Social Psychology

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY Social psychology is the scientific study of how people think about, influence, and relate to one another. Listed below are links to social psychology topics such as prejudice and discrimination, gender, culture, social influence, interpersonal relations, group behavior, aggression, and more.

Social psychology
Jump to: navigation, search Social psychology is the study of the relations between people and groups. Scholars in this interdisciplinary area are typically either psychologists or sociologists, though all social psychologists employ both the individual and the group as their units of analysis.[1] Despite their similarity, psychological and sociological researchers tend to differ in their goals, approaches, methods, and terminology. They also favor separate academic journals and professional societies. The greatest period of collaboration between sociologists and psychologists was during the years immediately following World War II.[2] Although there has been increasing isolation and specialization in recent years, some degree of overlap and influence remains between the two disciplines.[3]

Psychology
: Social psychology (psychology) Most social psychologists are trained within psychology. Their approach to the field focuses on the individual and attempts to explain how the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of individuals are influenced by other people. Psychologically oriented researchers emphasize the immediate social situation and the interaction between person and situation variables. Their research tends to be empirical and quantitative, and it is often centered around laboratory experiments, but there are some computational modeling efforts in the field.[4] Psychologists who study social psychology are interested in such topics as attitudes, social cognition, cognitive dissonance, social influence, and interpersonal behaviors such as altruism and aggression. Three influential journals for the publication of research in this area are the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, and the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. There are also many other general and specialized social psychology journals

Social psychology (sociology) Sociologists' work has a greater focus on the behavior of the group, and thus examines such phenomena as interactions and exchanges at the micro-level, group dynamics and group development, and crowds at the macro-level. Sociologists are interested in the individual and group, but generally within the context of larger social structures and processes, such as social roles, race, class, gender, ethnicity, and socialization. Like psychological social psychologists, they often use experimental methods. But unlike them, they also frequently utilize quantitative survey and qualitative observational designs. Sociologists in this area are interested in a variety of demographic, social, and cultural phenomena. Some of their major research areas are social inequality, group dynamics, social change, socialization, social identity, and symbolic interactions. The key sociological journal is Social Psychology Quarterly.

Social structure
The term social structure refers to entities or groups in definite relation to each other, to relatively enduring patterns of behaviour and relationships within social systems, or to social institutions and norms becoming embedded into social systems in such a way that they shape the behaviour of actors within those social systems. Social structure underlies many social systems including family, religion, race, gender, and social class. Social structures supply roles and norms that influence human interactions. One example is role theory, which examines as the distinct, functional positions of persons within a group.

Conflict theory
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search Conflict theory starts from a few basic assumptions: society is composed of groups, groups have interests, those groups also have resources, and, that groups will often try to use their resources to further their interests. The fact that the interests of one group often come at the expense of another group means that groups will often be in conflict.

Furthermore, because resources help groups to act towards their interests more effectively, groups with more resources tend to succeed. This general framework characterizes the work of Karl Marx, Max Weber, and numerous more current social theorists of different types. Conflict theories are perspectives in social science which emphasize the social, political or material inequality of a social group, which critique the broad socio-political system, or which otherwise detract from structural functionalism and ideological conservativism. Conflict theories draw attention to power differentials, such as class conflict, and generally contrast historically dominant ideologies. Many conflict theories set out to highlight the ideological aspects inherent in traditional thought. In Sociology, Conflict Theory states that society or an organization functions so that each individual participant and its groups struggle to maximize their benefits, which inevitably contributes to social change such as political changes and revolutions. The theory is mostly applied to explain conflict between social classes. Conflict Theory describes conflict between groups of people and the reasons why conflict is present and why we make the actions we do in society, however Conflict Theory is still questionable whether it directly represents the ideal human society. Although conflict has always been central to sociological theory and analysis, Conflict Theory is the label generally attached to the sociological writings of opponents to the dominance of structural functionalism, in the two decades after the Second World War. Its proponents on Max Weber and Karl Marx to construct their arguments, giving differing emphases to economic conflict and conflict about power. This is where history plays a role in determing what Conflict Theory is all about. Conflict Theory can also be traced back to Thomas Hobbes and Machiavelli. Conflict theorists such as Machiavelli and Hobbes would argue that all groups in society are born from conflict. An example might be that of labor unions, which are developed to fight for the interests of workers, whereas trade organizations are made to fight for the interests of the wealthier classes. This theory of groups is opposed to functionalism in which each of these groups would play a specific, set role in society. In functionalism, these groups cooperate to benefit society whereas in conflict theory the groups are in opposition to one another as they seek to better their masters. Conflict Theory is backed by four basic principles to why conflict occurs between social classes. These principles are competition, structural inequality, revolution, and war.

Contents
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• • • • • • • •

1 Types of conflict theory 2 Basic conflicts 3 Stratification 4 Education 5 Modes of conflict 6 Assumptions 7 See also 8 References

[edit] Types of conflict theory
Conflict theory is most commonly associated with Marxism, but as a reaction to functionalism and the positivist method may also be associated with number of other perspectives, including:
• • • • • •

critical theory feminist theory queer theory postmodern theory post-structural theory postcolonial theory

Basic conflicts
Social identity theory (SIT) can restore some coherence to organizational identification, and it can suggest fruitful applications to organizational behavior. SIT offers a socialpsychological perspective, developed principally by Henri Tajfel (1978, 1981; Tajfel & Turner, 1985) and John Turner (1975, 1982, 1984, and 1985). Following a review of the literature on SIT, the antecedents and consequences of social identification in organizations are discussed. This perspective is then applied to three domains of organizational behavior: socialization, role conflict and intergroup relations Social Identity Theory According to SIT, people tend to classify them selves and others into various social categories, such as organizational membership, religious affiliation, gender, and age cohort (Tjfel & Turner, 1985). As these examples suggest, people may be classified in various categories, and different individuals may utilize different categorization Echnos. Categories are defined by prototypical characteristics abstracted from the members (Turner, 1985). Social classification serves two functions. First, it cognitively sag

These incompatibilities can then be exacerbated into destructive intergroup conflict by common perceptual and cognitive processes. The very act of group categorization tends to create some in-group favoritism. Conflict between groups encourages negative stereotyping of the opposing group. Cognitive biases lead individuals to attribute positive personal characteristics to fellow in-group members and excuse their negative behaviors. At the same time, such biases lead people to attribute negative characteristics to outgroup members and explain away any positive behaviors.

] Stratification
Social identity theory (SIT) can restore some coherence to organizational identification, and it can suggest fruitful applications to organizational behavior. SIT offers a socialpsychological perspective, developed principally by Henri Tajfel (1978, 1981; Tajfel & Turner, 1985) and John Turner (1975, 1982, 1984, and 1985). Following a review of the literature on SIT, the antecedents and consequences of social identification in organizations are discussed. This perspective is then applied to three domains of organizational behavior: socialization, role conflict and intergroup relations Social Identity Theory According to SIT, people tend to classify them selves and others into various social categories, such as organizational membership, religious affiliation, gender, and age cohort (Tjfel & Turner, 1985). As these examples suggest, people may be classified in various categories, and different individuals may utilize different categorization Echnos. Categories are defined by prototypical characteristics abstracted from the members (Turner, 1985). Social classification serves two functions. First, it cognitively sag Fisher argues that intergroup conflicts arise from objective differences of interest, coupled with antagonistic or controlling attitudes or behaviors. Incompatibilities, which can prompt conflict, include economic, power or value differences, or differences in needs-satisfaction. Often intergroup conflicts have a mixture of these elements. These incompatibilities can then be exacerbated into destructive intergroup conflict by common perceptual and cognitive processes. The very act of group categorization tends to create some in-group favoritism. Conflict between groups encourages negative stereotyping of the opposing group. Cognitive biases lead individuals to attribute positive personal characteristics to fellow in-group members and excuse their negative behaviors. At the same time, such biases lead people to attribute negative characteristics to outgroup members and explain away any positive behaviors.

