Poverty and Social Psychology: The Importance of Integrative Manner

Abstract

As one of the most important social problems in the world, poverty has been studied by various disciplines. Although poverty is a basic subject of economics, it has also become one of the prominent research fields of social sciences in recent years. Poverty also relates to many psychological processes and mechanisms just as in the other social problems in the world. It is assumed that the social-psychological approach to poverty may contribute to establishing different road maps in combating poverty. Therefore this study aims at contributing to poverty reduction efforts from the social-psychological point of view by providing an integrative review of the social psychological correlates of poverty based on the empirical findings. Also, by including arguments such as social identity, migration, ideology and social context in poverty studies to be conducted with a social psychological perspective, a contribution can be made to poverty reduction with multidimensional research methods.