How does Socio-Political Context Shape Daily Living: The Case of Jews and Arabs in Israel

The present paper addresses a timely topic by exploring the contribution of cultural, ethnic, and contextual attributes to close relationships within particular armed-political conflict. It is based on a series of studies to examine the daily lives of Jews and Arabs with different cultural orientations within the context of armed political conflict. In Study 1, we surveyed 697 Jewish and 300 Arab respondents to examine the extent to which daily occurrences are similarly experienced as stressful by different cultural and socio-political groups and how those occurrences relate to life and marital satisfaction. In Study 2, we employed a daily diary methodology with a sample of 300 couples to explore how daily fluctuations in psychological well-being and marital relationships relate to daily hassles. Security-related stress was perceived as the main source of stress for both Jews and Arabs, but on a daily basis it had little or no effect on well-being and marital relationships. The findings attest to the significance of the socio-political context within which people of different ethnic and cultural identity experience their daily lives. In so doing, this article advances new directions for theory and research.