Education
Children enter school with a wide range of knowledge and physical, social, emotional, linguistic, and cognitive skills. Because wealthier families spend much more money on their children’s school preparation when compared with their poorer counterparts, children from lower income families whose knowledge and skills are far behind those of their classmates from wealthier families enter school at a disadvantage [1]. If these delayed

children are unable to catch up, they face greater challenges throughout their school careers. [1] have indicated that the racial gap in achievement scores of high schools students is oftentimes already evident when children first began school. With regard to preschool training, according to [1], children living in poverty are much less likely than are non-poor children to be able to recognize the letters of the alphabet, count higher, write their name, or read. Furthermore, children’s cognitive/literacy school readiness skills are higher among those with more educated mothers. [2] have also noted that children from higher class families are more likely to have a home environment that provides the intellectual skills they need to do well in school. Because of this early preparation, many researchers have found that middle-upper class children are already ahead of lower-class children in intellectual ability before the first year of school. Once children get to school, poorer students, who are already less readily prepared for school when compared with their non-poor counterparts, typically face additional hardships with regard to school quality. School quality varies by neighborhood socioeconomic status. Because schools are funded by local property taxes, there are large differences in per-pupil expenditures such that expenditures in the richest 5 % of schools are more than twice the expenditures in the poorest 5 %. [3] In addition to these economic measures, there are large differences in many non-economic measures of school quality such as school violence, the number of AP course offerings, and the extent of the school’s library collections. School differences such as these influence the degree of education that students obtain and perpetuate continual income and race differentials in the education system. As confirmed by [4] through data collected from public schools, tracking is another means by which education structures inequality. A large percentage of U.S. public schools follow the practice of placing children in different tracks that prepare some students for college and others for vocational skills that do not lead to college [5]. Factors such as measured intellectual skills and class background, influence track placement. Because cognitive skills and academic performance are influenced by class background and race, the effect is the similar: tracking tends to separate children by class and race and limits opportunities for students to move from one academic track to another. [6] have confirmed this criticism of educational tracking by showing that children in the college-prep track improve in academic achievement over the years, while those in the lower track perform at lower levels.[7] propose that this differential achievement in school occurs because of the different expectations of administrators, teachers, and parents for students in the separate tracks. Evidence such as the previous, and results from studies comparing differences in tracked and non-tracked educational systems [8], confirm that the reinforcement of schooling practices such as tracking increases educational inequality, reinforces class differences, and differentiates children in terms of family background. With respect to Conflict Theory, employment requirements reflect the efforts of the bourgeoisie or the upper class to monopolize or dominate jobs by imposing their cultural standards on the selection process. [9] examined, educational upgrading as a means of maintaining class boundaries. [9] noted that when college degrees were much more limited and the middle class typically had only high school degrees, middle class occupations

required a high school degree. However, as more middle class Americans obtained college degrees and more of the working class obtained high school degrees, middle class occupations were upgraded so that they required a college degree. [7] argued that education is a certification of class membership more than of technical skills and certifies that people have learned to respect the authority, and accept the values, ideals, and system of inequality in the occupational structure. Furthermore, [7] postulate that the educational system teaches people to properly subordinate to reproduce social relations of production by valuing the cultural capital of the upper class and devaluing the cultural capital of the lower class. In other words, schools train the wealthy to take up places at the top of the economy while conditioning the poor to accept their lowly status in the class structure.

Modes of conflict
In conflict theory there are different modes of conflict. One mode of conflict theory is that of warfare and revolution. Warfare and revolutions take place phases due to the rocky “collations among a variety of social classes.” An example of warfare is that going on currently in Burma, where there is military versus population fighting for control over the country’s government. Another mode of conflict in conflict theory is that of strikes. Modern society has created a main social divider between workers and managers. When workers feel they have been treated unfairly, they go on strike to regain their right to power. Another mode of conflict in conflict theory is that of domination. Different social classes tend to form different ideologies based around promotion of their own class' welfare. Different groups will struggle in conflict over what they think is right, what the norms are, and their ideologies. Higher classes have more abstract ideologies, while subordinated classes ideas reflect the want in their own lives. The ideas of the ruling class are the ruling ideas, where the ruling material force is the ruling intellectual force. Assumptions The following are four primary assumptions of modern conflict theory: Cite: Closing 1. Competition. Competition over scarce resources (money, leisure, sexual partners, and so on) is at the heart of all social relationships. Competition rather than consensus is characteristic of human relationships in all societies to which this theory is applicable (Marxian materialists assert that there is no competitive human nature; rather, humans are influenced by their surroundings resulting in a competitive propensity). 2. Structural inequality. Inequalities in power and reward are built into all social structures. Individuals and groups that benefit from any particular structure strive to see it maintained. 3. Revolution. Change occurs as a result of conflict between competing social classes rather than through adaptation. Change is often abrupt and revolutionary rather than evolutionary. 4. War. Even war is a unifier of the societies involved, as well as possibly ending whole societies. In modern society, a source of conflict is power: politicians are

competing to enter into a system; they act in their self interest, not for the welfare of people.

Psychological trauma
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search Psychological trauma is a type of damage to the psyche that occurs as a result of a traumatic event. When that trauma leads to posttraumatic stress disorder, damage may involve physical changes inside the brain and to brain chemistry, which damage the person's ability to adequately cope with stress. A traumatic event involves a single experience, or an enduring or repeating event or events, that completely overwhelm the individual's ability to cope or integrate the ideas and emotions involved with that experience. The sense of being overwhelmed can be delayed by weeks, years, even decades, as the person struggles to cope with the immediate circumstances. Trauma can be caused by a wide variety of events, but there are a few common aspects. There is frequently a violation of the person's familiar ideas about the world and of their human rights, putting the person in a state of extreme confusion and insecurity. This is also seen when people or institutions depended on for survival violate or betray or disillusion the person in some unforeseen way.[1] Psychological trauma may accompany physical trauma or exist independently of it. Typical causes of psychological trauma are sexual abuse, violence, the threat of either, or the witnessing of either, particularly in childhood. Catastrophic events such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, war or other mass violence can also cause psychological trauma. Long-term exposure to situations such as extreme poverty or milder forms of abuse, such as verbal abuse, can be traumatic (though verbal abuse can also potentially be traumatic as a single event). However, different people will react differently to similar events. One person may experience an event as traumatic while another person would not suffer trauma as a result of the same event. In other words, not all people who experience a potentially traumatic event will actually become psychologically traumatized [2]

