SOCY 500 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Savings Account, Krahn People, Capitalism
31 Jan 2013
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Document Summary
At one level, poverty is a social construction depends on the definition. Individual-level explanations focus on the attributes of people who are poor. Some evidence suggests that personal attributes do explain a small amount of poverty ex. If someone has a physical disability then they have a higher risk of living in poverty. Focuses on causes that lie within the person ex. But not all people w/ disabilities live in poverty and majority of those who do, don"t have disabilities. Thus, poverty for the most part is not a consequence of individuals attributes. Another explanation focuses on the attitudes of individuals (attributes that are acquired not inherited) Low self-esteem, lack of achievement motivation, inability to delay gratification. Poverty is perpetuated b/c poor families employ inadequate child-rearing practices that enhance bad attitudes. Stresses culture of poverty as a way of thinking and acting shared by poor families. This reasoning dismissed by sociologists as blaming the victim .
