In today’s society and in the past years, socioeconomic status has been and continues to be a regarding topic. When analyzing an individual, one must consider the subjects’ education, income, and occupation to develop a reliable conclusion of their standard of life. I believe that socioeconomic factors play a huge role in a person’s life and I will demonstrate this through the comparison of different individuals. According to the American Psychological Association, socioeconomic status is the “social standing or class of an individual or group. It is often measured as a combination of education, income and occupation”. Socioeconomic status has a substantial effect on the lifestyle of an individual. Education, income, and occupation are all factors of socioeconomic status and are aspects of everyone’s life whether we excel in these areas or not. Those who excel in these categories tend to live well off while on the other hand those who fall behind tend to live very poor or mediocre lives. I believe that socioeconomic status is a relevant and growing topic of interest in today’s society as it continues to affect various important aspects of life. Studies have been done to test the effects of socioeconomic status on learning abilities, health, family relationships and even obesity but there are no recognized studies currently on its effect on one’s lifestyle in general. This is undoubtedly a topic that needs to be further researched in hopes of one day better understanding the issue. There is a significant difference in the lifestyles of those with opposite socioeconomic statuses. This semester we have read two works that demonstrate this difference, The Rise of Silas Lapham and The Friends of Eddie Coyle. While these two stories h... ... middle of paper ... ...t Coyle within the text by including the facts that he was a short stocky man and that one of his hands had been severely scared from a previous business deal. Since, The Friends of Eddie Coyle is written in complete dialogue the perception of Coyle must be drawn based on the conversations he holds with his “friends” within in the novel. While sitting and talking with a supplier Coyle depicts his true feelings about his life saying, “I bust my ass all day to take home a hundred and seventy bucks a week,” (Higgins, 29). At this moment the reader can really see how Coyle is struggling and working hard to just simply get by. Not only did Coyle have himself to support but, also his family. Ultimately, based on their socioeconomic status these two men were lead to live completely different lives. The major difference being their occupations: entrepreneur vs. gunrunner.
Social determinants of health (SDOH) are increasingly becoming a major problem of Public Health around the World. The impact of resources and material deprivation among people and populations has resulted in an increase in mortality rate on a planetary scale. Social determinants of health are defined as the personal, social, economic and the environmental conditions which determines the health status of an individual or population (Gardner, 2013). Today’s society is characterized by inequalities in health, education, income and many other factors which as a result is becoming a burden for Public Health around the world. Research studies have shown that the conditions in which people live and work strongly influenced their health. Individuals with high levels of education and fall within the high income bracket turn to have stable jobs, live in the best neighborhood and have access to quality health care system than individuals who have low education and fall with the low income bracket. This paper is to explain different social determinants of health and how they play ...
and it manifests itself in a multitude of cultural and social ways.” The author discussed the problems that occur from economic and social classes. The purpose of this argument is to debate on what kind of people will be successful in life. Everyone has a shot at being successful, and that they do with it is
Having a family of low socioeconomic status inevitably leaves me to reside in a low-income neighborhood which makes it more likely for me to witness the tragedies, adversities and hardships that people go through [not excluding myself]. Being conscious of this kind of environment, and these kinds of events, creates a pressure on me for having the aim to achieve social mobility in order to escape the aforementioned environment so that my own children could witness one less abominable aspect of life. Moreover, my family’s low socioeconomic status does not authorize me the privilege of being raised with the concerted cultivation method that kids of high socioeconomic status are more prone to being raised in. My family did not have the financial resources that granted us access to extra classes or lessons of instrumental classes, swimming practices, karate practices, or any other extracurricular activities that people of high socioeconomic status would be able to afford. This invisible fence that prevents me from these extracurricular activities enables me to having more appreciation towards the hobbies and talents that other people have. Plus, the fact that my family’s low socioeconomic status acts as a barrier from enjoying expensive luxuries in life creates a yearning [in me] to enjoy them later on in my life, in addition to acting as the fuel to my wish of achieving social mobility in anticipation of providing my own children with the luxurious vacations, gadgets, beachhouse, new cars that I could not
Children are influenced by a wide variety of things whether it may be the media that teaches children how to behave or their peers who shape them to be socially acceptable, or maybe even their parents who raised them to discover their own identity. But while there are many obvious influences in a child’s life, there is one that is subtle than the rest: the surrounding environment that the children grew up in, more specifically the neighborhood’s socioeconomic status. Socioeconomic status (SES) is a measure or position of a person’s economic and sociological work experience on a hierarchical social structure in relation to others based on income, education, and occupation (The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition, n.d.). It is hard to believe that a neighborhood’s SES has an influence to children but according to Tama Leventhal and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, both of whom are experts in neighborhood context, adolescent context, and individual and community socioeconomic status, concluded that a neighborhood’s socioeconomic status does affect a child’s academic achievement and cognitive abilities.
