Ahmed predicted it will take Arab psychologists 20 to 40 years to overcome this problem. Psychologists are little understood in Arab countries. Most people in Arab countries don t know what psychologists do and have a poor understanding of the psychology field. Psychologists themselves lack a clear identity. Arab psychologists don t have a united focus on the goals of their profession and what they are working to achieve.
Arab researchers work often centers on instruments.
Arab psychologists rarely conduct studies on problems they ve identified. Rather, they are more inclined to design studies around instruments they have for examining certain constructs such as Hans Eysenck s personality scales to look at extroversion verus introversion. It s difficult to build a research tradition in Arab countries. In most cases, the researchers don t follow up their findings, which then become isolated. In addition, psychologists often come under pressure to leave research for other jobs, such as teaching or administration.