Social class and envy among Chinese undergraduates: Victim justice sensitivity as a mediator

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (6) ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
You-Juan Hong ◽  
Rong-Mao Lin ◽  
Rong Lian
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Negative Emotion ◽  
Social Hierarchy ◽  
Scholarly Research ◽  
Justice Sensitivity ◽  
Lower Social Class ◽  
Subjective Social Class ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Chinese Undergraduates

We examined the relationship between social class and envy, and the role of victim justice sensitivity in this relationship among a group of 1,405 Chinese undergraduates. The students completed measures of subjective social class, victim justice sensitivity, and dispositional envy. The results show that a lower social class was significantly and negatively related to envy and victim justice sensitivity, whereas victim justice sensitivity was significantly and positively related to envy. As predicted, a lower social class was very closely correlated with envy. In addition, individuals with a lower (vs. higher) social class had a greater tendency toward victim justice sensitivity, which, in turn, increased their envy. Overall, our results advance scholarly research on the psychology of social hierarchy by clarifying the relationship between social class and the negative emotion of envy.

scholarly journals Community Environment Perception on Depression: The Mediating Role of Subjective Social Class

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (15) ◽  
pp. 8083
Author(s):  
Liqin Zhang ◽  
Lin Wu
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Psychological Effect ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Community Environment ◽  
Mediating Role ◽  
Environment Perception ◽  
Subjective Social Class ◽  
The Relationship

Depression has become a major social issue of global concern, which has seriously threatened the quality of an individual’s life. Although the relationship between community environment and depression has aroused heated debate, the empirical research on the relationship between community environment perception and public depression is still relatively insufficient. Data for this study are from China Family Panel Studies in 2016, which were conducted by the institute of Social Science Survey, Peking University. This paper has tested group differences in the influence of community environment on public depression, as well as the mediating role of subjective social class between community environment perception and depression, so as to further explore the social psychological effect of community environment. The empirical study found that there are group differences in the impacts of community environment perception on depression. Specifically, men, rural residents, and people aged 60 and under are more likely to be depressed which were affected by the perception of community environment. Furthermore, we have found that the subjective social class can partly mediate community environment perception and depression. That is to say, the perception of community environment can induce depression by influencing the individual’s subjective social class. Among them, community living environment and community public facilities have the greatest impact, community emotional attachment and community security situation have the second impact, and neighborhood mutual aid and neighborhood relationship have the least impact. In other words, the community environment is deeply endowed with a social psychological effect. To ameliorate the public’s depression, it is necessary to consider the construction of community physical environment and the cultivation of harmonious community culture as powerful measures not to be ignored. In short, the important role of community environmental intervention in alleviating the public’s depression caused by social class cognition deserves attention.

scholarly journals A brighter future: The effect of social class on responses to future debt

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 78-107
Author(s):  
Harrison J. Schmitt ◽  
Lucas A. Keefer ◽  
Daniel Sullivan ◽  
Sheridan Stewart ◽  
Isaac F. Young
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Class ◽  
Personal Control ◽  
Lower Class ◽  
The United States ◽  
Exploratory Investigation ◽  
Lower Social Class ◽  
Subjective Social Class ◽  
Brighter Future

The present study serves as an exploratory investigation of the role of social class in responses to the threat of future debt. Previous work has shown that individuals of high and low subjective social class differ in the ways that they respond to a broad range of threats and uncertainties about the future. Across three studies, we found that lower social class individuals expect more future debt and suffer greater attendant stress than higher class individuals (Study 1). We found that experimental manipulations of debt salience increased stress for lower class and not for higher class individuals (Studies 2-3). Likewise, we found that higher class individuals experienced higher affect balance and perceptions of personal control when the possibility of future debt was made salient, specifically as a function of decreased fatalism about future debt (Study 3). These three studies reveal yet another situation in which individuals of lower and higher social class respond differently to threat, and serve as an important step toward understanding the psychological ramifications of rising debt in the United States.

Subjective social class and Internet altruistic behavior among Chinese college students: Mediating role of self-esteem

2021 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Xianliang Zheng ◽  
Zeyi Wang ◽  
Huiping Chen ◽  
Lingqing Yang
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Social Class ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Altruistic Behavior ◽  
Jiangxi Province ◽  
Chinese College Students ◽  
Subjective Social Class ◽  
The Relationship

We explored the role of self-esteem as a mediator in the relationship between subjective social class and Internet altruistic behavior. Participants were 520 Chinese college students from a range of rural and urban areas who were attending a public university in Jiangxi Province. Results show that subjective social class and self-esteem were significantly associated with Internet altruistic behavior, and that selfesteem was a significant indirect mediator of the relationship between subjective social class and Internet altruistic behavior. Implications of the findings are discussed.

scholarly journals Social Class, Group-Based Anger, and Collective Action Intentions in China

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kai Li ◽  
Yan Xu ◽  
Shenlong Yang ◽  
Yongyu Guo
Keyword(s):  
Social Cognition ◽  
Social Class ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Class Group ◽  
Hubei Province ◽  
Social Classes ◽  
Lower Social Class ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Subjective Social Class ◽  
The Relationship

