Psychology And Economic Injustice: Personal, Professional, And Political Intersections (Psychology

197 Pages·2007·8.3 MB·English

by  Bernice E. Lott, Heather E. Bullock

Psychology and Economic Injustice
Psychology of Women
Book Series
Bringing Cultural Diversity to Feminist Psychology: Theory, Research,
and Practice
Hope Landrine, Editor
The New Civil War: The Psychology, Culture, and Politics of Abortion
Linda J. Beckman and S. Marie Harvey, Editors
Shaping the Future of Feminist Psychology: Education, Research, and
Practice
Judith Worell and Norine G. Johnson, Editors
Sexuality, Society, and Feminism
Cheryl Brown Travis and Jacquelyn W. White, Editors
Practicing Feminist Ethics in Psychology
Mary M. Brabeck, Editor
Relationships Among Asian American Women
Jean Lau Chin, Editor
Feminist Family Therapy: Empowerment in Social Context
Louise B. Silverstein and Thelma Jean Goodrich, Editors
Featuring Females: Feminist Analyses of Media
Ellen Cole and Jessica Henderson Daniel, Editors
Psychology and Economic Injustice: Personal, Professional, and Political
Intersections
Bernice Lott and Heather E. Bullock
Ps 7ychology and
T- • T •
Economic injustice
P E R S O N A L , P R O F E S S I O N A L ,
A N D P O L I T I C A L I N T E R S E C T I O N S
Bernice Lott and Heather E. Bullock
A M E R I C A N P S Y C H O L O G I C A L A S S O C I A T I O N
W A S H I N G T O N , D C
Copyright © 2007 by the American Psychological Association. All rights reserved. Except
as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication
may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, including, but not
limited to, the process of scanning and digitization, or stored in a database or retrieval
system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Published by
American Psychological Association
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Washington, DC 20002
www.apa.org
To order In the U.K., Europe, Africa, and the Middle
APA Order Department East, copies may be ordered from
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We dedicate this book to our parents,
Annie and Samuel, and Marilyn and Forman.
Contents
Series Foreword ix
1 Introduction 3
2 Growing Up Poor and Middle Class:
Heather Bulock's Story 21
3 Working-Class Origins and Class-Conscious Awakening:
Bernice Let's Story 3
4 Psychology, Social Class, and Resources for
Human Welfare 47
5 The Psychology and Politics of Clas Warfare 77
6 Professional Activism for Social Change and
Economic Justice 9
Apendix 125
References 135
Author Index 169
Subject Index 17
About the Authors 189
Series Foreword
ontemporary society is marked by a great number of critical chal-
Clenges: The number of children and families living in poverty is
rising. High school dropouts from our nation's schools are increasing,
and high stakes testing is changing the way our students are being
educated. We are living with the effects of welfare reform and need to
look critically at how these reforms have affected children, youth, and
families. Head Start programs, long celebrated for being scientifically
based educational interventions, are at risk for losing funding.
Since September 11, 2001, we have lived with new restrictions on
our freedoms, new costs for wars launched in the Middle East, and
constant fear. How is this new anxiety affecting women who have long
been the transmitters of culture and community? Mental health problems
in this age of anxiety are enormous even as managed care and federal
policies reduce support for mental health services. How can prevention
programs be developed in an age of drastic budget cuts and removal of
basic social and health services? New neurological research and the
genome project are revealing individual differences that require careful
thought regarding the implications for education, socialization, and
remediation. While our country is becoming more diverse, tolerance
and celebration of diversity is decreasing and reproductive choices are
becoming more restricted. How are individual rights preserved while
we balance human rights and the welfare of others?
Feminist psychologists have claimed they have a moral imperative
to improve society. This book, and others to follow in the series of
monographs in the Society for the Psychology of Women Series (Division
35) of the American Psychological Association, draw on the expertise
IX
S E R I E S F O R E W O R D
of psychologists who have been working on social issues using the lens
of feminist consciousness. Forthcoming books in the series will present
invited monographs that address critical issues facing our society. These
volumes will be based on current scholarship but will be written in a
way that is accessible to lay persons who are not knowledgeable in a
given field. Longer than a journal article but shorter than a full text,
these invited monographs in the series will not just tell the readers what
we know on a topic, but also what we as a society (as professionals,
parents, researchers, policymakers, and citizens) need to do regarding
the issue. Authors will synthesize the literature and make recommenda-
tions for action.
I am proud that this book highlights the work of Bernice Lott and
Heather Bullock. They draw together the psychology literature, their
personal experiences, and their analyses of political and social realities
to examine the topic of social class and economic injustice. Their work
and their recommendations provide a superb example of using psychol-
ogy to enhance the human condition and create a more just society.
Mary M. Brabeck, PhD
Book Series Editor
Steinhardt School, New York University
Psychology and Economic Injustice