Causal attributions of poverty in less developed countriesComparing among undergraduates from nations with different development levels

  1. José Juan Vázquez 1
  2. Sonia Panadero 2
  3. Isabel Pascual 1
  4. Xavier G. Ordoñez 2
  1. 1 Universidad de Alcalá
    info

    Universidad de Alcalá

    Alcalá de Henares, España

    ROR https://ror.org/04pmn0e78

  2. 2 Universidad Complutense de Madrid
    info

    Universidad Complutense de Madrid

    Madrid, España

    ROR 02p0gd045

Journal:
Revista interamericana de psicología = Interamerican journal of psychology

ISSN: 0034-9690

Year of publication: 2017

Volume: 51

Issue: 1

Type: Article

More publications in: Revista interamericana de psicología = Interamerican journal of psychology

Abstract

The study analyze the causal attributions of poverty in the less developed countries in a sample of 1,092 undergraduates from Nicaragua, El Salvador, Chile and Spain. Statistical analysis showed the existence of three components which initially grouped thevarious causal attributions for poverty in developing countries: “Fault of the world economic structure”, “Fault of fate, nature, cultural habits, and political misconduct” and “Fault of the developing countries' population”. Five types of subjects were subsequently identified according to the type of causal attributions of poverty that the undergraduates had made and their country of origin, perceived social class, economic situation, political ideology and religious beliefs. The results obtained show that the causal attributions of poverty in developing countries are mainly influenced by the level of development in the country of origin of interviewees, their political ideology and their economic situation

