FEAR OF POVERTY –VERIFICATION OF ITS RELATIONSHIP TO SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS AND SELECTED PERSONALITY VARIABLES

• Authors: Kačmárová Monika , Babinčák Peter , Vargová Dana
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

In psychology literature, the interest in poverty is traditionally represented by two constructs –poverty attributes (Feagin, 1972; Heider, 1958) and the attitudes to poverty (Cozzarelli, Wilkinson, & Tagler, 2001). The present study proposes the concept of "the fear of poverty", which appears to be accessible to psychological research. In addition, based on the information from various transnational surveys (such as Eurobarometer), the concept presents the present reality for a considerable part of the Slovak population. When analyzing the fear of poverty, there are two ways of conceptually understanding this. One represents the view that the fear of poverty can be a manifestation of a more general personality trait, which predisposes the person to uncertainty and fear of future material shortage. The other possibility is to consider the fear as the emotional consequence of the person's unfavorable economic or social situation. The aim of the research was to examine the relationship between the indicators of socio-economic status (financial stress, education, employment status) and selected personality traits (neuroticism, extraversion, conscientiousness) to the fear of poverty. In the present research, the hypotheses about the relationship between personality variables (neuroticism in particular) and the indicators of socio-economic status (financial stress) to the fear of poverty were confirmed. Moreover, another hypothesis about the assumed interrelationship between them was formulated. The research carried out was the first attempt (at the national level) to explore the issue of the fear of poverty with a focus on psychological variables, and thus aimed at enriching the knowledge base in an area which has traditionally been dominated by economic and social sciences.

Keywords

EN

FEAR OF POVERTY; PERSONALITY TRAITS; SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS

• Publisher: Slovak Academy of Sciences, Institute of Social Sciences
• Journal: Človek a spoločnosť. Internetový časopis pre pôvodné teoretické a výskumné štúdie z oblasti spoločenských vied
• Year: 2019
• Volume: 22
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 44 - 53

Contributors

author

Kačmárová Monika

• Institute of Psychology, Faculty of Arts, University of Prešov, Slovak Republic

author

Babinčák Peter

author

Vargová Dana

Identifiers

DOI

https://doi.org/10.31577/cas.2019.01.552