THE EFFECT OF SOCIO ECONOMICAL PROBLEM IN THE 21ST CENTURY IN NIGERIA ON HUMAN PSYCHOLOGICAL CONDITION
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
2.1. INTRODUCTION
Socioeconomic factors and social class are fundamental determinants of human functioning across the life span, including development, well-being, and
physical and mental health.These are all primary concerns for psychological research, practice, education, policy, and advocacy. In other fields such as public
health, epidemiology, and sociology, there has been exponential growth in work on socioeconomic conditions and these outcomes, as well as increasing
funding from both governmental and foundation initiatives (e.g., the National Institutes of Health [NIH] agenda on health disparities; the MacArthur
Foundation Research Network on socioeconomic conditions and Health; the Robert Wood Johnson proposal for a commission on health disparities in the
Nigeria; and the World Health Organization Commission on Social Determinants of Health). Simultaneously, inequalities are increasing within the Nigeria and
globally.We are concerned that psychology as a field and psychologists as individuals are underrepresented in participating in these initiatives and in
addressing disparities resulting from the growing inequality. Much of the work on socioeconomic conditions is interdisciplinary. Psychology provides an
important component, but there are many lost opportunities for including this perspective.There is one discomfort about focusing on the individual level
within a multilevel approach, since this is seen as distracting from the social determinants that may be more amenable to large-scale social policy.To play an
important role in this work, psychologists need not only to articulate the unique contribution that psychological theory and research can make but also to be
more willing to link these to social– contextual and institutional factors that are inherent to SES/social class. For example, a growing body of scholarship
documents the need for a psychology that is conscious of social class—calling for researchers, practitioners, and educators to attend more fully to the impact
of socioeconomic position on psychological processes and outcomes, the subjective experiences of social class status, and psychosocial processes related to
the social and political implications of class inequities (Adler et al., 1994; Carr & Sloan, 2003; Lott, 2002; Ostrove& Cole, 2003; Reid, 1993; Rice, 2001; Saris &
Johnston-Robledo, 2000; L. Smith, 2005). In recognition of the need within psychology to address these issues and in an sort to determine how the Nigerian
Psychological Association (NPA) might most eectively
address them, the Task Force on Socioeconomic Status was formed.Nigerian Psychological
Association (NPA’s) (2000) Resolution on Poverty and Socioeconomic Status and the creation of a task force charged with developing an agenda centered on
social class are evidence of an increasing commitment to understanding the significance of social class and to challenging injustices, including
socioeconomic disparities.This report is one step toward fulfilling these goals, but as the recommendations indicate, many more steps need to be taken. We
believe that all areas of psychology will benefit from more disciplinary attention to social class and economic disparities in well-being. The report explores
many of the arguments and evidence for the importance of SES and social class in the study and practice of psychology. The scope of this report is broad,
and, consequently, some areas cannot be covered adequately. For example, while recognizing the importance of SES worldwide, the task force charge was to
look at issues in the Nigeria. We were therefore unable to address the international population, and we recommend that future reports address the issue
more globally. Additionally, although the task force charge was to address SES, the task force decided to place most of its focus on poverty. Most available
research addresses poverty, and little data on other SES categories, such as the eects
of influence, are available.
