Current and Future Developments in Cultural Psychology of Inequality in PhD Research Directions for 2023

The current special issue contains seven empirical articles on a variety of topics related to inequality, including how people perceive economic inequality (who is concerned, what cues they use to perceive inequality in everyday life), the educational origins of income inequality, the role of inequality in luxury consumption, prosocial behaviour, life satisfaction, and beliefs in upward and downward economic mobility. Respond to these pieces first, then discuss the present status of inequality psychology and suggest future paths.  

Finally, note that the existing research on the psychology of inequality does not include a cultural or psychological viewpoint. It’s crucial to understand how to present sustained and passed down inequalities across generations, in particular, Psychology dissertation examples and sociocultural situations. This article aims to provide a summary of developments in the cultural psychology of inequality 

Introduction 

The psychology of inequality 

Today, economic inequality, or the degree to which social wealth is concentrated in one part of the population, has become a primarily political and moral concern. For the previous few decades, the gap between affluent and poor has widened in the United States, Europe, and Asia; however, it has narrowed in Latin America (historically an extremely high inequality world region). The economic disparity was once seen as an important stage of economic growth by economists in PhD dissertation assistance in Psychology. When a country is in its early stages of economic growth, the wealthiest individuals profit first. 

Wealth will be allocated more fairly to employees and the rest of society as the economy grows. Unfortunately, today’s reality does not reflect this textbook depiction of economic progress and inequality. For example, in the United States, typical worker earnings have remained stagnant over the previous few decades, while remuneration for specialist sectors such as banking and others has risen dramatically. The recent epidemic has highlighted this trend, with the wealth of America’s billionaires growing by 62 % in the 17 months following the outbreak, while typical worker earnings have remained unchanged since the beginning of 2020. 

The perceptions of inequality  

• Since long before the Occupy Wall Street movement made headlines in 2011, income inequality has been a hot subject in the news and social media. Given the media attention given to the Occupy movement and the constant chatter about the ultra-rich, such as Jeff Bezos, it’s astonishing that average Americans significantly underestimate the scale of income disparity in the United States. The idea is that ordinary people are not used to estimating national wealth distribution and that the unfamiliarity and artificiality of the estimated job utilized in general lead to underestimating inequality. 
• Although most psychological research has focused on the adverse effects of economic disparity, there are some excellent outcomes. For example, wealth disparity is linked to a greater desire to succeed, and greater demand for accomplishment has also been linked to better earnings and creative pursuits. Furthermore, perceived wealth inequality represents more opportunity and hope for some people. Unlike in the United States, where inequality meant that the wealthy became richer, inequality meant that some farmers or the offspring of impoverished farmers became quite wealthy in rural China. Moreover, the historical origins of inequality vary per society, and this variation might lead to disparities in inequality impacts. 

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Inequality and the Social Position  

Most early inequality studies focused on the overall impact of inequality on a specific result. However, another study has shown that the effects of inequality vary depending on one’s socioeconomic status. For example, in years with increased economic disparity, Americans reported lower levels of satisfaction, perceived justice, and overall trust than in years of lower-income inequality Psychology thesis in the UK. However, among the poorest 20%, the unfavourable relationship between income inequality and happiness, perceived justice, and general trust was very high. 

Figure 1: The Psychology of Inequality (Oishi et al. 2022) 

The agency-communal model adds to the conclusion that there is a wide difference between the richest 20% and the rest of society, regarding society as a fixed location. Conversely, those who are socially disadvantaged. And the person-environment interactionist approach, in which the impact of “environment” on individuals differs based on personality, attitudes, and background characteristics such as gender and socioeconomic class. 

Institutional Perspectives on Inequality  

While we were pleased to see many articles addressing the significance of social status and associated issues, such as the education gap and upward social mobility in this special issue, none expressly took an institutional approach. Instead, investigate the role of wealth at the school and district levels to incorporate institutional elements in Psychology dissertation topics. For example, they discovered that 4th graders’ language test performance at wealthy schools was more significantly connected with their parental SES than in poorer schools. 

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The Cultural Psychology of Inequality: Uniquely Asian Perspectives 

The contributors to this issue came from many geographical places and civilizations; however, they were disappointed that the essays did not go deeper into cultural themes. Culture consists of explicit and implicit beliefs, rules, and standards handed from one generation to the next and embodied in goods, symbols, and artefacts. 

The Confucian Hierarchy  

Confucian thinking has been famously hierarchical throughout history in East Asia. There is a rigid hierarchy (e.g., a son must obey his father). One is expected to extend their innate affection for their parents to the state, which has a complex status system with the emperor at the top. It’s worth noting, nevertheless, that Confucian hierarchy is marked by harmony rather than fighting among the ranks. This is because the Confucian order operates both ways. Those in lesser positions obey those in higher positions. However, individuals in higher positions are responsible for those in lower positions. 

Figure 2:  The institutional and cultural maintenance and transmission of inequality (Oishi et al. 2022) 

A unified theory for the psychology of inequality 

As the Psychology subject in the UK of inequality accumulates empirical findings, it is also essential to find a theoretical tool to make sense of the divergent conclusions. 

                  System justification theory.  

The system justification hypothesis is based on the disparity between the objective fact of economic inequality and an unjust system and the perception of a just society. The motivating mechanisms by which individuals explain and legitimate their present social, economic, and political systems, even when those systems do not benefit them, are referred to as system justification theory. The underlying Psychological literature motive is a belief in a just world, which means that individuals feel the world is competitive. 

                     Evolutionary theory.  

Although the system justification theory explains many of the existing results on inequality, it does not explain some of them well. For example, the system justification theory does not explain why inequality leads to increased achievement incentives or riskier conduct. 

Summary and Conclusion  

The current special issue contains exciting new findings on economic inequality perception (who is concerned about and affected by inequality, what cues people use to perceive inequality in everyday life), the educational origins of income inequality, and the role of inequality in luxury consumption, prosocial behaviour, life satisfaction, and beliefs in upward and downward economic mobility. They add to the growing form of knowledge about the psychology of inequality. While there have been several advances in the literature, we must admit that the cultural and psychological approach has not been fully incorporated, except in the social class sector. Instead, Asia offers distinct viewpoints on inequality to contribute to the scientific literature. 

References 

1. Adams, Glenn, and Hazel Rose Markus. “Toward a conception of culture suitable for a social psychology of culture.” The psychological foundations of culture (2004): 335-360. 

1. Huggins, Robert, and Piers Thompson. “The behavioural foundations of urban and regional development: Culture, psychology and agency.” Journal of Economic Geography 19.1 (2019): 121-146. 

1. Oishi, Shigehiro, Hyeonjin Bak, and Nava Caluori. “Cultural psychology of inequality: Current and future directions.” Asian Journal of Social Psychology (2022).