<p> This study is primarily about regime survival. Applying some aspects of rentier-state model, the metaphor of father and family, and the functional superiority perspective and predominantly based on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia&rsquo;s experience, this study sought to unravel factors that have enabled the monarchical regimes of the Middle East to survive the ongoing upheavals in the region. While the region-wide upheavals have swept away the republican regimes of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, the monarchies of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Morocco, and Qatar, among others, have remained largely intact, raising the questions as to why and how they have been able to stem the tides of collapse. In response to this question, it was argued here that the ability of long-established regimes to mobilize resources&mdash;both material and non-material&mdash;to strategically and tactically deal with internal discontents provides a framework to analyze regime survival. It must, however, be noted that regime survival does not necessarily connote state or regime stability, if stability refers to absence of sociopolitical frictions and political schism. Here, regime survival simply referred to the ability of rulers to remain, or stay, in power, even if there were continuing struggles on the part of sections of the citizenry to remove them.</p><p>

<p> Inclusion of children with special education needs into public classrooms in United Arab Emirates applied in 2006. The application of inclusion programs started in high schools, and followed by elementary schools and preschools. Teachers&rsquo; attitudes toward inclusion evaluated among high school and elementary teachers but not among preschool teachers. The effect of the cultural background of teaching staff on inclusion education not evaluated in a UAE preschool. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the effect of educational specialty and culture on teachers&rsquo; attitudes toward an inclusion education system in United Arab Emirates. The theory of planned behavior of Ajzan (1991) used in this study to explain teachers&rsquo; attitudes. This quantitative study evaluated teachers&rsquo; attitudes toward inclusion education through a distributed questionnaire, including a demographics form and a STATIC scale for evaluating teachers&rsquo; attitudes. A two-factor ANOVA used to test the effects of teachers&rsquo; specialty and cultural background on STATIC scores. Findings showed a main effect of preschool teachers&rsquo; cultural identity on their attitudes toward inclusion education. Teachers with Asian identity showed better attitudes toward inclusion education than Gulf identity or African identity teachers. No differences found between preschool teachers&rsquo; specialty (general and special education teachers) on their attitudes toward inclusion education. This study will contribute to social change by providing valuable knowledge about UAE preschool teachers&rsquo; attitudes toward the application of inclusion education to improve the inclusion classrooms settings and environment.</p><p>

<p> This dissertation explores the structure of political attitudes on the political parties&rsquo;, as well as mass public levels in Algeria, Egypt, Jordan and Morocco. I present the dimensionality, nature and structuration of political ideologies in these countries. In doing so, I describe the determinants, constituents, and components constructing parties&rsquo; and citizens&rsquo; political maps that are constantly competing for electoral, as well as actual, relevance within all societal domains. This work provides the first systematic empirical analysis of party systems in Algeria, Egypt, Jordan and Morocco. It explores three basic characteristics of the party system in each case: the number of relevant parties, level of ideological polarization and the degree of parties&rsquo; institutionalization. </p><p> The dissertation begins with analyzing political parties&rsquo; policy positions obtained from a content analysis of their manifestos. The content analysis measure parties&rsquo; political preferences on thirty political issues distributed on seven policy domains: foreign relations, democracy, economy, religion, culture, welfare and social groups while party politics literature in the Arab World is increasingly attempting to identify the most relevant political conflicts in the region, the empirical investigation of parties&rsquo; policy preferences in the region is non-existent. I provide evidence that political parties&rsquo; attitudes structure, political ideology, is organized on two dimensions: an economic, as well as a cultural one. The extent to which the economy should be regulated and whether Islam should play an active role in organizing politics and society constitute the main conflicts constructing the attitudes structure of Arab political parties in Algeria, Egypt, Jordan and Morocco. </p><p> Next, I analyze the attitudes structures of mass publics in Algeria, Egypt, Jordan and Morocco to compare these to their political parties&rsquo; counterparts. Using the Sixth Wave of the World Values Survey, 2010&ndash;2014, the dissertation concludes that mass publics&rsquo; attitudes structures in these four Arab nations are differ from their parties&rsquo; equivalents&rsquo;. Ordinary citizens in the Arab World seem to structure their attitudes according to four dimensions: Welfare, Religion, Economy and Culture. Despite the extensive literature arguing that political elites and actors, mainly political parties, influence the structure of attitudes on the mass level, this dissertation presents evidence that contradicts such an assessment. This result indicates that elite political preferences may prove irrelevant in shaping mass publics political ideologies in certain contexts such as the Arab World. It also corroborates the assumption suggesting that political parties compete on a different ideological space than citizens. The attitudes structure on the mass level is shown to be more complex than that on the parties&rsquo; level. </p><p> Finally, I present an in-depth analysis of Algerian, Egyptian, and Jordanian and Moroccan party systems. The evidence indicates that party systems&rsquo; number of relevant actors, level of ideological polarization and the degree of institutionalization differ across countries. Morocco reflects the most stable system with few stable parties, medium level of ideological polarization and parties&rsquo; with strong organizations and deep roots in society. On the other hand, Jordan exhibits the weakest party system with a single relevant mass party, absent ideological polarization and weak parties. Algeria and Egypt withered similar political histories producing party systems with a strong state backed party and few strong opposition actors, high ideological polarization between Islamists and liberals and few highly institutionalized parties.</p><p>

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It is becoming increasingly important for clinical and counseling psychologists to have multicultural competence skills for treating an increasingly diverse client population. The psychology literature related to culturally competent treatment with persons of Middle Eastern descent is currently limited. In this study, qualitative methodology was utilized to explore the mental health attitudes and psychotherapy experiences of clients of Middle Eastern descent. Participants described culturally influenced mental health attitudes. Major themes included the severity of stigma associated with mental illness, the importance of family in responding to mental illness, and the process of grieving in Middle Eastern cultures. Study findings suggest that culture influenced the experience of counseling and psychotherapy for these participants. Cultural identity and family dynamics played an important role in the therapy experiences of study participants. The therapists‟ ability to understand cultural identity and family dynamics was related to treatment acceptance and efficacy for these clients. Recommendations for culturally competent therapy with persons of Middle Eastern descent are provided in terms of attitudes, knowledge, and skills.

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