Bibliographic References

  • Appelbaum, L.D. (2001). The influence of perceived deservingness on policy decisions regarding aid to the poor. Political Psychology, 22, 419-442.
  • Bolitho, F.H., Carr, S. C. & Fletcher, R.B. (2007). Public thinking about poverty: Why it matters and how to measure it. International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing, 12, 13-22.
  • Brechon, P. (1999). Integration into Catholicism and Protestantism in Europe: The impact on moral and political values. In L. Halman and O. Riis (eds), Religion in Secularizing Society. The European’s Religion at the End of the 20th Century. Tilburg: Tilburg University Press.
  • Bullock, H.E. (1999). Attributions for poverty: A comparison of middle-class welfare recipient attitudes. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 29, 2059-2082.
  • Bullock, H.E., Williams, W.R. & Limbert, W.M. (2003). Predicting support for welfare policies: The impact of attributions and beliefs about inequality. Journal of Poverty, 7, 35-56.
  • Campbell, D., Carr, S.C. & MacLachlan, M. (2001). Attributing “third world poverty” in Australia and Malawi: A case of donor bias? Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 31, 409-430.
  • Carr, S. C. (1996). Social psychology and the management of aid. In S. C. Carr and J. F. Schumaker (Eds.), Psychology and the Developing Worm. Westport, CT.: Praeger.
  • Carr, S.C. & MacLachlan, M. (1998). Actors, observers, and attributions for third world poverty: Perspectives from Malawi and Australia. The Journal of Social Psychology, 138, 189-202.
  • Carr, S.C., Haef, T., Ribeiro, R. & MacLachlan, M. (1998). Attributions for ‘third world’ poverty: Contextual factors in Australia and Brazil. Psychology & Developing Societies, 10, 103-114.
  • Cozzareli, C., Wilkinson, A.V. & Tagler, M.J. (2001). Attitudes toward the poor and attributions for poverty. Journal of Social Issues, 57, 207-227.
  • Feagin, J. (1972). Poverty: We still believe that God helps those who help themselves. Psychology Today, 6, 101-110, 129.
  • Feather, N.T. (1974). Explanations of poverty in Australian and American samples: The person, society, or fate? Australian Journal of Psychology, 26, 199‑216.
  • Furnham, A. (1982a). The perception of poverty among adolescents. Journal of Adolescence, 5, 135-147.
  • Furnham, A. (1982b). Why are the poor always with us? Explanations for poverty in Britain. British Journal of Social Psychology, 21, 311-322.
  • Griffin, W.E. & Oheneba-Sakyi (1993). Sociodemographic and political correlates of university student’s causal attributions for poverty. Psychological Reports, 73, 795-800.
  • Harper, D.J., Wagstaff, G.F., Newton, J.T. & Harrison, K.R. (1990). Lay causal perceptions of Third World poverty and the Just World theory. Social Behaviour and Personality, 18, 235-238.
  • Harper, D.J. (2002). Poverty and disclosure. In S.C. Carr & T.S. Sloan (eds.), Poverty & Psychology: From global perspective to local practise. New York: Kluwer-Plenum.
  • Hayati, D. & Karami, E. (2005). Typology of causes of poverty: The perception of Iranian farmers. Journal of Economic Psychology, 26, 884-901.
  • Hine, D.W. & Montiel, C.J. (1999). Poverty in developing nations: A cross cultural attributional analysis. European Journal of Social Psychology, 29, 943-959.
  • Hine, D.W., Montiel, C.J., Cooksey, R.W. & Lewko, J.H. (2005) Mental models of poverty in developing nations. A causal mapping analysis using Canada-Philippines Contrast. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 36, 1-21.
  • Hopkins, D.J. (2009). Partisan reinforcement and the poor: The impact of context on explanations for poverty. Social Science Quarterly, 90, 744-764.
  • Hunt, M.O. (1996). The individual, society, or both? A comparison of Black, Latino, and White beliefs about the causes of poverty. Social Forces, 65, 293-322.
  • Jones, E.E. & Nisbett, R.E. (1971). The actor and the observer: Divergent perceptions of the causes of behaviour. In E.E. Jones, D.E. Kanouse, H.H. Kelley, R.E. Nisbett, S. Valins and B. Weiner (eds.). Attribution: Perceiving the Causes of Behaviour. Morristown: General Learning Press.
  • Kluegel, J.R. & Smith, E.R. (1986). Beliefs about inequality: Americans’ views of what is and what ought to be. New York: Aldine De Gruyter.
  • Lebart, L., Morineau, A. & Piron, M. (1995). Statistique exploratoire multidimensionnelle. Paris: Dund.
  • Lee, B.A., Lewis, D.W. & Jones, S.H. (1992). Are the homeless to blame? A test of two theories. The Sociological Quarterly, 33, 535-552.
  • Lepianka, D., van Oorschot, W. & Gelissen, J. (2009). Popular explanations of poverty: A critical discussion of empirical research. Journal of Social Policy, 38, 421-438.
  • Lepianka, D., Gelissen, J. & van Oorschot, W. (2010). Popular explanation of poverty in Europe. Effects of contextual and individual characteristics across 28 European countries. Acta Sociologica, 53, 53-72.
  • Morçöl, G. (1997). Lay explanations for poverty in Turkey and their determinants. Journal of Social Psychology, 137, 728-738.
  • Nasser, N.R. (2007). Does subjective class predict the causal attributions for poverty?. Journal of Social Science, 3, 201-207.
  • Nasser, R. Abouchedid, K. & Kasshan, H. (2002). Perception of the causes of poverty comparing three national groups: Lebanon, Portugal, and South Africa. Current Research in Social Psychology, 8, 101-109.
  • Nasser, R., Singhal, S. & Abouchedid, K. (2005). Causal attributions for poverty among Indian youth. Current Research in Social Psychology, 11, 1-13.
  • Niemela, M. (2008). Perceptions of the cause of poverty in Finland. Acta Sociologica, 51, 23-40.
  • Nisbett, R.E. & Ross, L. (1980). Human Inference: Strategies and Shortcomings of Social Judgment. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
  • Panadero, S. & Vázquez, J.J. (2008). Perceived causes of poverty in developing nations: Causes of Third World Poverty Questionnaire in Spanish-speaking samples. Social Behavior and Personality, 36, 571-576.
  • Pandey, J., Sinha, Y., Prakash, A. & Tripathi, R.C. (1982). Right-left political ideologies and attribution of the causes of poverty. European Journal of Social Psychology, 12, 327‑331.
  • Pardo, C.E. & Del Campo, P.C. (2007). Combinación de métodos factoriales y de análisis de conglomerados en R: el paquete FactoClass. Revista Colombiana de Estadística, 30, 235-245.
  • R Development Core Team (2010). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. http://www.R-project.org.
  • Singh, S. & Vasudeva, P.N. (1977). A factorial study of the perceived reasons for poverty. Asian Journal of Psychology & Education, 2, 51‑56.
  • Smith, K.B. & Stone, L.H. (1989). Rags, riches, and bootstraps: Beliefs about the causes of wealth and poverty. Sociological Quarterly, 30, 93-107.
  • UNDP (2010). The real wealth of nations: Pathways to human development. New York: United Nations Development Program
  • United Nations (2008). The Millennium Development Goals. Report 2008. United Nations: New York.
  • Vázquez, J.J. (2003). Medios de comunicación y actitudes en una sociedad mediática global. Psicología Política, 26, 57-72.
  • Vázquez, J.J. (2011). Attitudes towars Non-Governmental Organizations in Central America. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 40, 166-184.
  • Vázquez, J.J. & Panadero, S. (2007). Ideología, acción política y atribuciones causales de la pobreza en los estados menos desarrollados. Psicología Política, 35, 33-51.
  • Vázquez, J.J., Panadero, S. & Rincón, P. (2007). Stressful life events in countries of differing economic development: Nicaragua, Chile, and Spain. Psychological Reports, 101, 193-201.
  • Vázquez, J.J. & Panadero, S. (2009). Pobreza en los estados menos desarrollados: Análisis de diferencias atribucionales entre universitarios centroamericanos. Revista Interamericana de Psicología, 43, 297-308.
  • Vázquez, J.J., Panadero, S. & Pascual, I. (2010). Perceived causes of poverty in developing countries: “Causes of Poverty in Developing Countries Questionnaire (CPCDQ)” in Spanish-speaking population. Social Behavior and Personality, 38, 1167-1172.
  • Vázquez, J.J., Panadero, S. & Rincón, P. (2010). Stressful life events and suicidal behaviour in countries with different development levels: Nicaragua, El Salvador, Chile and Spain. Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology, 20, 288-298.
  • Wagstaff, G.F. (1983). Attitudes to poverty, the Protestant ethic, and political affiliation: A preliminary investigation. Social Behavior and Personality, 11, 45-47.
  • Weiner, B. (2006). Social motivation, justice, and the moral emotions. Mahwah, NJ: Guildford.
  • Weiner, B., Osborne, D. & Rudolph, U. (2011). An Attributional Analysis of Reactions to Poverty: The Political Ideology of the Giver and the Perceived Morality of the Receiver. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 15, 199-213.
  • Wollie, C.W. (2009). Causal attribution for poverty among youths in Bahir Dar, Amhara region, Ethiopia. Journal of Social, Evolutionary, and Cultural Psychology, 3, 251-272.
  • Zucker, G.S. & Weiner, B. (1993). Conservatism and perceptions of poverty: An attributional analysis. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 23, 925-943.