Health and inequality have always been two very controversial topics in society. Society tends to classify us into a class (or social class) based on an unequal distribution of power, wealth, income, and status (Germov 2015: p. 510). Your socioeconomic status”(SES) is also a major factor in the health inequalities we face in todays society. What does socioeconomic status (SES) even mean?
Outlined within this essay are two sociological theories which have been investigated this will be in conjunction with a contemporary health issue. This then will be related to how the individual’s lifestyle and social class to give the reader a better understanding of this health issue.
Ubiquitous throughout history and across cultures is the concept of rich versus poor. Almost all people fall on a spectrum moving from poverty to affluence. A person’s position on this spectrum is labeled by sociologists as their socioeconomic status. Socioeconomic status, often abbreviated as SES, is measured by a person’s income, education, and career. Socioeconomic status is a pinnacle factor in a person’s life, affecting their lifestyle, relationships, and even, as with Dick and Perry, criminal potential. Low socioeconomic status has been shown to correlate with chronic stress, education inequality, and a variety of health problems including hypertension,
To demonstrate these realities, he provides profiles of “typical” and not-so-typical lifestyles in America, all of which differed in many aspects. After analyzing the socioeconomic statuses of each profile, he provides evidence explaining how people’s situations affect their status, health, and education.
Wilkinson, R. G., & Marmot, M. G. (2003). Social determinants of health: The solid facts.
Socio-economic class or socio-economic status (SES) may refer to mixture of various factors such as poverty, occupation and environment. It is a way of measuring the standard and quality of life of individuals and families in society using social and economic factors that affect health and wellbeing ( Giddens and Sutton, 2013). Cockerham (2007 p75) argues: ‘Social class or socioeconomic status (SES) is the strongest predictor of health, disease causation and longevity in medical sociology.’ Research in the 1990s, (Drever and Whitehead, 1997) found out that people in higher SES are generally healthier, and live longer than those in lower SES.
Economics of Reich “Why the Rich are getting Richer and the Poor, Poorer” written by Robert Reich, describes as the title says, why the rich are getting richer and the poor, poorer. In Reich’s essay, he delves into numerous reasons and gives examples of each. It makes one wonder if the world will continue on the path of complete economic separation between the rich and the poor. One very important factor Reich examines in his essay is that large corporations are always trying to find the edge, whether that is new technology or cheaper wages. One may ask, how does that affect me?
...0). This should be considered when measuring the impact of the evidence illustrated in table 1. While investigation is still in its infancy, researchers are examining the influence of different dimensions of social class and its various associations with health, thus allowing more accurate connections to be made. For example, improvements have been made to the classification process with the introduction of the NS-SEC. Widely regarded as a more precise measure than the Registrar General’s Social Class classification, and now widely used in ONS, the NS-SEC addressed many of the discrepancies associated with the old classification (Donkin et al., 2002b). This classification is present in the evidence illustrated in table 2 and figure 1. Both sets of evidence clearly demonstrate that health inequalities, in relation to social class, have increased in the 21st century.
In our culture, money, status, and social power all play a part in how individuals think that others perceive them. There is growing evidence that shows the link between socioeconomic status and unhealthy psychological outcomes in mental health. When looking at higher levels of socioeconomic status for youth it shows a more positive and healthy psychological outcome for youth and their mental health. Studies have shown that there are higher rates of attempted suicide, cigarette smoking and engaging in episodic heavy drinking (“Pardon Our Interruption”). Other studies have shown that lower levels of socioeconomic status have been linked to emotional and behavioral difficulties, like anxiety, depression, attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder and conduct disorders (“Pardon Our
In the world today there is a lot of poverty. There is a great divide
Poor people are filled with hope and the desire to help others that are in need of