Socio-Economic Environment and Human Psychology
This edited volume underlines the value of attending to socioecological approaches in understanding the relationship between the economic environment and human psychology by including state-of-the art research that focuses on the role played by (a) type of ecology and associated economic activity/structure (e.g., farming, herding), (b) socioeconomic status and inequality (e.g., poverty, educational attainment), (c) economic conditions (e.g., wealth, urbanization), and (d) ecological and economic threat (e.g., disasters, resource scarcity) in the shaping of different psychological processes including subjective well-being, construction of the self, endorsement of honor, cognitive styles, responses to social exclusion, food intake, decision-making, health behaviors, and academic outcomes, among others. By doing so the book highlights the importance of situating the individual directly in the everyday realities afforded by economic conditions and settings that provide the material basis of psychological outcomes and contribute to bridging the psychological with the external circumstances. The volume brings together research from different subfields of psychology (cultural, social, developmental) but also from economics, anthropology, evolutionary sciences, and epidemiology that recognizes the importance of individuals’ daily economic realities and their psychological adjustment to those. Reflecting the different (inter)disciplinary approaches presented across the contributions, this volume also showcases the different methods researchers utilize including archival, experimental (lab-based and field), correlational, observational, and agent-based modeling. The findings summarized in this volume have important policy implications, as they point to specific policy agendas that might help improve the psychological and physical health of citizens.