Culture, personality, and behavior: a field study in Jerusalem.

Area of Science:

• Medical Anthropology
• Sociology of Health and Illness

Background:

• Western societies often operate under a biomedical model of disease causation.
• Understanding non-Western perspectives on illness is crucial for effective healthcare delivery.

Purpose of the Study:

• To test the hypothesis that non-Western societies possess distinct theories of disease causation compared to Western models.
• To investigate disease causation beliefs within Jerusalem's Eastern-Jewish immigrant communities.

Main Methods:

• Participant observation within the community.
• Informal interviews with community members.
• A formal questionnaire to gather structured data.

Main Results:

• The study supports the hypothesis, indicating a variance in disease causation theories.
• Evidence of changing attitudes towards disease causation over time was observed.
• A novel category of disease causation requiring further research was identified.

Conclusions:

• Non-Western societies, exemplified by Jerusalem's Eastern-Jewish immigrants, hold disease causation theories differing from Western models.
• These findings have implications for understanding the epidemiology of disturbed behavior linked to supernatural beliefs.