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The Culture of Poverty and Learned Helplessness: A Social Psychological Perspective *
Author(s) -
Rabow Jerome,
Berkman Sherry L.,
Kessler Ronald
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
sociological inquiry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.446
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1475-682X
pISSN - 0038-0245
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-682x.1983.tb01232.x
Subject(s) - learned helplessness , alienation , sociology , subculture (biology) , poverty , social psychology , perspective (graphical) , psychological adaptation , psychology , social science , botany , economics , economic growth , artificial intelligence , political science , computer science , law , biology
This paper links the sociological work of Ball on the analgesic subculture‐a subculture of Appalachian poverty‐with the sociological research of Merton on adaptation, the social psychological research of Seeman on alienation, and the psychological research of Seligman on learned helplessness. We suggest that (1) Ball's cultural explanation work has not been pursued because it has not been integrated with relevant structural and relevant psychological theory and (2) the analgesic subculture of Appalachia is an extreme intensification of the consequences of alienation resulting in a psychology of learned helplessness.