ymptoms of trauma
People who go through these types of extremely traumatic experiences often have certain symptoms and problems afterward. How severe these symptoms are depends on the person, the type of trauma involved, and the emotional support they receive from others. Reactions to and symptoms of trauma can be wide and varied, and differ in severity from person to person. A traumatized individual may experience one or several of them.[3] After a traumatic experience, a person may re-experience the trauma mentally and physically, hence avoiding trauma reminders, also called triggers, as this can be uncomfortable and even painful. They may turn to psychoactive substances including alcohol to try to escape the feelings. Re-experiencing symptoms are a sign that the body and mind are actively struggling to cope with the traumatic experience.[3] Triggers and cues act as reminders of the trauma, and can cause anxiety and other associated emotions. Often the person can be completely unaware of what these triggers are. In many cases this may lead a person suffering from traumatic disorders to engage in disruptive or self-destructive coping mechanisms, often without being fully aware of the nature or causes of their own actions. Panic attacks are an example of a psychosomatic response to such emotional triggers. Consequently, intense feelings of anger may surface frequently, sometimes in very inappropriate or unexpected situations, as danger may always seem to be present. Upsetting memories such as images, thoughts, or flashbacks may haunt the person, and nightmares may be frequent.[4] Insomnia may occur as lurking fears and insecurity keep the person vigilant and on the lookout for danger, both day and night. The person may not remember what actually happened while emotions experienced during the trauma may be reexperienced without the person understanding why, see Repressed memory. This can lead to the traumatic events being constantly experienced as if they were happening in the present, preventing the subject from gaining perspective on the experience. This can produce a pattern of prolonged periods of acute arousal punctuated by periods of physical and mental exhaustion.[5] In time, emotional exhaustion may set in, leading to distraction, and clear thinking may be difficult or impossible. Emotional detachment, as well as dissociation or "numbing out", can frequently occur. Dissociating from the painful emotion includes numbing all emotion, and the person may seem emotionally flat, preoccupied, distant, or cold. The person can become confused in ordinary situations and have memory problems. Some traumatized people may feel permanently damaged when trauma symptoms don't go away and they don't believe their situation will improve. This can lead to feelings of despair, loss of self-esteem, and frequently depression. If important aspects of the person's self and world understanding have been violated, the person may call their own identity into question.[3] Often despite their best efforts, traumatized parents may have difficulty assisting their child with emotion regulation, attribution of meaning, and

containment of post-traumatic fear in the wake of the child's traumatization, leading to adverse consequences for the child[6][7] In such instances, it is in the interest of the parent(s) and child for the parent(s) to seek consultation as well as to have their child receive appropriate mental health services.

[edit] Situational trauma
Trauma can be caused by man-made and natural disasters, including war, abuse, violence, earthquakes, mechanized accidents (car, train, or plane crashes, etc.) or medical emergencies.

[edit] Responses to psychological trauma
There are several behavioral responses common towards stressors including the proactive, reactive, and passive responses. Proactive responses include attempts to address and correct a stressor before it has a noticeable effect on lifestyle. Reactive responses occur after the stress and possible trauma has occurred, and are aimed more at correcting or minimizing the damage of a stressful event. A passive response is often characterized by an emotional numbness or ignorance of a stressor. Those who are able to be proactive can often overcome stressors and are more likely to be able to cope well with unexpected situations. On the other hand, those who are more reactive will often experience more noticeable effects from an unexpected stressor. In the case of those who are passive, victims of a stressful event are more likely to suffer from long term traumatic effects and often enact no intentional coping actions. These observations may suggest that the level of trauma associated with a victim is related to such independent coping abilities. "Betrayal trauma theory suggests that psychogenic amnesia is an adaptive response to childhood abuse. When a parent or other powerful figure violates a fundamental ethic of human relationships, victims may need to remain unaware of the trauma not to reduce suffering but rather to promote survival. Amnesia enables the child to maintain an attachment with a figure vital to survival, development, and thriving. Analysis of evolutionary pressures, mental modules, social cognitions, and developmental needs suggests that the degree to which the most fundamental human ethics are violated can influence the nature, form, and processes of trauma and responses to trauma." —Jennifer Freyd[8] There is also a distinction between trauma induced by recent situations and long-term trauma which may have been buried in the unconscious from past situations such as childhood abuse. Trauma is often overcome through healing; in some cases this can be achieved by recreating or revisiting the origin of the trauma under more psychologically safe circumstances, such as with a therapist.

[edit] Trauma in psychoanalysis
Main article: Psychoanalysis

French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot argued[when?] that psychological trauma was the origin of all instances of the mental illness known as hysteria. Charcot's "traumatic hysteria" often manifested as a paralysis that followed a physical trauma, typically years later after what Charcot described as a period of "incubation".[9] Sigmund Freud, Charcot's student and the father of psychoanalysis, examined the concept of psychological trauma throughout his career. Jean Laplanche has given a general description of Freud's understanding of trauma, which varied significantly over the course of Freud's career: "An event in the subject's life, defined by its intensity, by the subject's incapacity to respond adequately to it and by the upheaval and long-lasting effects that it brings about in the psychical organization".[citation needed]

Trauma and stress disorders
Main articles: Post-traumatic stress disorder and Complex post-traumatic stress disorder In times of war, psychological trauma has been known as shell shock or combat stress reaction. Psychological trauma may cause an acute stress reaction which may lead on to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD emerged as the label for this condition after the Vietnam War in which many veterans returned to their respective countries demoralized, and sometimes, addicted to drugs. Psychological trauma is treated with therapy and, if indicated, psychotropic medications. Following traumatic events, persons involved are often asked to talk about the events soon after, sometimes even immediately after the event occurred in order to start a healing process. This practice may not garner the positive results needed to recover psychologically from a traumatic event. Victims of traumatic occurrences who were debriefed immediately after the event in general do far better than others who received therapy at a later time, though there is also evidence to suggest forcing immediate debriefing may distort the natural psychological healing process.[10]

Emotional valence and memory
Even though the majority of studies have focused on the arousal dimension[10], a growing body of research is dedicated to the emotional valence dimension and its effects on memory. It has been claimed that this is an essential step towards a more complete understanding of emotion effects on memory[19]. The studies that did investigate this dimension, have found that emotional valence alone can enhance memory, that is, nonarousing items with positive or negative valence can be better remembered than neutral items. [18] [23] [34]

[edit] Emotional valence and elaboration
The processes involved in this enhancement may be distinct from those mediating the enhanced memory for arousing items. It has been suggested that in contrast to the relatively automatic attentional modulation of memory for arousing information, memory for non-arousing positive or negative stimuli may benefit instead from conscious encoding strategies, such as elaboration.[19] This elaborative processing can be autobiographical or semantic. Autobiographical elaboration is known to benefit memory by creating links between the processed stimuli, and the self, for example, deciding whether a word would describe the personal self. Memory formed through autobiographical elaboration is enhanced as compared to items processed for meaning, but not in relation to the self.[35][36] Since words such as "sorrow" or "comfort" may be more likely to be associated with autobiographical experiences or self-introspection than neutral words such as “shadow”, autobiographical elaboration may explain the memory enhancement of non-arousing positive or negative items. Studies have shown that dividing attention at encoding decreases an individual's ability to utilize controlled encoding processes, such as autobiographical or semantic elaboration. Thus, findings that participants’ memory for negative non-arousing words suffers with divided attention, [37] and that the memory advantage for negative, non-arousing words can be eliminated when participants encode items while simultaneously performing a secondary task, [38] has supported the elaborative processing hypothesis as the mechanism responsible for memory enhancement for negative non-arousing words.

