Suchergebnisse

This study investigated emotional reactions to a community stress situation: living on the Golan Heights during the period of peace negotiations between Israel and Syria. The study concerned the buffering effects of three types of moderators—at the individual, family, and community levels—on anxiety and anger. Data were collected in two regional high schools from 201 pupils. Of these, 107 pupils lived in the Golan settlements (study group) and 94 lived in the Galilee area (comparison group). No significant differences were found between the two groups in the emotional reaction scores. Regarding the question of individual versus contextual moderators, the results indicated a somewhat different pattern for the two emotional reactions. Whereas the significant moderators that accounted for variance of the anxiety responses were on the individual level only, the anger reactions were explained by community-level factors as well.

Occupational orientations of 154 young Soviet immigrants to Israel were studied. It was hypothesized that among young people socialized in Soviet society there would be fewer gender differences in vocational choices and occupational values than in Western society. However, significant gender differences were found in both variables, consistent with the stereotypical pattern documented in Western societies. Although these findings could suggest that sex role stereotyping is of psychological origin, sociological-cultural and developmental explanations are offered.

The relationship between acculturation attitudes and attitudes toward collective narratives is explored in the context of Palestinian adolescents, citizens of the State of Israel. Employing Berry's acculturation framework, we expected that approaching the hegemonic Israeli Jewish culture would be related to higher acceptance of its collective narrative concerning main historical events. We further expected that retaining the Palestinian culture would be related to higher acceptance of the Palestinian narrative of the same events. Data were collected from a sample of 365 teenagers in six Israeli Arab high schools. Generally, the results tend to support our hypotheses regarding relationships between acculturation and attitudes toward collective narratives. Majority of the adolescents endorsed a separation strategy and expressed rejection of the Israeli Jewish collective narrative while endorsing the Palestinian one. The findings suggest that acculturation attitudes may be composed of different behavioral, cognitive, and emotional components, and those components may not be well correlated.

The purpose of this study was to explore the degree to which concepts drawn from North American research are applicable to marital violence among Israeli Jews. Interviews were conducted with 161 women after they gave birth in a large medical center, 29 of whom reported at least one occurrence of violent marriage (VM) during the study year. As in comparable North American research, marital violence was associated with economic hardship, with lack of collectiveness in the dyad, and with the conflict solving tactics employed by both spouses. VM women held different attitudes toward husband control and marital violence, and were emotionally dependent on their husbands. Discriminant analysis successfully classified 90% of the cases (67% of VM). The findings can be interpreted in terms of the battered women syndrome as well as in terms of a struggle for power within the family. The data strongly suggest that these may be two distinct patterns of marital violence.

Purpose
This study aims to explore intergroup relations between two Jewish religious groups in Israel, namely, ultra-Orthodox and national-religious communities, by using an integrated model that combines two psychosocial concepts: perceptions of collective narratives and identity strategies.


Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from a representative sample of 402 ultra-Orthodox and 388 national-religious Jews living in Israel, of age 18 and over. Repeated-measures ANOVAs were conducted to examine group differences in perceiving in-group and out-group collective narratives and in patterns of identity strategies. Further, partial correlations and hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted to test the relative contribution of perceptions of collective narratives and patterns of identity strategies.


Findings
Willingness to compete with and to separate from the out-group was related to the tendency to reject its collective narrative while endorsing the in-group one. In the same vein, the opposite pattern was found in the relations between willingness to integrate and unite with the out-group and the perceptions of collective narratives. The results also indicate group differences: the ultra-Orthodox exhibited stronger tendencies to preserve their in-group collective narratives and to reject the out-group, as well as stronger endorsement of identity strategies of competition and separation compared to national-religious.


Practical implications
The results suggest that it might be useful to encourage dialogue between both groups to clarify each side's narratives and rationale underlying the endorsement of specific identity strategies. Such an open dialogue could help each group understand the other group's needs and might also reduce their sense of threat as well as anxiety about losing their religious and social uniqueness. One possible opportunity for such dialogue is workplaces in which members of each group can gradually uncover stereotypes, enhancing reconciliation and willingness to accept the "other's" collective narrative and choose to adhere more to the similar than dissimilar characteristics.


Originality/value
This is the first study, to the best of the authors' knowledge, to examine collective narratives and identity strategies as powerful indicators of intergroup relations between two minority groups of the same religion. Within such a unique context, the power struggle exists and the separation and competition strategies are apparent, but the main conflictual issue is related to similarities and discrepancies of religious ideologies, values, norms and worldviews that shape one's daily life and his/her encounter with the similar but different "other".