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Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health

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01-10-2016 | Original Paper

“It’s Every Family’s Dream”: Choice of a Medical Career Among the Arab Minority in Israel

Authors: Ariela Popper-Giveon, Yael Keshet

Published in: Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health | Issue 5/2016

Abstract

Application to medical studies and the choice of medicine as a career are influenced by many factors, some internal (academic ability, intellectual curiosity, interests) and some external (parental pressure, peer pressure, teacher and school expectations). Ethnicity plays a role in motivational orientation and belonging to an ethnic minority group may influence both internal and external motives and priorities in choosing medicine as a career. In this article, we present a qualitative study of the motives that impel Arab physicians in Israel to choose a medical career. As a theoretical framework, we apply self-determination theory (SDT) (Ryan and Deci in Am Psychol 55:68–78, 2000), consisting of three principal categories situated along a continuum: Amotivation, extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation. We show that extrinsic motivation is dominant among Arab physicians in Israel, demonstrating specifically the unique political context and cultural characteristics of Arab society in Israel. These findings, and the attention to the unique motivations of people from different ethnic minority groups who choose medical career, may increase the number of physicians from minority groups, a step known to decrease health gaps in multi-cultural contexts.

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Title: “It’s Every Family’s Dream”: Choice of a Medical Career Among the Arab Minority in Israel
Authors: Ariela Popper-Giveon
Yael Keshet
Publication date: 01-10-2016
Publisher: Springer US
Published in: Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health / Issue 5/2016
Print ISSN: 1557-1912
Electronic ISSN: 1557-1920
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-015-0252-7

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“It’s Every Family’s Dream”: Choice of a Medical Career Among the Arab Minority in Israel

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