Social and Behavioral Sciences

Social history influences equivalence class formation among Lebanese participants

Lebanese participants of different religions were trained to match different religious names, villages, and symbols and then were tested for emergent relations; symmetry, transitivity, and equivalence. The results demonstrated that the pre-experimental social history of the participants disrupted equivalence class formation and exerted more control than the experimentally trained relations. J. Abu Mrad and A. Imam.

The study investigates the status of religious rituals among the Lebanese Druze as an esoteric community, examining how these practices are perceived, observed, negated, neglected or critiqued by insiders as well as outsiders, at different times and locales. I. Azzam.

An anthropological study of the patterns of endogamous and exogamous Druze marriages in Lebanon from 1900 to 1997 in the context of the sociopolitical changes within the region. The results can serve as a needed reference for further inquiries into the “constructedness” of “Druzeness” as a category of difference and the dynamics of identity formation and transformation in contemporary societies. I. Azzam. (Supported by URB.)

A quantitative and a qualitative assessment of the position of Lebanese women in the currently functioning TV stations namely: TL, LBC, Future TV, MTV, Al Manar, and NBN since 1997. The study investigates the extent to which Lebanese women are consciously challenging or reinforcing oppressive cultural symbols. I. Azzam.

A content analysis study of foreign news in a sample of the Lebanese mass media. This is part of an international project that includes national news systems in all regions of the world. The study examines the content of both press and television news and provides qualitative analysis of the news frames and language of “otherness” manifested in foreign news. The study is a collaborative effort to produce a large and detailed portrait of international news and global news flow in the 1990s. It will be built from previous and current work, especially the 1978 IAMCR/UNESCO study of which the investigator was a participant, but will not replicate that or any other study. N. Dajani.

A study of the role of the mass media on the social consciousness of two distinct Lebanese communities (the political and business elite) and those with the least influence on national decisions (unskilled workers). The investigation is concerned with the subjective images people have formed of the mass media, not necessarily with the true functions of the media. It explores the people's conception of the mass media; what is the significance or importance attached by the people to the different media, and what are the functions they consider these media to fulfil for them. N. Dajani.

The study investigates the changing pattern of relationships within the Lebanese family with special emphasis on parent-adolescent relations. It examines the extent of family cohesiveness and the nature of communication, disputes, and power relations within the family. M. Faour.

A study of the interrelationships between a number of demographic and development variables in selected Arab countries and their policy implications. M. Faour.

The purpose of the study is to investigate the various aspects of the Lebanese people’s attitudes towards mental health, mental illness, and help-seeking behavior. It will also explore the relationship between different socio-economic factors associated with these varying attitudes. M.Gharzeddine (Supported by URB.)

Integration vs. sectarianism in Lebanon: relationship between socioeconomic factors and Lebanese identity stage of development

This study discusses the results of an empirical study done on a sample of 724 resident and non-resident Lebanese individuals.. Four different levels of Lebanese identity development, conceptualized along a divided/sectarian Lebanese identity vs. an integrated Lebanese identity continuum, were found to vary significantly with differences in various socio-economic factors. M.Gharzeddine.

National and ethno/religious identities in pluralistic societies: a developmental model

This is a theoretical paper that proposes a general model for conceptualizing the national identity of any pluralistic society along a psychological developmental continuum. A general review of the major studies in the field of group psychology and group development is presented and a method is proposed to develop stages of identity development as pluralistic nations are undergoing their integration process. M. Gharzeddine.

This paper presents and discusses the results of a qualitative study on the psychology of the Lebanese identity. Thirty-five Lebanese political, religious, and community leaders were interviewed during the latter half of the 1990’s to discuss the nature of the Lebanese id, fifty years after our forefathers first defined it in the early 1940’s. M. Gharzeddine.

Data collected to date show that the addition of a speed contingency increased the sensitivity of otherwise peaked accuracy in assessing the relatedness of equivalence-class members. The two measures revealed that class members were not equally related to each other. Controlling for the confounding inequality of presentations of trained and tested relations showed that (1) response speeds differed as predicted according to trial type but not nodal distance, and (2) the response speeds established for one class can be transferred to another class of a different speed. The latter finding is very significant but has been difficult to replicate due to the nature of the protocol employed. The study explores three new protocols in terms of their differential effectiveness in establishing equivalence relations. The most efficient of these then will be adopted to replicate the transfer of response speeds discovered in the completed work. A. Imam (Supported by URB.)

