Fall 2023 Lecture Time: Fri 11:15-2:00 Location: PSY 210

Instructor: Professor Catherine Caldwell-Harris, office PSY 123, cell 617 894-5114

Office hours – office hrs  Mon  1:30-2:30pm; Fri 10:15-11am

Rationale – Why we need to study the psychology of inequality

The United States today has a highly unequal distribution of wealth and income, and this economic inequality has been rising dramatically for decades. The top one-tenth of one percent of our population owns almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent. The wealthiest 400 individuals in the country own as much wealth as half of the population of the United States— 150 million people. Meanwhile, 22 percent of US children live in poverty, a rate much higher than in other industrialized countries.

What are the psychological implications of living in such a society? How are the impacts of poverty and of economic inequality evident in our mental health, physical health, life expectancy, family relationships, community relationships, and politics? How do we make sense of poverty, wealth, and economic inequality? This course will explore the impact of poverty, wealth, and economic inequality on individuals, families, and communities. We will read experimental, survey, interview, and epidemiological research. The course will devote most attention to U.S. poverty and inequality, with frequent cross-national comparisons.

Economists, political scientists, sociologists, historians, and other social scientists have a great deal to say about poverty and economic inequality, especially the ways in which societies become economically unequal and the consequences of economic inequality for economic mobility and for political conflict. This course will focus on psychological dimensions of poverty, wealth, and economic inequality, but will address the work of other social scientists when this work can help us to understand such psychological issues.

Class Structure

The class will be run as a seminar and will depend on the active participation of each student. Students are expected to come to class having read all the assigned readings for the day thoughtfully and with regard to the theme and questions for the week.

Academic Conduct

How to prepare for each class meeting -- students should:

·       analyze the arguments of the authors

·       examine the data offered to support these arguments

·       contrast the perspectives, methods, findings, and implications of different articles

·       compare readings for this class with ideas encountered in other classes

·       reflect on personal experiences related to the issues raised by the readings

·       analyze their own emotional and intellectual reactions to the readings

Students are expected to exhibit the highest standards of academic integrity and never to submit work as their own which is the work of others. Students should familiarize themselves with the  Boston University Academic Conduct Code:

Academic misconduct is the misrepresentation of one’s academic achievement and includes cheating on examinations, falsely indicating one’s own or another’s attendance in class, and plagiarizing written work. All cases that violate Boston University rules on scholastic dishonesty are subject to disciplinary penalties, including but not limited to failure in the course. Plagiarism detection software may be used.

1. Class Participation and Attendance

2. Film Review - group of 2-4 students

3. Leading Class Discussion - 20-30 minute presentation

4. Weekly Gallery Walk

5. Choose 1 of 3 options

   1. 1. Identify and recruit classroom visitors

      2. Book Club

      3. Class Website

6. Final Debate 

• The Inner Level: How More Equal Societies Reduce Stress, Restore Sanity and Improve Everyone's Well-Being. By Wilkinson, R. & Pickett, K. 2020. Bloomsbury Press.

• The Psychology of Poverty, Wealth, and Economic Inequality. Edited by Deborah Belle.

• Week One - Introduction

In preparation of first day of class, choose 1-2 of these 4 articles to read and discuss in class.

King, M. L. (1968). The role of the behavioral scientist in the Civil Rights Movement. Journal of Social Issues, 24, 1-12.

Smith, L. (2015). Reforming the minimum wage: Toward a psychological perspective. American Psychologist, 70, 557-565.

The Psychology of Inequality, By Elizabeth Kolbert, January 8, 2018 https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/01/15/the-psychology-of-inequality

Case, A. & Deaton, A. (2015). Rising morbidity and mortality in midlife among white non-Hispanic Americans in the 21st century. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Writing half a century ago, and just months before his own assassination, how did Martin Luther King, Jr. judge the work of psychologists in relation to anti-black racism and the Civil Rights Movement? What was the significance, to King, of poverty and of economic inequality? What way forward did King imagine, and how did he believe change would come about? What did Case and Deaton find when they examined mid-life mortality and morbidity among non-Hispanic whites in the U.S.? How can we begin to make sense of their dramatic findings? Why should the minimum wage be of concern to those in the field of psychology?

A class activity for the first day: students will choose between listening to a podcast from 1993, “Ghetto Life 101” vs. browsing a site such as quora.com, with a query such as “What was it like growing up poor?” As part of learning about these experiences about poverty and reflect on questions like the following. [These are tailored to Ghetto Life, but similar questions are relevant to the personal narratives on quora.com.]

What first strikes you about the words of the child narrators of this audiotape? What experiences or situations appear to be stressful in their lives? (We will later examine how well scholarly definitions and operationalizations of stress capture such elements.) What makes these experiences or situations stressful? To what extent are the children’s experiences affected by their poverty? To what extent does the economic inequality of the larger society affect their experiences, perceptions, and opportunities? Where and in what ways do these children find respite or relief from stress? Who are the people who are important in their lives, and how do these people either exacerbate or reduce their stress? What do we learn about these children from the ways they describe their own lives? What do we imagine for them as they grow up? What else strikes you about the experiences discussed and the observations made on this audiotape? What hypotheses for future research are suggested by this audiotape? What themes in the study of poverty-related stress and coping are suggested? What themes in the study of economic inequality are suggested?

