Psychology assignment.

! Assignment Questions based primarily from textbooks by Williams and de Garcia, assigned readings by Schiller and lecture notes. ! Answer ALL eight (8) questions. Responses must reflect information from lectures, handouts materials from Blackboard, and assigned textbooks. Responses should be a MINIUMUM of three (3) typed, double-spaced pages for each question. Number each question and response.

Questions from Lectures and Reading Assignments: Question 1

There are two opposing perspectives relative to the causes of poverty. (1) The Individualistic Perspective and (2) the Structural Perspective. From the two (2) categories listed below select two (2) theories from each category: Category 1 and Category 2. Discuss in detail how each theory explains why people or countries are poor. Include in your discussion the strengths and weaknesses of each theory, you should discuss a total of four (4) theories. !

CATEGORY 1: Individualistic Perspective a. Flawed Character Theory b. Human Capital Theory c. Biological Theory d. Cultural Theory !

CATEGORY 2: Structural Perspective a. Restricted Opportunity Theory b. Big Brother Theory c. Political Economy Theory d. Critical Race Theory e. Modernization Theory f. Dependency Theory !

Question 2: From assigned reading Schiller Chapters 1 and 2 and lecture notes To achieve a workable and acceptable definition of poverty, two basic economic approaches to the concept of poverty were suggested (i.e. Absolute Approach and Relative Approach). ! Discuss in detail the two approaches showing their (a) similarities/differences, (b) strengths, and (c) weaknesses.

Question 3: From assigned reading Schiller Chapters 1 and 2 and lecture notes Discuss two of the most important formulations of the poverty line (i.e. the President Council of Economic Advisor (CEA), and the Social Security Administration (SSA Index), showing their (a) strengths, and (b) glaring errors ETC. !

Questions from Lectures and Textbook: The Constraint of Race (Introduction and Chapter 1 Question 4

Compare and contrast the politics that created the Freedman’s Bureau with the politics that created the Civil War veteran’s pensions. Be sure to emphasize how a segmented welfare state fused race and social policy in ways to benefit whites (white skin privilege) and adversely affecting people of color (Introduction and Chapters 1). !

Question 5: From lecture notes and textbook: The Constraints of Race (Chapter 2) Critically discuss in detail how the New Deal policies (rather than eliminating White

privilege) expanded White privilege legally, and excluded many African Americans and the

poor from many of its programs (see especially Chapter 2). !

Question 6 : From lecture notes and textbook: The Constraints of Race (Chapter 3) Discuss the various factors, during the 1960’s and mid 1970’s, that led toward the partial inclusion of African Americans and the poor in the American Welfare State. Be sure to also discuss how each leg of the Welfare State continues to privilege Whites (Chapter 3). !

Questions from Lectures and Text: Today’s Globalization Question 7

Discuss the interrelationships among the interests of the economic elites in the stages of the great depressions and the beginning of the Welfare State Reform (1929-1945) the period of Economic Expansion and Welfare State Reform (1945-1970’s), Globalization in the Electronic Age (1980’s-2000) Global Corporation Rule and Neo- Liberalism and end of the Welfare State as “we know it.” (Breaking of the Social Contract) !!

Question 8: From lecture notes and textbook: Today’s Globalization What forces gave rise to the weakening and breaking of the social safety net/ social contract in the period from the 1980s and 1990s to the present? What do we call this new period?