Research on substitutability of equivalence class members has implicated response speed as a viable measure of relatedness among class members. In the present study, the effects of response-speed transfer across different equivalence class members were examined. A 22-year-old female participated. She was exposed to four conditions of two accuracy-only and speed-plus-accuracy contingencies, respectively, establishing three seven-member classes each. Two transfer procedures were then implemented. In Transfer 1, the three A-stimuli of the first speed condition and those of Accuracy 1 served as sample and comparison stimuli respectively. In Transfer 2, A1 and A3 stimuli from the second speed condition and Accuracy 2 served as sample and comparison stimuli respectively. Response speeds of the remaining class members of Accuracy 1 (Transfer 1) and of only class 2 of Accuracy 2 (Transfer 2) increased. The results suggest a mixed finding of equal-relatedness among class members based on response speeds. A. Imam.

Equal stimulus presentations produce equal relatedness among equivalence class members

Three five-member classes for a student were established by presenting equal number of trained and tested relations. Then a fading procedure was used to train one member of each class to three novel stimuli respectively. Transfer and speed tests showed no nodal distance effect. N. Najjar and A. Imam.

Syllables and arbitrary shapes differentially facilitate equivalence class emergence and expansion

Equivalence classes emerge when physically dissimilar stimuli become related after a few relations have been trained. When presented with non-sense syllables as stimuli, participants responded by elimination based on the physical resemblance or dissimilarity between sample and comparison stimuli, thus hindering equivalence class formation. However, they had no difficulty establishing classes when arbitrary shapes were used as stimuli. This suggests that a participant’s pre-experimental history may intrude to override experimental contingencies. N. Najjar and A. Imam.

Response speed as an additional measure of nodality in stimulus equivalence research

Equivalence classes emerge when physically dissimilar stimuli become related after few relations have been trained. An important finding in equivalence research is that performance is an inverse function of nodal distance. Investigators typically rely on accuracy as a sole measure of nodality despite its characteristic performance ceiling, which hinders assessment of nodal distance effect. Fields et al.'s study was replicated using response speed measures in a matching-to-sample procedure establishing two five-member equivalence classes with three undergraduates. Although accuracy showed a performance ceiling, speed provided a sensitive measure of nodality. Contrary to Fields et al.'s accounts, the analysis of speed and accuracy data from transitive and combined tests showed no consistent nodal distance effect. The results suggest caution about conclusions on the effects of nodality. It remains to be seen if speed response provides a reliable and consistent account of nodal distance effects. N. Najjar and A. Imam.

This is a major long-term project begun before October 1993, still in the course of being written up. It involves analysis of all local documentation concerning four selected villages in north Jordan (Ottoman and Mandate land registers, census records, court records) for the period 1870-1940 from late Ottoman rule to the British Mandate, combined with interviews with older members of the villages. R. Saumarez-Smith.

This is part of a larger project on "Sustainable improvement of marginal lands in Lebanon: Irsal, a case study", organized by the Dept. of Animal Science, A.U.B. The objective is to examine the 1946-50 records of land registration and map the pattern of property ownership in the village at that time. An incomplete set of 1:5000 cadastral maps of the village was obtained from the Land Registry office in Zahle, whose analysis was the basis of the final report submitted in December 1998, completing the first phase of research. R. Saumarez-Smith.

An extension of earlier research on land systems in British India that looks more generally at the development of pivotal techniques of European imperial rule (cartography, land registration and the census) during the first half of the nineteenth century, posing questions for comparison with Ottoman rule during the same period, and relating it to ways of imagining society and to the rise of sociology. R. Saumarez-Smith.

