Attitudinal modernity : a comparative study of Middle Eastern university students

Includes bibliographical references (pages 98-100)This study was designed to investigate the stigmas\ud of attitudinal modernity among three Middle Eastern\ud ethnic groups, the degree of impact of background values\ud and traditions on the process of adaptation, and finally\ud the relationship of change in attitudes to school\ud achievement in Middle Eastern students at California\ud State University, Northridge.\ud Seventy-five engineering and computer science\ud students (25 Christian Arabs, 25 Moslem Arabs, and 25\ud Armenians) responded to a 36-item questionnaire which\ud was prepared to measure the attitudinal modernity among\ud the three ethnic groups. Twenty-five students who were\ud born and raised in America served as a control group. \ud The length of stay in the United States, the\ud socio-psychological background, religious affiliation,\ud education, economic status and ethnicity were explored\ud as factors influencing the process of attitudinal\ud modernity.\ud American students scored significantly higher than\ud Middle Eastern subjects on the attitudinal modernity\ud test. The Middle Eastern students in general did better\ud in school performance, attaining higher GPAs.\ud This difference in school performance might be\ud attributed to the fact that Middle Eastern students are\ud on state funding from their government or are scholarship\ud recipients. Therefore, they should work harder to\ud obtain higher grades to maintain the required academic\ud standard for financial aid from their respective governments\ud or scholarship foundations.\ud T-tests perrformed on the scores showed the\ud differences to be statistically significant, therefore\ud the null hypothesis could be rejected.\ud It seems that on the whole, religion, ethnicity,\ud economic status, or cultural background had no effect\ud on the results of the study