A COMPARISON OF
CULTURES: THE UNITED STATES
AND THE MIDDLE EAST
Bridging the Gap

JULIA ROSENTHAL, LAUREN
MORELAND, ASHLEY POWERS,
MEGAN PACKARD, MARIKA HEINICKE,
OSCAR RAMOS,
GABRIEL CAMACHO, MICHAEL
MATTAR, SYEDA KINZA
A Presentation by Dr. King’s Psychology of Human
Development II Class

Order of Presentation j 1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

7.

Defining Adolescence
Religion
Gender
Stigmas and Stereotypes
Violence and War Impacts
How We Can Close the Gap between the Two Cultures
Brief Documentary film

Adolescents as a Category

Adolescents as a Category

Adolescent Labels

In the English
Language, the idea of being a teen is associated with terms like “restlessness” and
“rebelliousness” (Teens in the Middle East,
2003).

The term often implies
“immaturity and imperfection,” which gives them the mindset that they must seek guidance from their older family members
(Teens in the Middle
East, 2003).

Religion

Religious Preferences

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Protestant 51.3%
Roman Catholic 23.9%
Mormon 1.7% other Christian 1.6%
Jewish 1.7%
Buddhist 0.7%
Muslim 0.6%, other or unspecified 2.5%, unaffiliated 12.1%, none 4%
(2007 est.)

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Saudi Arabia:
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100% Muslim

Egypt:
Muslim(mostly Sunni) 90%
 Christian 1%
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Iran:
Muslim 98% (Shia 89%, Sunni
9%),
 other (includes Zoroastrian,
Jewish, Christian, and Baha'i)
2%


Countries and Religions in the Middle
East

Middle East Adolescents and Religion
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-“does provide a set of behavioral guidelines-or long-accepted behavioral guidelines are explained as deriving from the religion.
But this does not mean that Arab Adolescents always conform to those guidelines or see them as essential to their own faith. And other social pressures can cause religiously sanctioned guidelines to change.” Islam is a “symbolic and social force that precludes total or unquestioning acceptance of Western lifestyles and values” (Marilyn
Booth, 210 worlds youth). Islam is considered a “religion, legal system, social blueprint, oppositional ideology.”
This identity formation begins at a young age. As Maryam describes—When we were little, our parents started telling us—
“Oh, that’s God’s name” and like you’re supposed to pray. Even when we didn’t know how to pray, we’d just stand there with my uncles or my parents [and pretend to pray] and it was just around us a lot (Religious identity formation).

Differences

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Muslim societies through history have tended to be more tolerant of religious minorities -especially Jews and Christians -- than the West has. The Middle East has a long history of trade, communication, and cultural exchange with
Europe and the United States, as well as other cultures around the world.
Some groups in the Middle East today disagree with U.S. foreign policies, but this is a political rather than a purely religious issue.
While it's true that there are those in the
Middle East who mistrust extremes of Western cultural influence and want to protect local cultural norms and practices, many Muslims want to adopt (or adapt) other aspects of
Western culture and technology. (GLOBAL
CONNECTIONS, 2002)

United States Adolescents and Religion
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Degeneration of values is often cited as the source of the trend toward earlier sexual behavior (Meier, 2003). Political and moralistic arguments implicate detachment from religion as fundamental to a downward shift in age at first time of intercourse. Meier's (2003) study finds that lower levels of religiosity influence teens' decision to have sex for the first time. Teens with strong religious views are less likely to have sex than are less religious teens, largely because their religious views lead them to view the consequences of having sex negatively. Religion reduces the likelihood of adolescents engaging in early sex by shaping their attitudes and beliefs about sexual activity (how religion affects lives of adoles.)

Similarities
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“More than half of the most religious American Muslim teens don’t pray or even know how to pray”