This research examines how individuals construct their sense of self, and the meanings, everyday significance, and personal relevance of a range of identities through open ended interviews with Syrian adults: men and women, Muslims and Christians, of different ages, from various regional and socio-economic backgrounds. Accounts were collected through interviews of national, gender, regional and religious identities; the importance of family, occupation, social status, and social relationships in characterizing the self; and how people construct their sense of individuality. The research, which is in the final stages of data collection, transcription and translation, thereby will provide a novel, social psychological and discursive perspective on identity issues by collecting and analyzing individuals' own accounts. In addition, cross-cultural data on self-descriptions and individualistic and collectivist values which were collected in Syria and Britain are currently being analyzed and will provide the basis for re-evaluating individualism-collectivism as a means of classifying self and society. S. Widdicombe. (Funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, UK.)

Al-Issa, I., Ethnicity, immigration, and psychopathology. In Ethnicity, Immigration, and Psychopathology, ed. I. Al-Issa and M. Tousignant. New York: Plenum, 1997.

———, The psychology of prejudice and discrimination. In Ethnicity, Immigration, and Psychopathology, ed. I. Al-Issa, and M. Tousignant. New York: Plenum, 1997.

———, Research issues. In Ethnicity, Immigration, and Psychopathology, ed. I. Al-Issa, and M. Tousignant. New York: Plenum, 1997.

———, Gender and psychopathology. In Baker’s Encyclopedia of Psychology, 2^nd edition, ed. D.G. Benner. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1998.

———, Hallucinations. In Baker’s Encyclopedia of Psychology, 2^nd edition, ed. D.G. Benner. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1998.

Al-Issa, I., and Oujdi, S., Culture and anxiety disorders. In Cultural Clinical Psychology: Theory, Research and Practice, ed. S.S. Kazarian, and D.R. Evans. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.

Al-Issa, I. and Tousignan, M., eds., Ethnicity, Immigration, and Psychopathology. New York: Plenum, 1997.

———, The mental health of north Africans in France. In Ethnicity, Immigration, and Psychopathology, ed. I. Al-Issa, and M. Tousignant. New York: Plenum, 1997.

Azzam, I., Change for Continuity: The Druze in America. Beirut: M.A.J.D., 1997.

Dajani, N., The cultural and communication dimension of the New World order, (in Arabic). al-Mustaqbal al-Arabi, 20 (224), 58-66, 1997.

———, Pros and cons of the Lebanese media, (in Arabic). Dirasat Arabiyyah, no. 11/12, 9-15, 1997.

Diab, H., Beirut: Reviving Lebanon's Past. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 1999.

Faour, M., The Silent Revolution in Lebanon: Changing Values of the Youth. Beirut: American University of Beirut, 1998.

Faour, M. and Al-Amin, A., Attullab Al-jami’yin fi Lubnan wa Ittijahatuhum: Irth al-Inqisamat (Background and attitudes of university students in Lebanon: the heritage of divisions). Beirut: Lebanese Association for Educational Studies, 1998.

Faour, M., Attahawulat addimografiya fi Lubnan, 1970-1997, (Demographic transition in Lebanon, 1970-1997). Al-Fikr al-Arabi, (95), 159-170, winter 1999.

Khalaf, S., Protestant images of Islam: disparaging stereotypes reconfirmed. Islam and Christian Muslim Relations, 8 (2), 211-230, 1997.

———, Leavening the Levant. Journal of Mediterranean Studies: History, culture and Society in the Mediterranean World, 7 (2), 268-292, 1998.

———, Contested space and the forging of new cultural identities. In Projecting Beirut, ed. P. Rowe, and H. Sarkis, 140-164. Munich: Prestel Verlag, 1998. Antaki, C. and Widdicombe, S., Identities in Talk. London: Sage Publications, 1998.

———, Identity as an achievement and as a tool. In Identities in Talk, ed. C. Antaki, and S. Widdicombe, 1-14. London: Sage Publications, 1998.

Widdicombe, S., ‘But you don't class yourself': the interactional management of category membership and non-membership. In Identities in Talk, ed. C. Antaki and S. Widdicombe, 52-70. London: Sage Publications, 1998.

———, Identity as an analysts' and a participants' resource, In: Identities in Talk, ed. C. Antaki and S. Widdicombe, 191-206. London: Sage Publications, 1998.

ABSTRACTS, PRESENTATIONS AND PROCEEDINGS

Azzam, I., Change for continuity. The American Druze Foundation Symposium, ADS Annual Conference, San Francisco, California, U.S.A., July 1997.