[edit] Contextual effects of emotion on memory
Contextual effects occur as a result of the degree of similarity between the encoding context and the retrieval context of an emotional dimension. The main findings are that the current mood we are in affects what is attended, encoded and ultimately retrieved, as reflected in two similar but subtly different effects: the mood congruence effect and mood-state dependent retrieval.

[edit] The mood congruence effect
The mood congruence effect refers to the tendency of individuals to retrieve information more easily when it has the same emotional content as their current emotional state. For instance, being in a depressed mood increases the tendency to remember negative events. This effect has been demonstrated for explicit retrieval[39] as well as implicit retrieval. [40]

[edit] Mood-state dependent retrieval

Another documented phenomenon is the mood-state dependent retrieval. The retrieval of information is more effective when the emotional state at the time of retrieval is similar to the emotional state at the time of encoding. Thus, the probability of remembering an event can be enhanced by evoking the emotional state experienced during its initial processing. These two phenomena, the mood congruity effect and mood-state dependent retrieval, are similar to the context effects which have been traditionally observed in memory research (Baddeley, 1993) It may also relate to the phenomena of state-dependent memory in neuropsychopharmacology.

[edit] Thematic vs. sudden appearance of emotional stimuli
A somewhat different contextual effect stemmed from the recently made distinction between thematical and sudden appearance of an emotionally arousing event, suggesting that the occurrence of memory impairments depends on the way the emotional stimuli are induced. Laney et al. (2003) [41] argued that when arousal is induced thematically (i.e., not through the sudden appearance of a discrete shocking stimulus such as a weapon but rather through involvement in an unfolding event plot and empathy with the victim as his or her plight becomes increasingly apparent), memory enhancements of details central to the emotional stimulus need not come at the expense of memory impairment of peripheral details. Laney et al. (2004) [42] demonstrated this by using an audio narrative to give the presented slides either neutral or emotional meaning, instead of presenting shockingly salient visual stimuli. In one of the experiments, participants in both the neutral and emotional conditions viewed slides of a date scenario of a woman and man at a dinner date. The couple engaged in conversation, then, at the end of the evening, embraced. The event concluded with the man leaving and the woman phoning a friend. The accompanying audio recording informed participants in the neutral condition that the date went reasonably well, while participants in the emotional condition heard that, as the evening wore on, the man displayed some increasingly unpleasant traits of a type that was derogatory to women, and the embrace at the end of the evening was described as an attempt to sexually assault the woman. As expected, the results revealed that details central to the event were remembered more accurately when that event was emotional than when neutral, However, this was not at the expense of memory for peripheral (in this case, spatially peripheral or plot-irrelevant) details, which were also remembered more accurately when the event was emotional. [42] Based on these findings it has been suggested that the dual enhancing and impairing effects on memory are not an inevitable consequence of emotional arousal.

[edit] Memory of felt emotion
Many researchers use self report measures of felt emotion as a manipulation check. This raises an interesting question and a possible methodological weakness: are people always

accurate when they recall how they felt in the past? [43] Several findings suggest this is not the case. For instance, in a study of memory for emotions in supporters of former U.S. presidential candidate Ross Perot, supporters were asked to describe their initial emotional reactions after Perot’s unexpected withdrawal in July 1992 and again after the presidential election that November[44]. Between the two assessment periods, the views of many supporters changed dramatically as Perot re-entered the race in October and received nearly a fifth of the popular vote. The results showed that supporters recalled their past emotions as having been more consistent with their current appraisals of Perot than they actually were[43]. Another study found that people’s memories for how distressed they felt when they learned of 9/11 terrorist attacks changed over time and more so, were predicted by their current appraisals of the impact of the attacks (Levine et al., 2004). It appears that memories of past emotional responses are not always accurate, and can even be partially reconstructed based on their current appraisal of events. [43]

[edit] Emotion regulation effects on memory
An interesting issue in the study of the emotion –memory relationship is whether our emotions are influenced by our behavioral reaction to them, and whether this reaction- in the form of expression or suppression of the emotion - might in itself affect what we remember about an event. Researchers have begun to examine whether concealing feelings influences our ability to perform common cognitive tasks, such as forming memories, and found that the emotion regulation efforts do have cognitive consequences. In the seminal work on negative affect arousal and white noise,Seidner found support for the existence of a negative affect arousal mechanism through observations regarding the devaluation of speakers from other ethnic origins."[45] In a study of Richards and Gross(1999) [46], participants viewed slides of injured men that produced increases in negative emotions, while information concerning each man was presented orally with his slide. The participants were assigned to either an expressive suppression group (where they were asked to refrain from showing emotion while watching the slides) or to a control group (where they were not given regulatory instructions at all). As predicted by the researchers, suppressors showed significantly worse performance on a memory test for the orally presented information. Several related studies have reached similar results. It was demonstrated that the effects of expressive suppression on memory generalize to emotionally positive experiences [47] and to socially relevant contexts[48]. One possible answer to the question "why does emotion suppression impair memory?" might lay in the self monitoring efforts invested in order to suppress emotion (thinking about the behavior one is trying to control). A recent study [49] found heightened selfmonitoring efforts among suppressors relative to control participants.

That is, suppressors were more likely to report thinking about their behavior and the need to control it during a conversation. Increases in self-monitoring predicted decreases in memory for what was said, that is, people who reported thinking a lot about controlling their behavior had particularly impoverished memories. However, additional research is needed to confirm whether self-monitoring actually exerts a causal effect on memory[50]

[edit] Emotion-induced forgetting
Emotionally arousing stimuli can lead to retrograde amnesia for preceding events and anterograde amnesia for subsequent events. This has been demonstrated in lab studies with lists of words or pictures, in which people show impaired memory for stimuli appearing before or after arousing stimuli.[51][52]

[edit] Depression and memory
Memory recall tends to be congruent with one's current mood, with depressed people more likely to recall negative events from the past[53] In addition, depression is often associated with poor memory in general, as outlined here.

[edit] Aging and emotional memory
The enhancing effects of emotional arousal on later memory recall tend to be maintained among older adults and the amygdala shows relatively less decline than many other brain regions[54]. However, older adults also show somewhat of a shift towards favoring positive over negative information in memory, leading to a positivity effect

Poverty
An example of extreme poverty in this Slum in Jakarta, Indonesia Poverty refers to the condition of not having the means to afford basic human needs such as clean water, nutrition, health care, clothing and shelter.[1][2] This is also referred to as absolute poverty or destitution. Relative poverty is the condition of having fewer resources or less income than others within a society or country, or compared to worldwide averages. Before the industrial revolution, poverty had mostly been the norm.[3][4] Poverty reduction has historically been a result of economic growth as increased levels of production, such as modern industrial technology, made more wealth available for those who were

otherwise too poor to afford them.[4][5] Also, investments in modernizing agriculture and increasing yields is considered the core of the antipoverty effort, given three-quarters of the world's poor are rural farmers.[6][7] Today, continued economic development is constrained by the lack of economic freedoms. Economic liberalization includes extending property rights, especially to land, to the poor, and making financial services, notably savings, accessible.[8][9][10] Inefficient institutions, corruption and political instability can also discourage investment. Aid and government support in health, education and infrastructure helps growth by increasing human and physical capital.[4]