• Week Two - Introduction to Poverty Studies

The Inner Level, Preface, Prologue. Ch 1. ‘This is not a self-help book.’

Poverty, Wealth, and Economic Inequality, Ch 1 Contemporary Economic Inequalities

Ch 2 Beliefs about social class, poverty and wealth

Recommended:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-economic-inequality-inflicts-real-biological-harm/

https://theconversation.com/distress-status-wars-and-immoral-behaviour-the-psychological-impacts-of-inequality-75183

Yu, Z., & Wang, F. (2017). Income inequality and happiness: An inverted U-shaped curve. Frontiers in psychology, 8, 2052. Open access

Kawachi, I. & Kennedy, B. P. (1999). Income inequality and health: Pathways and mechanisms. Health Services Research, 34, 215-227.

• Week Three - Classism

The Inner Level Ch 2 ‘Self-doubt’

Poverty, Wealth, and Economic Inequality, Ch 3 Classist stigma, exclusion and disrespect

Also: www.implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/. Go to the Social Attitudes tests you will find there

Recommended:

Bullock, H. E., Wyche, K.F., & Williams, W.R. (2001). Media images of the poor. Journal of Social Issues, 57, 229-246.

Lott, B. (2002). Cognitive and behavioral distancing from the poor. American Psychologist, 57, 100-110.

In addition to material deprivation, poor people must cope with the stigma associated with poverty and often with other aspects of their identities, such as single parenthood, receiving government benefits such as food stamps, and non-white ethnicity. What is the evidence for such stigma and for its costs? How does such stigma affect poor people as individuals, relationships among poor people, and relationships between poor individuals and those in the community who are not poor?

• Week Four - Poverty and Its Costs

Poverty, Wealth, and Economic Inequality, Ch 4 Poverty and its Costs

Ch 5 The Essential Workers

Recommended:

Costello, E. J., Compton, S. N., Keeler, G., & Angold, A. (2003). Relationships between poverty and psychopathology: A natural experiment. Journal of the American Medical Association, 290 (15), 2023-2029.

Adler, N.E., Boyce, T., Chesney, M.A., Cohen, S., Folkman, S., Kahn, R.L., Syme, S.L. (1994). Socioeconomic status and health: The challenge of the gradient. American Psychologist,49, 15-24.

Mani, A., Mullainathan, S., Shafir, E., & Zhao, J. (2013). Poverty impedes cognitive function. Science, 341, 976-980.

Reeves, A., McKee, M., Mackenbach, J., Whitehead, M., & Stuckler, D. (2016). Introduction of a national minimum wage reduced depressive symptoms in low-wage workers: A quasi-natural experiment in the UK. Health Economics, 1-17. Available from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/hec.3336

In what ways is poverty harmful to children and to adults? What aspects of life are affected? What appear to be the processes through which poverty exerts its ill effects? How strong is the evidence that poverty itself, rather than correlates of poverty, produce these effects? What methodological difficulties arise in the study of poverty?

• Week Five - Is Being Wealthy Psychologically Healthy?

The Inner Level, Ch 3, ‘Delusions of grandeur’

Poverty, Wealth, and Economic Inequality, Ch 6 Wealth and its Costs

“What thoughtful rich people call the problem of poverty; thoughtful poor people call with equal justice a problem of riches.” Richard Tawney

Recommended:

Fiske, S. T. (1993). Controlling other people: The impact of power on stereotyping. American Psychologist, 48, 621-628.

Piff, P. K., Kraus, M. W., Cote, S., Cheng, B. H., & Keltner, D. (2010). Having less, giving more: The influence of social class on prosocial behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 99, 771-784.

Wang, L., Malhotra, D., & Murnighan, J. K. (2011). Economics education and greed. Academy of Management, Learning, and Education, 10, 643-660.

Piff, P. K., Stancato, D. M., Cote, S., Mendoza-Denton, R., & Keltner, D. (2012). Higher social class predicts increased unethical behavior. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109 (11), 4086-4091.

Note: Piff’s research is also reviewed in Scientific American, from 2012, ‘How Wealth Reduces Compassion’ So check it out here if you prefer a more popular science version rather than a journal article.

How does having wealth, or being encouraged to think of oneself as wealthy, affect one’s behavior to others? What appear to be the processes through which wealth exerts its effects? How strong is the evidence that wealth itself, rather than correlates of wealth, produce these effects? What methodological difficulties arise in the study of wealth?

Alternative: Find media images of the wealthy that support or imply a particular causal explanation for wealth. Bring to the Gallery Walk.

• Week Six - Societal Economic Inequality

The Inner Level, Ch 4, ‘False remedies’

Poverty, Wealth, and Economic Inequality, Ch 7 Societal Economic Inequality

Recommended:

Kohl, H. (1995). Should we burn Babar? Questioning power in children’s literature (pp. 1-34), in Should we burn Babar? Essays on children’s literature and the power of stories. New

York: The New Press.