———, Al -maraa allubnania wattilfision:Almanzila wassimat (Lebanese women in television: status and role). The Fourth Colloquium for Creative Arab Women, Soussa, Tunisia, April 1999.

———, Rites and rituals among the Druze. The First International Conference on Druze Studies, Center for Near Eastern Studies, UCLA, California, USA, June 1999.

Dajani, N., Globalization and culture (in Arabic). The Mass Media and Globalization, The Federation of Arab News Agencies and the Friederich Ebert Foundation, Damascus, August 1998.

———, Lebanese broadcasting situation and regulations. The International Seminar on Satellite Broadcasting in the Middle East and North Africa, International Centre Against Censorship, Cairo, March 1999.

———, Media ethics in Lebanon, (in Arabic). The Federation of Arab News Agencies, Beirut, April 1999.

Faour, M., Recent demographic statistics in Lebanon (in Arabic). The World Population Day Seminar, Beit Meri, Lebanon, July 11, 1998.

———, Fertility, family planning, and fertility preferences in Lebanon (in Arabic). The National Seminar on Maternal and Child Health, Beirut, October 20-21, 1998.

———, The population situation in the light of the implementation of the ICPD plan of action: analysis of country questionnaires (in Arabic). The Arab Conference on the Implementation of the ICPD Plan of Action, Beirut, September 22-25, 1998.

———, Demographic changes and development of Beirut (in Arabic). Seminar on the Development of Beirut, Beirut, June 11-12, 1999.

———, Population policies and reproductive health programs in the Arab countries (in Arabic). Regional Seminar for the Arab media on ICPD+5, Damascus, Syria, June 19-21, 1999.

Najjar, N., and Imam, A., Equal presentations produce equal relatedness among equivalence class members [Abstract]. Proceedings of the 10^thAnnual Meeting of the American Psychological Society, 141, 1998.

———, Speed and accuracy measures in equivalence-class membership and relatedness [Poster]. Meeting of the Association for Behavior Analysis, Orlando, FL., May 1998.

———, Equal stimulus presentations produce equal relatedness among equivalence class members [Poster]. Meeting of the American Psychological Society, Washington, DC., May 1998.

———, Syllables and arbitrary shapes differentially facilitate equivalence class emergence and expansion [Abstract]. Proceedings of the 11^thAnnual Meeting of the American Psychological Society, 73, 1999.

———, Response speed as an additional measure of nodality in equivalence research [Poster]. Meeting of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior Group, University College, London, England, March 1999.

———, Response speed as an additional measure of nodality in stimulus equivalence research [Abstract]. Proceeding of the Annual Conference of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior Group, 36, 1999.

Abu-Mrad, J., and Imam, A., Social history influences equivalence class formation among Lebanese participants [Abstract]. Proceedings of the 11^thAnnual Meeting of the American Psychological Society, 73, 1999.

Imam, I., Equal presentations of tested relations eliminate nodal distance effects in response speeds [Abstract]. Proceedings of the 11^thAnnual Meeting of the American Psychological Society, 73, 1999.

______, Response-speed transfer across members of different equivalence classes [Abstract]. Proceeding of the Annual Conference of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior Group, 36, 1999.

______, Response-speed transfer across members of different equivalence classes [Poster]. Meeting of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior Group, University College, London, England, March 1999.

Khalaf, S., Early encounters of Protestant missionaries in Lebanon. The 150th Anniversary of the Evangelical Church, Beirut, March 1998.

Widdicombe, S., Accounting for self and identity in Syria. The Middle East Studies Association Annual Meetings, Chicago, USA, 1998.

MASTER’S THESES

Ghandour, S., Advertising as communication: content analysis of TV advertisements in Lebanon (1998). N. Dajani.

Hakim, D., Family relations and physical encounter in Arab soap operas (1999). N. Dajani.

Misk, Z., Heritage associations in Beirut: institutionalization of nostalgia (1998). I. Azzam.

Osseyran., H., The Shi’ite leadership of south Lebanon: a reconsideration (1997). S. Khalaf.

Obeid, M., Gender and division of labor in a changing rural area: IRSAL, a case study (1998). S. Khalaf.

Tarabey, L., Testate and intestate succession among the Lebanese Druze (1998). M. Faour.