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Scarcity of basic need

Hardwood surgical tables are commonplace in rural Nigerian clinics. Before the industrial revolution, poverty had been mostly accepted as inevitable as economies produced little, making wealth scarce.[3] In 18th century England, half the population was at least occasionally dependent on charity for subsistence.[11] Food shortages were also common before modern agricultural technology and in places that lack them today, such as nitrogen fertilizers, pesticides and irrigation methods.[12][13] For example, Chinese mass production of goods has made what was once considered luxuries, such as vehicles or computers, inexpensive and thus more accessible to many who were otherwise too poor to afford them.[14][15] Rises in the costs of living make poor people less able to afford items. Poor people spend a greater portion of their budgets on food than richer people. As a result poor households, and those near the poverty threshold can be particularly vulnerable to increases in food prices. For example in late 2007 increases in the price of grains[16] led to food riots in some countries[17][18][19]. The World Bank warned that 100 million people were at risk of sinking deeper into poverty.[20] Threats to the supply of food may also be caused by drought and the water crisis.[21][22][23] Intensive farming often leads to a vicious cycle of exhaustion of soil fertility and decline of agricultural yields.[24] Approximately 40% of the

world's agricultural land is seriously degraded.[25][26] In Africa, if current trends of soil degradation continue, the continent might be able to feed just 25% of its population by 2025, according to UNU's Ghana-based Institute for Natural Resources in Africa.[27] Health care can be widely unavailable to the poor. The loss of health care workers emigrating from impoverished countries has a damaging effect. For example, an estimated 100,000 Philippine nurses emigrated between 1994 and 2006.[28] There are more Ethiopian doctors in Chicago than in Ethiopia.[29] Overpopulation and lack of access to birth control methods drive poverty[30][31][32] The world's population is expected to reach nearly 9 billion in 2040.[33] However, the reverse is also true, that poverty causes overpopulation as it gives women little power to plan childhood, have educational attainment, or a career.[34]

[edit] Barriers to opportunities

Street children sleeping in Mulberry Street - Jacob Riis photo New York, United States of America (1890)

Homeless people living in cardboard boxes in Los Angeles, California. The unwillingness of governments and feudal elites to give full-fledged property rights of land to their tenants is cited as the chief obstacle to development.[35] This lack of economic freedom inhibits entrepreneurship among the poor.[5] New enterprises and foreign investment can be driven away by the results of inefficient institutions, notably corruption, weak rule of law and excessive bureaucratic burdens.[4][5] Lack of financial

services, as a result of restrictive regulations, such as the requirements for banking licenses, makes it hard for hard for even smaller microsavings programs to reach the poor.[36] It takes two days, two bureaucratic procedures, and $280 to open a business in Canada while an entrepreneur in Bolivia must pay $2,696 in fees, wait 82 business days, and go through 20 procedures to do the same.[5] Such costly barriers favor big firms at the expense of small enterprises, where most jobs are created.[5] In India before economic reforms, businesses had to bribe government officials even for routine activities, which was a tax on business in effect.[4] Corruption, for example, in Nigeria, led to an estimated $400 billion of the country's oil revenue to be stolen by Nigeria's leaders between 1960 and 1999.[37][38] Lack of opportunities can further be caused by the failure of governments to provide essential infrastructure.[39][40]. Opportunities in richer countries drives talent away, leading to brain drains. Brain drain has cost the African continent over $4 billion in the employment of 150,000 expatriate professionals annually.[41] Indian students going abroad for their higher studies costs India a foreign exchange outflow of $10 billion annually.[42] Poor health and education severely affects productivity. Inadequate nutrition in childhood undermines the ability of individuals to develop their full capabilities. Lack of essential minerals such as iodine and iron can impair brain development. 2 billion people (onethird of the total global population) are affected by iodine deficiency. In developing countries, it is estimated that 40% of children aged 4 and younger suffer from anemia because of insufficient iron in their diets. See also Health and intelligence.[43] Similarly substance abuse, including for example alcoholism and drug abuse can consign people to vicious poverty cycles.[44] Infectious diseases such as Malaria and tuberculosis can perpetuate poverty by diverting health and economic resources from investment and productivity; malaria decreases GDP growth by up to 1.3% in some developing nations and AIDS decreases African growth by 0.3-1.5% annually.[45][46][47] War, political instability and crime, including violent gangs and drug cartels, also discourage investment. Civil wars and conflicts in Africa cost the continent some $300 billion between 1990 and 2005.[48] Eritrea and Ethiopia spent hundreds of millions of dollars on the war that resulted in minor border changes.[49] Shocks in the business cycle affect poverty rates, increasing in recessions and declining in booms. Cultural factors, such as discrimination of various kinds, can negatively affect productivity such as age discrimination, stereotyping,[50] gender discrimination, racial discrimination, and caste discrimination.[51] Max Weber and the modernization theory suggest that cultural values could affect economic success.[52][53] However, researchers[who?] have gathered evidence that suggest

that values are not as deeply ingrained and that changing economic opportunities explain most of the movement into and out of poverty, as opposed to shifts in values.[54]

[edit] Effects of poverty

Again in a developed nation council houses in Seacroft, Leeds, UK have been deserted due to poverty and high crime. See also: Malnutrition The effects of poverty may also be causes, as listed above, thus creating a "poverty cycle" operating across multiple levels, individual, local, national and global.

[edit] Health
Main article: Diseases of poverty Hunger, disease, and less education describe a person in poverty. One third of deaths some 18 million people a year or 50,000 per day - are due to poverty-related causes: in total 270 million people, most of them women and children, have died as a result of poverty since 1990.[55] Those living in poverty suffer disproportionately from hunger or even starvation and disease.[56] Those living in poverty suffer lower life expectancy. According to the World Health Organization, hunger and malnutrition are the single gravest threats to the world's public health and malnutrition is by far the biggest contributor to child mortality, present in half of all cases.[57] Every year nearly 11 million children living in poverty die before their fifth birthday. 1.02 billion people go to bed hungry every night.[58] Poverty increases the risk of homelessness.[59] There are over 100 million street children worldwide.[60] Increased risk of drug abuse may also be associated with poverty.[61] According to the Global Hunger Index, South Asia has the highest child malnutrition rate of world's regions.[62] Nearly half of all Indian children are undernourished,[63] one of the highest rates in the world and nearly double the rate of Sub-Saharan Africa.[64] Every year, more than half a million women die in pregnancy or childbirth.[65] Almost 90% of maternal deaths occur in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, compared to less than 1% in the developed world.[66]

Women who have children born in poverty, cannot nourish the children efficiently with the right prenatal care. They may also suffer from disease that may be passed down to the child through birth. Asthma is a common problem children acquire when born into poverty.