Hunt, M. O. (1996). The individual, society, or both? A comparison of Black, Latino, and White beliefs about the causes of poverty. Social Forces, 75, 293-322.

Seccombe, K., James, D., & Walters, K. B. (1998). “They think you ain’t much of nothing”: The social construction of the welfare mother. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 60, 849- 865.

Bullock, H. E., Fernald, J.L. & Radley, A. (2005). Predicting support for eliminating the dividend tax: The role of framing and attributions for wealth. Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, 5, 1.

Belle, D. (2006). Contested interpretations of economic inequality following Hurricane Katrina. Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy 6, 1, 143—158.

What attributions do people make to explain why some people are poor and others are rich? How do these attributions tend to vary with socioeconomic status and race? What are the consequences of different attributions for wealth and poverty? How do people make sense of the immense economic inequality in the United States today? Do people even grasp the extent of economic inequality today?

• Week Seven - How Racism Fuels Economic Inequality

Poverty, Wealth, and Economic Inequality, Ch 8 Race and Racism

Listen to Bob Dylan’s song (also covered by other musicians): Only a pawn in their game.

Recommended:

Coates, T. (2014). The case for reparations. The Atlantic.

DiTomaso, N. (2013). The American non-dilemma: Racial inequality without racism. Russell Sage Foundation

(read book review here).

Rucker, J., Duker, A., & Richeson, J. (2019). Structurally unjust: How lay beliefs about racism relate to perceptions of and responses to racial inequality in criminal justice. pdf

Flynn, J. R. (2008). Where have all the liberals gone? Race, class, and ideals in America. Cambridge University Press. Read chapter: The lost boys -- see course documents in blackboard or obtain the book from a public library. This chapter discusses race and the marriage market.

Optional: There has been an explosion of interest in the US in the last 5 years around police brutality and the Black Lives Matter movement. How has academic psychology responded? Find articles or other evidence and describe what you found on the course discussion forum. (Example: The social psychology of the Black Lives Matter meme and movement)

• Week Eight - Gender and Poverty

Poverty, Wealth, and Economic Inequality, Ch 9 Gender and Poverty

Recommended:

Belle, D. & Doucet, J. (2003). Poverty, inequality, and discrimination as sources of depression among U.S. women. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 27, 101-113.

Fuller-Rowell, T.E., Evans, G.W., & Ong, A.D. (2012). Poverty and health: The mediating role of perceived discrimination. Psychological Science, 23 (7), 734-9.

• Week Nine - Homelessness

Inner Level, Ch 6, ‘Misconception of meritocracy’; Ch 7, ‘Class acts’

Poverty, Wealth, and Economic Inequality, Ch 10 Housing Precarity and Homelessness

Recommended:

Song, M. J., Yu, L., & Enright, R. D. (2021). Trauma and healing in the underserved populations of homelessness and corrections: Forgiveness Therapy as an added component to intervention. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 28(3), 694-714. pdf

• Week Ten - Poverty Studies: Social Networks

Poverty, Wealth, and Economic Inequality, Ch 11 Parenting While Poor

Ch 12 Social networks and social supports

Recommended:

Riley, D. & Eckenrode, J. (1986). Social ties: Subgroup differences in costs and benefits. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 770-778.

Dominguez, S. & Watkins, C. (2003) Creating Networks for Survival and Mobility: Social capital among African-American and Latin-American low-income mothers. Social Problems, 50, 1, 111-135.

Curley, A.M. (2009). Draining or gaining? The social networks of public housing movers in Boston. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 26 (2-3), 227-247.

In what ways are supportive ties helpful to poor individuals and families? What functions and dimensions of social support and of social networks are important to consider? What costs as well as benefits often come with networks, particularly for low-income individuals and families? How is poverty connected to the cost-benefit ratio of social networks?

• Week Eleven - Therapy and Prevention

Poverty, Wealth, and Economic Inequality, Ch. 13, Poverty, Psychology, and Mental Health Services

Recommended:

Goodman, L. A., Smyth, K. F., Banyard, V. (2010). Beyond the 50-Minute Hour: Increasing Control, Choice, and Connections in the Lives of Low-Income Women. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 80, 1, 3-11.

Yoshikawa, H., Aber, J. L., & Beardslee, W. R. (2012). The effects of poverty on the mental, emotional, and behavioral health of children and youth: Implications for prevention. American Psychologist, 67 (4), 272-284.

Norton, M. I. & Ariely, D. (2011). Building a better America—One wealth quintile at a time. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 6 (1), 9-12.

Dudgeon, P., Bray, A., D'costa, B., & Walker, R. (2017). Decolonizing psychology: Validating social and emotional wellbeing. Australian Psychologist, 52(4), 316-325. Available from researchgate.

What can help? How can therapists use the insights of research to improve therapy and prevention work? Beyond therapy, what can be done at an individual, community, or societal level to diminish the negative consequences of poverty and economic inequality? What can be done to reduce the prevalence of poverty or the extensiveness of economic inequality?

• Week Twelve - Solutions and The Future

Inner Level, Ch 8, Sustainable Future; Ch 9, A better world

Poverty, Wealth, and Economic Inequality, Ch 14. Working toward Equality and Economic Justice