Modernization or Minority Status

Abstract

The relative effects of modernization and minority status on the "coping" cognitive style of Israel's Arab citizens as contrasted with West Bank residents are compared. Eighth graders from three villages which had been arbitrarily sundered by the border at the end of Israel's war of independence, and reunited 19 years later during the six-day war, were given Shanan's coping test. Predictions for girls versus boys and Israelis versus West Bankers were tested according to a modernization theory and a minority status theory. Modernization theory predictions were for the most part supported by the data of "the ability to define external goals," "the readiness to actively cope," "self-esteem," "psychological instability," and the tendency to refrain from giving an answer. "The ability to detect external problems" yielded insignificant results, and the "evasive answers" data could be interpreted as supportive of the modernization theory.