[edit] Education

Great Depression: man lying down on pier, New York City docks, 1935. Research has found that there is a high risk of educational underachievement for children who are from low-income housing circumstances. This often is a process that begins in primary school for some less fortunate children. In the US educational system, these children are at a higher risk than other children for retention in their grade, special placements during the school’s hours and even not completing their high school education.[67] There are indeed many explanations for why students tend to drop out of school. For children with low resources, the risk factors are similar to excuses such as juvenile delinquency rates, higher levels of teenage pregnancy, and the economic dependency upon their low income parent or parents.[67] Families and society who submit low levels of investment in the education and development of less fortunate children end up with less favorable results for the children who see a life of parental employment reduction and low wages. Higher rates of early childbearing with all the connected risks to family, health and well-being are majorly important issues to address since education from preschool to high school are both identifiably meaningful in a life.[67] Poverty often drastically affects children’s success in school. A child’s “home activities, preferences, mannerisms” must align with the world and in the cases that they do not these students are at a disadvantage in the school and most importantly the classroom.[68] Therefore, it is safe to state that children who live at or below the poverty level will have far less success educationally than children who live above the poverty line. Poor children have a great deal less healthcare and this ultimately results in many absences from the academic year. Additionally, poor children are much more likely to suffer from hunger, fatigue, irritability, headaches, ear infections, flu, and colds.[68] These illnesses could potentially restrict a child or student’s focus and concentration.

Elementary students who live in poverty are forced to move around a lot and attend lowfunded schooling systems.

[edit] Housing
See also: slums and orphanages Slum-dwellers, who make up a third of the world's urban population, live in a poverty no better, if not worse, than rural people, who are the traditional focus of the poverty in the developing world, according to a report by the United Nations.[69] Most of the children living in institutions around the world have a surviving parent or close relative, and they most commonly entered orphanages because of poverty.[70] Experts and child advocates maintain that orphanages are expensive and often harm children’s development by separating them from their families.[70] It is speculated that, flush with money, orphanages are increasing and push for children to join even though demographic data show that even the poorest extended families usually take in children whose parents have died.[70]

[edit] Violence
See also: slavery and human trafficking According to a UN report on modern slavery, the most common form of human trafficking is for prostitution, which is largely fueled by poverty.[71][72] In Zimbabwe, a number of girls are turning to prostitution for food to survive because of the increasing poverty.[73] In one survey, 67% of children from disadvantaged inner cities said they had witnessed a serious assault, and 33% reported witnessing a homicide.[74] 51% of fifth graders from New Orleans (median income for a household: $27,133) have been found to be victims of violence, compared to 32% in Washington, DC (mean income for a household: $40,127).[75]

[edit] Drug abuse
Further information: Drug abuse Unemployment and distance from rural areas are where most drug abuse occurs. Drug abuse can result in a community shouldering the impact of many a nefarious acts such as stealing, killing, theft, sexual assault, and prostitution. Drug abuse is synonymous with poor performance in school & work, and a general malaise of intra-personal intelligence. People who have abused drugs and have spent all of their money buying substances—i.e. heroin, alcohol, methamphetamines etc.—become addicts. This induces a downward spiral in the functionality of most addicts, as the drugs and poverty can be cyclical. When an addict has no other way to support their addiction they result to illegal measures to obtain income. This is where a community becomes affected by drug abuse. The urge— or “Jonesin”—for many different substances begins to take over an addict’s life. Addicts

are people, and these people lose their families, friends, and homes leaving them alone in the squalor of poverty.

[edit] Poverty reduction
Main article: Poverty reduction Historically, poverty reduction has been largely a result of economic growth.[4][5] The industrial revolution led to high economic growth and eliminated mass poverty in what is now considered the developed world.[3][5] In 1820, 75% of humanity lived on less than a dollar a day, while in 2001, only about 20% do.[5] As three quarters of the world's poor live in the country side, the World Bank cites helping small farmers as the heart of the fight against poverty.[7] Economic growth in agriculture is, on average, at least twice as effective in benefiting the poorest half of a country’s population as growth generated in non-agricultural sectors.[76] However, aid is essential in providing better lives for those who are already poor and in sponsoring medical and scientific efforts such as the green revolution and the eradication of smallpox.[35][77]

[edit] Economic liberalization
Extending property rights protection to the poor is one of the most important poverty reduction strategy a nation could take.[5] Securing property rights to land, the largest asset for most societies, is vital to their economic freedom.[5][35] The World Bank concludes increasing land rights is ‘the key to reducing poverty’ citing that land rights greatly increase poor people’s wealth, in some cases doubling it.[10] It is estimated that state recognition of the property of the poor would give them assets worth 40 times all the foreign aid since 1945.[5] Although approaches varied, the World Bank said the key issues were security of tenure and ensuring land transactions were low cost.[10] In China and India, noted reductions in poverty in recent decades have occurred mostly as a result of the abandonment of collective farming in China and the cutting of government red tape in India.[78] However, ending government sponsorship of social programs is sometimes advocated as a free market principle with tragic consequences. For example, the World Bank presses poor nations to eliminate subsidies for fertilizer even while many farmers cannot afford them at market prices.[79] The reconfiguration of public financing in former Soviet states during their transition to a market economy called for reduced spending on health and education, sharply increasing poverty.[80][81][82] Trade liberalization increases total surplus of trading nations. Remittances sent to poor countries, such as India, are sometimes larger than foreign direct investment and total remittances are more than double aid flows from OECD countries.[83] Foreign investment and export industries helped fuel the economic expansion of fast growing Asian nations. [84] However, trade rules are often unfair as they block access to richer nations’ markets and ban poorer nations from supporting their industries.[79][85] Processed products from poorer nations, in contrast to raw materials, get vastly higher tariffs at richer nations' ports.[86] A University of Toronto study found the dropping of duty charges on thousands of products from African nations because of the African Growth and Opportunity Act

was directly responsible for a "surprisingly large" increase in imports from Africa.[87] However, Chinese textile and clothing exports have encountered criticism from Europe, the United States and some African countries.[88][89] Deals can also be negotiated to favor the developing country such as China, where laws compel foreign multinationals to train their future Chinese competitors in strategic industries and render themselves redundant in the long term.[90] In Thailand, the 51 percent rule compels multinational corporations starting operations in Thailand give 51 percent control to a Thai company in a joint venture.[91]

[edit] Capital, infrastructure and technology

World GDP per capita Investments in human capital, in the form of health, is needed for economic growth. Nations do not necessarily need wealth to gain health.[92] For example, Sri Lanka had a maternal mortality rate of 2% in the 1930s, higher than any nation today.[93] It reduced it to .5-.6% in the 1950s and to .06% today while spending less each year on maternal health because it learned what worked and what did not.[93] Cheap water filters and promoting hand washing are some of the most cost effective health interventions and can cut deaths from diarrhea and pneumonia.[94][95] Knowledge on the cost effectiveness of healthcare interventions can be elusive but educational measures to disseminate what works are available, such as the disease control priorities project.[5] Human capital, in the form of education, is an even more important determinant of economic growth than physical capital.[4] Deworming children costs about 50 cents per child per year and reduces non-attendance from anemia, illness and malnutrition and is only a twenty-fifth as expensive to increase school attendance as by constructing schools.
[96]

UN economists argue that good infrastructure, such as roads and information networks, helps market reforms to work.[97] China claims it is investing in railways, roads, ports and rural telephones in African countries as part of its formula for economic development.[97] It was the technology of the steam engine that originally began the dramatic decreases in poverty levels. Cell phone technology brings the market to poor or rural sections.[98] With necessary information, remote farmers can produce specific crops to sell to the buyers that brings the best price.[99]

