Recently, I conducted a stress management interview with a close friend that
I consider to be one of the most interesting and unique individuals. For this
assignment, I interviewed a remarkable young man named Abdullah-Fahmi Abdein.
Being both Palestinian and fluent in Arabic, Abd and I instantly connected
contributing great conversation flow during the interview. Although we share these
similarities, our different backgrounds greatly separate us apart. The Abdein family
roots trace back to Amman, Jordan, where as my family resides in Nazareth, Israel.
In other words, Abd and I have dual citizenships between two bordering and
conflicting countries. I asked Abd a series of in-depth and rather sensitive questions
concerning religion and Palestinian immigration. For these reasons, the main
purpose of my interview was to determine how his differing backgrounds affect
stress levels.
The process of the interview reflects how the well the participant and I
connected personally. Conducting the interview, I felt very comfortable interviewing
Abd and asking him about sensitive issues concerning race and religion. I also felt
very confident with my participant and his responses because I derived very
interesting key questions that revealed facts that even I learned from. I believe the
comparison of our unique backgrounds served as a strong area in which I did well
conducting the interview. Also, recording our conversation aided me greatly in
reviewing and analyzing my participant’s responses. Abd was very appreciative that
I had selected him to discuss his family background and heritage. He was very
enthused during the interview and interacted with me in a very serious manner. The
flow of our interview was unbelievably smooth as we exchanged questions and
responses mostly in Arabic without a moment of awkwardness or silence. However,
I would still like to know if he would ever consider moving back to Jordan and
continuing his life there.
Before contracting my main goals of the interview, I asked Abd a series of
warm up questions provided by the professor. My participant defined stress as a
mental states that almost, if not everyone, goes through that affects one’s diet all the
way to the way you study, family, friends and lifestyle. He goes on to describing
stress as “affecting the way you behave, the way you think, and your mentality
overall.” A daily stressor he identified was mainly school because as a senior he
finds it difficult to find motivation to complete his assignments, which causes bad
time management leading to stress. Stress in college has negatively affected his
