The Middle East: A Cultural Psychology (culture, Cognition, And Behavior)

The Middle East: A Cultural Psychology Gary S. Gregg OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS The Middle East series in culture, cognition, and behavior series editor David Matsumoto, San Francisco State University series advisory board Deborah Best, Wake Forest University Michael Harris Bond, Chinese University of Hong Kong Walter J. Lonner, Western Washington University The Middle East: A Cultural Psychology gary s. gregg The Middle East A C U LT U R A L P S Y C H O L O G Y Gary S. Gregg With a Foreword by David Matsumoto 1 2005 3 Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further Oxford University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Copyright © 2005 by Oxford University Press, Inc. Published by Oxford University Press, Inc., 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 www.oup.com Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Gregg, Gary S. The Middle East : a cultural psychology / by Gary S. Gregg. p. cm. (Series in culture, cognition, and behavior) ISBN-13 978-0-19-517199-0 ISBN 0-19-517199-3 1. Ethnopsychology—Middle East. 2. Personality and culture—Middle East. 3. Islam—Psychology. 4. Religion and culture—Middle East. I. Title. II. Series. GN502.G76 2005 155.8'2'0956—dc22 2004016417 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper fo re word Recent years have witnessed an explosion in information technology. Scholars and scientists in all fields of study have at their fingertips more information than ever before and, in fact, more information than they can possibly manage. We are able to communicate and interact with others around the world effortlessly via the Web. Interest and research on people from different cultures and societies is at its highest in recent decades, and promises to become even more prominent in the future. Despite the information explosion and increased ease of communication, there are still countries, regions, and cultures of the world about which we have little reliable information. Although studies of culture and psychology are prominent in the Far East (particularly Japan), North America, and Europe, they are still sorely lacking in Central and South America, Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. This gaping hole in the scientific literature is in fact largest in psychology, as psychological studies of the people of these cultural regions still lag far behind other types of scientific research. The consequences of this lack of information are formidable. People’s reactions to the events of September 11 demonstrated that ignorance about the lives of people from other cultures helps to promulgate stereotypes, misperceptions, and misunderstandings. Believing in uninformed stereotypes makes it easier to make negative attributions to groups of people when unfortunate events occur. Doing so also makes it easier to homogenize people, ignore their considerable individuality and diversity, and believe in the supremacy of one’s ways of life, beliefs, and being. It is in this light that I welcome Gary Gregg’s The Middle East: A Cultural Psychology as the first book to be published in the Oxford University P