Beyond the American Reaction: Integrative Complexity of Middle Eastern Leaders during the 9/11 Crisis

In: Psicologia politica, Heft 27, S. 93-103

Abstract

To complement previous work on Western leaders' psychological response to the 9/11 (2001) crisis, the present study evaluated Middle Eastern leaders' integrative complexity throughout the crisis, Integrative complexity is the degree that persons recognize the validity of multiple dimensions & subsequently relate those dimensions to each other. The public communications of central leaders from nine Middle Eastern nations & organizations were coded for integrative complexity across five different phases of the crisis. Results indicated that, for the majority of Middle Eastern leaders in the study, integrative complexity dropped markedly immediately after 9/11, & then rose steadily, peaking during the US counterattack on Afghanistan. These results suggest that, despite playing largely peripheral roles in the crisis, Middle Eastern leaders were nonetheless substantially psychologically impacted by the events precipitated by the 9/1l attacks. 1 Table, 1 Figure, 12 References. Adapted from the source document.