil may stem from the psychological momentum of its cultural traditions or of a
"tribal" or "fatalistic" mentality. Yet few studies of the region's cultural psychology have
provided a critical synthesis of psychological research on Middle Eastern societies.
Drawing on autobiographies, literary works, ethnographic accounts, and life-history interviews, The Middle East:
A Cultural Psychology , offers the first comprehensive summary of psychological writings on the region, reviewing
works by psychologists, anthropologists, and sociologists that have been written in English, Arabic, and French.
Rejecting stereotypical descriptions of the "Arab mind" or "Muslim mentality,' Gary Gregg adopts
a life-span- development framework, examining influences on development in infancy, early childhood, late childhood,
and adolescence as well as on identity formation in early and mature adulthood. He views patterns of development
in the context of recent work in cultural psychology, and compares Middle Eastern patterns less with Western middle
class norms than with those described for the region's neighbors: Hindu India, sub-Saharan Africa, and the Mediterranean
shore of Europe. The research presented in this volume overwhelmingly suggests that the region's strife stems much
less from a stubborn adherence to tradition and resistance to modernity than from widespread frustration with broken
promises of modernization--with the slow and halting pace of economic progress and democratization.
A sophisticated account of the Middle East's cultural psychology, The Middle East provides students, researchers,
policy-makers, and all those interested in the culture and psychology of the region with invaluable insight into
the lives, families, and social relationships of Middle Easterners as they struggle to reconcile the lure of Westernized
life-styles with traditional values.
Features
Offers interpretive synthesis of the scholarly literature, based on a life-span developmental model
Provides background on Middle East for readers unfamiliar with region, and background on psychological theories
for readers unfamiliar with theories of development
Avoids "national character" or "Arab personality" formulations, and emphasizes differences
between men and women, ways of life (nomadic - agricultural- urban), traditional, modernizing and underdeveloping
milieus, and the great range of individual variation
Clarifies and offers new perspectives on critical issues: whether Arab-Muslim culture breeds fanatacism; whether
traditional child-rearing fosters psychological authoritarianism; cultural constructions of masculinity and femininity;
the duality of "modern" and "traditional" identities; the mixture of individualist and collectivist
orientations; the psychological consequences of political despostism
Table of Contents
Introduction
Part I. Cultural context of development
1. Misunderstandings
2. The social ecology of psychological development
3. Honor and Islam: Shaping emotions, traits, and selves
Part II. Periods of psychological development
Introduction to Part II
4. Childbirth and infant care
5. Early childhood
6. Late childhood
7. Adolescence
8. Earlt adulthood and identity
9. Mature adulthood
10. Patterns and lives: Development through the life-span