Such technology also makes financial services accessible to the poor. Those in poverty place overwhelming importance on having a safe place to save money, much more so than receiving loans.[8] Also, a large part of microfinance loans are spent on products that would usually be paid by a checking or savings account.[8] Mobile banking addresses the problem of the heavy regulation and costly maintenance of saving accounts.[8] Mobile financial services in the developing world, ahead of the developed world in this respect, could be worth $5 billion by 2012.[100] Safaricom’s M-Pesa launched one of the first systems where a network of agents of mostly shopkeepers, instead of bank branches, would take deposits in cash and translate these onto a virtual account on customers' phones. Cash transfers can be done between phones and issued back in cash with a small commission, making remittances safer.[9]

[edit] Aid

Local citizens from the Janabi Village wait their turn to gather goods from the Sons of Iraq (Abna al-Iraq) in a military operation conducted in Yusufiyah, Iraq. (U.S. Army photo by Spc Luke Thornberry) Main article: Aid See also: Welfare, Development aid

id

Local citizens from the Janabi Village wait their turn to gather goods from the Sons of Iraq (Abna al-Iraq) in a military operation conducted in Yusufiyah, Iraq. (U.S. Army photo by Spc Luke Thornberry)

Main article: Aid See also: Welfare, Development aid, and Debt relief Aid in its simplest form is a basic income grant, a form of social security periodically providing citizens with money. In pilot projects in Namibia, where such a program pays just $13 a month, people were able to pay tuition fees, raising the proportion of children going to school by 92%, child malnutrition rates fell from 42% to 10% and economic activity grew by 10%.[101][102] Researchers say it is more efficient to support the families and extended families that care for the vast majority of orphans with simple allocations of cash than supporting orphanages, who get most of the aid.[70] Some aid, such as Conditional Cash Transfers, can be rewarded based on desirable actions such as enrolling children in school or receiving vaccinations.[103] In Mexico, for example, dropout rates of 16-19 year olds in rural area dropped by 20% and children gained half an inch in height.[104] Initial fears that the program would encourage families to stay at home rather than work to collect benefits have proven to be unfounded. Instead, there is less excuse for neglectful behavior as, for example, children stopped begging on the streets instead of going to school because it could result in suspension from the program.[104] Another form of aid is microloans, made famous by the Grameen Bank, where small amounts of money are loaned to farmers or villages, mostly women, who can then obtain physical capital to increase their economic rewards. For example, the Thai government's People's Bank, makes loans of $100 to $300 to help farmers buy equipment or seeds, help street vendors acquire an inventory to sell, or help others set up small shops. While advancing the woman and her household's position economically, microloans empower women and enable them to voice their opinions in general household decisions.[105] Aid from non-governmental organizations may be more effective than governmental aid; this may be because it is better at reaching the poor and better controlled at the grassroots level.[106] Critics argue that some of the foreign aid is stolen by corrupt governments and officials, and that higher aid levels erode the quality of governance. Policy becomes much more oriented toward what will get more aid money than it does towards meeting the needs of the people.[107] Supporters of aid argue that these problems may be solved with better auditing of how the aid is used.[107] Immunization campaigns for children, such as against polio, diphtheria and measles have save millions of lives.[77] A major proportion of aid from donor nations is tied, mandating that a receiving nation spend on products and expertise originating only from the donor country.[108] For example, Eritrea is forced to spend aid money on foreign goods and services to build a network of railways even though it is cheaper to use local expertise and resources.[108] US law requires food aid be spent on buying food at home, instead of where the hungry live, and, as a result, half of what is spent is used on transport.[109] One of the proposed ways to help poor countries has been debt relief. Many less developed nations have gotten themselves into extensive debt to banks and governments

from the rich nations and interest payments on these debts are often more than a country can generate per year in profits from exports.[110] If poor countries do not have to spend so much on debt payments, they can use the money instead for priorities which help reduce poverty such as basic health-care and education.[111] Many nations began offering services, such as free health care even while overwhelming the health care infrastructure, because of savings that resulted from the rounds of debt relief in 2005.[112]

[edit] Good institutions
Main article: Corruption Efficient institutions that are not corrupt and obey the rule of law make and enforce good laws that provide security to property and businesses. Efficient and fair governments would work to invest in the long-term interests of the nation rather than plunder resources through corruption.[4] Researchers at UC Berkely developed what they called a "Weberianness scale" which measures aspects of bureaucracies and governments Max Weber described as most important for rational-legal and efficient government over 100 years ago. Comparative research has found that the scale is correlated with higher rates of economic development.[113] With their related concept of good governance World Bank researchers have found much the same: Data from 150 nations have shown several measures of good governance (such as accountability, effectiveness, rule of law, low corruption) to be related to higher rates of economic development. [114] The United Nations Development Program published a report in April 2000 which focused on good governance in poor countries as a key to economic development and overcoming the selfish interests of wealthy elites often behind state actions in developing nations. The report concludes that “Without good governance, reliance on trickle-down economic development and a host of other strategies will not work.” [115] Examples of good governance leading to economic development and poverty reduction include Thailand, Taiwan, Malaysia, South Korea, and Vietnam, which tend to have a strong government, called a hard state or development state. These “hard states” have the will and authority to create and maintain policies that lead to long-term development that helps all their citizens, not just the wealthy. Multinational corporations are regulated so that they follow reasonable standards for pay and labor conditions, pay reasonable taxes to help develop the country, and keep some of the profits in the country, reinvesting them to provide further development. In 1957 South Korea had a lower per capita GDP than Ghana,[116] and by 2008 it was 17 times as high as Ghana's.[117] Funds from aid and natural resources are often diverted into private hands and then sent to banks overseas as a result of graft.[57] If Western banks rejected stolen money, says a report by Global Witness, ordinary people would benefit “in a way that aid flows will never achieve”.[57] The report asked for more regulation of banks as they have proved capable of stanching the flow of funds linked to terrorism, money-laundering or tax evasion.[57]

[edit] Empowering women

Empowering women has helped some countries increase and sustain economic development.[118] When given more rights and opportunities women begin to receive more education, thus increasing the overall human capital of the country; when given more influence women seem to act more responsibly in helping people in the family or village; and when better educated and more in control of their lives, women are more successful in bringing down rapid population growth because they have more say in family planning.[119]

[edit] Demographics

Percentage of population living on less than $1.25 per day. UN estimates 2000-2006.

Percentage of population suffering from hunger, World Food Programme, 2006

Life expectancy.

The Human Development Index.

The Gini coefficient, a measure of income inequality.

Life expectancy has been increasing and converging for most of the world. Sub-Saharan Africa has recently seen a decline, partly related to the AIDS epidemic. Graph shows the years 1950-2005. Main article: Poverty by country See also: Poverty threshold

