Contemporary Social Issues Essay: Poverty and Inequality

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FYA003-0 (Contemporary Social Issues)
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Table of Contents
Part 2 - Essay...................................................................................................................................3
Part 3 - Reflection on own identity and self-perception as learner..................................................6
Reference List..................................................................................................................................8
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Part 2 - Essay
Introduction
There are a number of contemporary social issues, which are being faced throughout the world in
the current scenario such as income inequality, racial profiling, overpopulation, drug legalisation
and various others among which poverty and inequality has turned out being a foremost issue.
This study is going to be discussing largely on the contemporary social issue of poverty and
inequality along with conducting an evaluation of how it is related to disciplines of sociology
and psychology. It will be highlighting the differences between existent amongst the two
disciplines while explaining how they overlap with one another through mediums of theories
such as the interpretivist theory of sociology and the social identity theory of psychology.
Discussion
Poverty and inequality are two different yet closely related terms. According to Hagenaars
(2017), one can be defining poverty as the state of not possessing sufficient income or material
possessions to meet the needs of a person and the condition wherein the community and its
people lack essentials and financial resources for maintenance of a basic standard of living. On
the other hand, inequality can be defined as the discrepancies and distinctions within the areas,
for example, wealth, education, income, health, space, politics, nutrition, social identity and
varying such areas (Atkinson, 2015). The occurrence of poverty and inequality can be noticed
because of reasons such as absence of education, unemployment, economic inequality,
discrepancies in income and economic asset distribution. For example, in the UK, 65% of poor
people are not in work, indicating unemployment as a reason of poverty and inequality in the
country (Pettinger, 2019).
Both poverty and inequality are largely related and linked with the disciplines of sociology and
psychology in various different ways. However, sociology and psychology as disciplines are
quite different from that of one another. Psychology is concerned with studying the human mind,
while sociology is concerned with the learning of human behaviour (Differencebetween.net,
2019). Conversely, when psychology is concerned with dealing with small groups, larger groups
of the society are dealt by sociology. These aspects of the disciplines help in verifying how
poverty and inequality are associated and linked to them. One of the prerequisites for measuring
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and evaluating the level of poverty and inequality in a country has to be done through learning
about human behaviour, which can be done through sociology. On the other hand, in order to
find out the reasons or causes behind the occurrence of poverty and inequality in a country, the
human mind has to be studied, which yet again is related with psychology.
Similarly, in order to study human behaviour to ensure if poverty and inequality is a
contemporary issue being faced within the society, large groups of the society have to be dealt
with, indicating the relations with sociology while in order to study the human mind to detect
cause of poverty and inequality, small group of individuals have to be dealt. This yet again
indicates the relation of poverty and inequality with the psychology discipline. Conversely, when
the existence of poverty and inequality is evaluated to be existing within the society, an
observational procedure has to be followed, indicating the relationship of the social issue with
sociology (Thibaut, 2017). Similarly, when the causes behind poverty and inequality are
examined, it becomes an experimental process, which yet again is an indication of the
relationship of the social issue with psychology. Thus, awareness can be gained on the
differences existent between sociology and psychology as well as how the contemporary social
issue of poverty and inequality relates with these two disciplines.
The theories of sociology and psychology are largely beneficial for the evaluation and detection
of the issue relating to poverty and inequality along with finding out the way in which humans
behave because of the prevalence of the issue. For example, the interpretivist theory in sociology
states that human behaviour is seen as an outcome from the subjective interpretation that they
have about the environment (Sawyer, 2017). As a result, it can be said that the existence of
poverty and inequality occurs because of the interpretation that humans have from the
environment. On the other hand, the social identity theory of psychology mentions that groups to
which an individual belongs gives them a sense of social identity and is dependent over their
individual group memberships (Hogg, 2016). As a result, when individuals associate themselves
with a group within which there is a prevalence of income inequality, unemployment and such
other aspects, their social identity tends to fall under the category of the ones prevailing under
poverty and inequality.
However, an overlap can also be noticed in sociology and psychology (Sclater, 2017). This is
because psychology is about studying the human mind while sociology is about understanding
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human behaviour and it is not possible to evaluate human behaviour unless the working of the
human mind is known and the personality dynamics are examined, which can be done only
through psychology. Thus, it can be easily interpreted that poverty and inequality are related to
sociology as well as psychology since human behaviour has to be observed for understanding the
prevalence of poverty and inequality while human minds have to be known for evaluating and
considering their behaviour. The overlapping of sociology and psychology are interconnected
with poverty and inequality in this way. As a result, in such ways, a relationship of sociology and
psychology can be noticed with poverty and inequality.