[edit] Absolute poverty
Poverty is usually measured as either absolute or relative poverty (the latter being actually an index of income inequality). Absolute poverty refers to a set standard which is consistent over time and between countries. The World Bank defines extreme poverty as living on less than US $1.25 (PPP) per day, and moderate poverty as less than $2 a day. It estimates that "in 2001, 1.1 billion people had consumption levels below $1 a day and 2.7 billion lived on less than $2 a day."[120] Six million children die of hunger every year 17,000 every day.[121] Selective Primary Health Care has been shown to be one of the most efficient ways in which absolute poverty can be eradicated in comparison to Primary Health Care which has a target of treating diseases. Disease prevention is the focus of Selective Primary Health Care which puts this system on higher grounds in terms of preventing malnutrition and illness, thus putting an end to Absolute Poverty.[122] The proportion of the developing world's population living in extreme economic poverty fell from 28 percent in 1990 to 21 percent in 2001.[120] Most of this improvement has occurred in East and South Asia.[123] In East Asia the World Bank reported that "The poverty headcount rate at the $2-a-day level is estimated to have fallen to about 27 percent [in 2007], down from 29.5 percent in 2006 and 69 percent in 1990."[124] In SubSaharan Africa extreme poverty went up from 41 percent in 1981 to 46 percent in 2001, which combined with growing population increased the number of people living in poverty from 231 million to 318 million.[125] In the early 1990s some of the transition economies of Eastern Europe and Central Asia experienced a sharp drop in income.[126] The collapse of the Soviet Union resulted in large declines in GDP per capita, of about 30 to 35% between 1990 and the trough year of 1998 (when it was at its minimum). As a result poverty rates also increased although in subsequent years as per capita incomes recovered the poverty rate dropped from 31.4% of the population to 19.6%[127][128] The World Bank issued a report predicting that between 2007 and 2027 the populations of Georgia and Ukraine will decrease by 17% and 24% respectively.[129]

World Bank data shows that the percentage of the population living in households with consumption or income per person below the poverty line has decreased in each region of the world since 1990:[130][131] Region East Asia and Pacific Europe and Central Asia Latin America and the Caribbean Middle East and North Africa South Asia Sub-Saharan Africa 1990 2002 2004 15.40% 12.33% 9.07% 3.60% 1.28% 0.95% 9.62% 9.08% 8.64% 2.08% 1.69% 1.47% 35.04% 33.44% 30.84% 46.07% 42.63% 41.09%

Other human development indicators have also been improving. Life expectancy has greatly increased in the developing world since WWII and is starting to close the gap to the developed world. Child mortality has decreased in every developing region of the world.[citation needed] The proportion of the world's population living in countries where percapita food supplies are less than 2,200 calories (9,200 kilojoules) per day decreased from 56% in the mid-1960s to below 10% by the 1990s. Similar trends can be observed for literacy, access to clean water and electricity and basic consumer items.[132] There are various criticisms of these measurements.[133] Shaohua Chen and Martin Ravallion note that although "a clear trend decline in the percentage of people who are absolutely poor is evident ... with uneven progress across regions...the developing world outside China and India has seen little or no sustained progress in reducing the number of poor". Since the world's population is increasing, a constant number living in poverty would be associated with a diminshing proportion. Looking at the percentage living on less than $1/day, and if excluding China and India, then this percentage has decreased from 31.35% to 20.70% between 1981 and 2004.[134] The 2007 World Bank report "Global Economic Prospects" predicts that in 2030 the number living on less than the equivalent of $1 a day will fall by half, to about 550 million. An average resident of what we used to call the Third World will live about as well as do residents of the Czech or Slovak republics today. Much of Africa will have difficulty keeping pace with the rest of the developing world and even if conditions there improve in absolute terms, the report warns, Africa in 2030 will be home to a larger proportion of the world's poorest people than it is today.[135] The reason for the faster economic growth in East Asia and South Asia is a result of their relative backwardness, in a phenomenon called the convergence hypothesis or the conditional convergence hypothesis. Because these economies began modernizing later than richer nations, they could benefit from simply adapting technological advances which enable higher levels of productivity that had been invented over centuries in richer nations.

[edit] Relative poverty
Relative poverty views poverty as socially defined and dependent on social context, hence relative poverty is a measure of income inequality. Usually, relative poverty is measured as the percentage of population with income less than some fixed proportion of median income. There are several other different income inequality metrics, for example the Gini coefficient or the Theil Index. Relative poverty measures are used as official poverty rates in several developed countries. As such these poverty statistics measure inequality rather than material deprivation or hardship. The measurements are usually based on a person's yearly income and frequently take no account of total wealth. The main poverty line used in the OECD and the European Union is based on "economic distance", a level of income set at 60% of the median household income.[136]

[edit] Other aspects

Slum in Mumbai, India. 60% of Mumbai's more than 18 million inhabitants live in slums.
[137]

Economic aspects of poverty focus on material needs, typically including the necessities of daily living, such as food, clothing, shelter, or safe drinking water. Poverty in this sense may be understood as a condition in which a person or community is lacking in the basic needs for a minimum standard of well-being and life, particularly as a result of a persistent lack of income. Analysis of social aspects of poverty links conditions of scarcity to aspects of the distribution of resources and power in a society and recognizes that poverty may be a function of the diminished "capability" of people to live the kinds of lives they value.[138] The social aspects of poverty may include lack of access to information, education, health care, or political power.[139][140] Poverty may also be understood as an aspect of unequal social status and inequitable social relationships, experienced as social exclusion, dependency, and diminished capacity to participate, or to develop meaningful connections with other people in society.[141][142][143]

Harlem, New York, USA. In 2006 the poverty rate for minors in the United States was the highest in the industrialized world, with 21.9% of all minors and 30% of African American minors living below the poverty threshold.[144] The World Bank's "Voices of the Poor," based on research with over 20,000 poor people in 23 countries, identifies a range of factors which poor people identify as part of poverty. [145] These include:
• • • • • • • • • •

Precarious livelihoods Excluded locations Physical limitations Gender relationships Problems in social relationships Lack of security Abuse by those in power Dis-empowering institutions Limited capabilities Weak community organizations

David Moore, in his book The World Bank, argues that some analysis of poverty reflect pejorative, sometimes racial, stereotypes of impoverished people as powerless victims and passive recipients of aid programs.[146]

Camden, New Jersey is one of the poorest cities in the United States. Ultra-poverty, a term apparently coined by Michael Lipton,[147] connotes being amongst poorest of the poor in low-income countries. Lipton defined ultra-poverty as receiving

less than 80 percent of minimum caloric intake whilst spending more than 80% of income on food. Alternatively a 2007 report issued by International Food Policy Research Institute defined ultra-poverty as living on less than 54 cents per day.[148] BRAC (NGO) has pioneered a program called Targeting the Ultra-Poor to redress ultra-poverty by working with individual ultra-poor women.[149]

[edit] Voluntary poverty
See also: Simple living
"'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free, 'tis the gift to come down where you ought to be, And when we find ourselves in the place just right, It will be in the valley of love and delight." —Shaker song.[150]

Among some individuals, such as ascetics, poverty is considered a necessary or desirable condition, which must be embraced in order to reach certain spiritual, moral, or intellectual states. Poverty is often understood to be an essential element of renunciation in religions such as Buddhism (only for monks, not for lay persons) and Jainism, whilst in Roman Catholicism it is one of the evangelical counsels. Certain religious orders also take a vow of extreme poverty. For example, the Franciscan orders have traditionally forgone all individual and corporate forms of ownership. While individual ownership of goods and wealth is forbidden for Benedictines, following the Rule of St. Benedict, the monastery itself may possess both goods and money, and throughout history some monasteries have become very rich.[citation needed] In this context of religious vows, poverty may be understood as a means of self-denial in order to place oneself at the service of others; Pope Honorius III wrote in 1217 that the Dominicans "lived a life of voluntary poverty, exposing themselves to innumerable dangers and sufferings, for the salvation of others". Following Jesus' warning that riches can be like thorns that choke up the good seed of the word (Matthew 13:22), voluntary poverty is often understood by Christians as of benefit to the individual – a form of self-discipline by which one distances oneself from distractions from God.[citation needed]

[edit]