Conclusion
Therefore, by the means of the findings of this study, one can find out that poverty and inequality
is one of the major contemporary social issues that the world is facing in the current scenario and
the issues is largely related to the disciplines of sociology and psychology. Despite of the
discrepancies in these two disciplines, an overlap or interrelationship between them can also be
observed amongst the disciplines, which in various ways are connected to poverty and inequality
while helping in the evaluation, examination and measurement of this social issue, the varying
aspects relating to it and its underlying causes.
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Part 3 - Reflection on own identity and self-perception as learner
The reflection that I have on my own identity and the perception that I have for myself as a
learner has enabled in becoming aware of the learning and experiences that I have had during the
recent past after I have joined my degree course. It has helped in reflecting upon the things I
have been able to earn during this unit on “Contemporary Social Issues” and the unit from
semester one “Understanding Individuals and Society”. The reflection over my own identity has
shown me that I am a growing and developing learner and with every passing day on this course
at the University of Bedfordshire, I am becoming a becoming more knowledgeable and confident
with my learning and knowledge. In the current scenario, my identity is of a learner in Semester
2, who has gained wide knowledge on individuals and the society along with sociological and
psychological theories in the previous semester and has gained an understanding of the
contemporary social issues in this semester.
Based upon the self-perception of mine as a learner, I assess myself to be having an in-depth
knowledge and understanding of the disciplines relating to psychology and sociology along with
having understanding of contemporary social issues such as poverty and inequality. I have
gained the understanding of the causes that lead to the occurrence of poverty and inequality
along understanding how this contemporary social issue is linked with the discipline of sociology
and the discipline of psychology. I consider myself as a learner who has the awareness of the role
that sociology as well as psychology has in gaining an understanding of the various social issues
along with the behaviour of individuals within the society. The two semesters of my course has
helped me in understanding how individuals behave within the society along with the varying
major theories relating to the sociology discipline and the psychology discipline, which in turn
has been helpful for me in the application of the theories in evaluation of the issue of poverty and
inequality.
This knowledge and understanding as a learner has also been helpful for me in the demonstration
of the relationship, which is existent between poverty and inequality with the disciplines of
sociology and psychology. I have also been able to verify how sociology and psychology are
overlapped and interlinked with one another despite of the several discrepancies and disparities
existent in the disciplines due to the interrelationships amongst human behaviour observation and
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the evaluation of the human mind. The self-perception that I have about myself as a learner at the
University of Bedfordshire, tells me that I have been able to gain an understanding on the
contemporary problems persisting within the society along with examining how sociologists and
psychologists attempt over explaining the chief issues and concepts associated with
communities, societies and individuals. I have also been able to enhance my knowledge,
confidence and skills through handling and verification of challenges in my own learning along
with working on the ways in which I can progress.
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Reference List
Atkinson, A.B., 2015. Inequality. Harvard University Press.
Differencebetween.net., 2019. Difference Between Psychology and Sociology | Difference
Between. [online] Available at: http://www.differencebetween.net/science/difference-between-
psychology-and-sociology/#ixzz5D1kfAbJL [Accessed 20 Aug. 2019].
Hagenaars, A.J., 2017. The definition and measurement of poverty. In Economic Inequality and
Poverty: International Perspectives (pp. 148-170). Routledge.
Hogg, M.A., 2016. Social identity theory. In Understanding peace and conflict through social
identity theory (pp. 3-17). Springer, Cham.
Pettinger, T., 2019. Causes of Relative Poverty in UK | Economics Help. [online]
Economicshelp.org. Available at:
https://www.economicshelp.org/macroeconomics/inequality/causes_poverty/ [Accessed 20 Aug.
2019].
Sawyer, R.K., 2017. Unresolved tensions in sociocultural theory: Analogies with contemporary
sociological debates. In Introduction to Vygotsky (pp. 147-165). Routledge.
Sclater, S., 2017. The Uses of Narrative: Explorations in Sociology, Psychology and Cultural
Studies. Routledge.
Thibaut, J.W., 2017. The social psychology of groups. Routledge.
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