This research examines the anger and collective action intentions among different social classes in China. Based on social cognition theory with respect to social class, we proposed that the relationship between group-based anger and collective action intentions would be moderated by social class. To test this hypothesis, two studies were conducted. First, using data collected from a sample of 100 residents of Hubei Province, China, Study 1 found that the relationship between group-based anger and collective action intentions was moderated by social class: group-based anger can predict collective action intentions among the upper social class but not among the lower social class. Then, Study 2 employed a 2 × 2 completely randomised design. Its 118 participants were manipulated to experience a momentary change in their subjective social class and the level of their group-based anger before measuring their collective action intentions. The results were consistent with Study 1. Taken together, the findings suggest that social class does moderate the relationship between group-based anger and collective action intentions.

Why Does Social Class Affect Subjective Well-Being? The Role of Status and Power

2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 331-348 ◽  
Author(s):  
Siyu Yu ◽  
Steven L. Blader
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Social Hierarchy ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
Prior Work ◽  
Scholarly Research ◽  
Class Status ◽  
The Impact

The link between social class and subjective well-being (SWB) has been an important topic of inquiry, with broad implications for understanding the psychology of social class and the determinants of SWB. Prior research on this topic has focused primarily on the extent to which social class affects SWB and the factors that moderate that impact. We extend prior work by examining the concerns that account for why social class shapes SWB. In particular, we examine the role of status and power in mediating the impact of one’s social class on one’s SWB. Across five studies, we theorize and find that status mediates the impact of social class on SWB and, moreover, that status is a stronger mediator of this link than is power. Overall, these studies advance scholarly research on the psychology of social hierarchy by clarifying the interplay between social class, status, and power in relation to SWB.

Social Class and Wellbeing among Staff and Students in Higher Education Settings: Mapping the Problem and Exploring Underlying Mechanisms

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isla Dougall ◽  
Mario Weick ◽  
Milica Vasiljevic
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Social Class ◽  
Social Factors ◽  
Unique Contribution ◽  
Staff Members ◽  
Class Differences ◽  
High Social Class ◽  
Lower Social Class ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms ◽  
The Relationship

Within Higher Education (HE), lower social class staff and students often experience poorer wellbeing than their higher social class counterparts. Previous research conducted outside educational contexts has linked social class differences in wellbeing with differences in the extent to which low and high social class individuals feel respected (i.e., status), in control (i.e., autonomy), and connected with others (i.e., inclusion). However, to our knowledge, there has been no research that has investigated these factors within HE settings. Furthermore, inclusion, status and autonomy are correlated, yet little is known about how these factors contribute to wellbeing simultaneously, and independently, of one another. To fill these gaps, we report the results of two studies; firstly with HE students (Study 1; N = 305), and secondly with HE staff (Study 2; N = 261). Consistently across studies, reports of poor wellbeing were relatively common and more than twice as prevalent amongst lower social class staff and students compared to higher social class staff and students. Inclusion, status and autonomy each made a unique contribution and accounted for the relationship between social class and wellbeing (fully amongst students, and partially amongst staff members). These relationships held across various operationalisations of social class and when examining a range of facets of wellbeing. Social class along with inclusion, status and autonomy explained a substantial 40% of the variance in wellbeing. The present research contributes to the literature exploring how social class intersects with social factors to impact the wellbeing of staff and students within HE.

Society and the Observer

2020 ◽  
pp. 61-102
Author(s):  
Alex Belsey ◽  
Alex Belsey
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Journal Writing ◽  
British Society ◽  
Social Involvement ◽  
Social Differences ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Social ◽  
Lower Social Class

This chapter analyses how, in his wartime journal-writing, Keith Vaughan articulated the social differences and exclusions that he believed were preventing him from fully participating in British society. In his accounts of failing to connect with those around him, he romanticized his failures and dramatized his distance from others, thereby justifying his exclusion and ultimately ascribing himself the powerful (if lonely) role of observer – a position from which he could assert superiority over his fellow C.O.s and men of lower social class whilst representing them in his sketches, paintings, and bathing pictures. The first section of this chapter considers how Vaughan used the early volumes of his journal to record his difficulties in making contact with his fellow man and reinforce them through self-dramatization. The second section explores the strategies employed by Vaughan to emphasize his difference from other individuals and groups, particularly around his homosexuality and artistic inclinations, and therefore justify and maintain his distance from them. The third section argues that Vaughan constructed an empowering role that made use of his remove from male society: that of the observer, enabling him to laud his own powers of perception whilst evading the problems of social involvement and possible surveillance.

The Use of Blood Money in the Establishment of Non-Justice: Necrodomination and Resistance

2019 ◽  
pp. 160-186
Author(s):  
Cem Özatalay ◽  
Gözde Aytemur Nüfusçu ◽  
Gülistan Zeren
Keyword(s):  
Social Hierarchy ◽  
Judicial Process ◽  
The Social ◽  
Blood Money ◽  
Perpetrators And Victims ◽  
The One ◽  
The Right ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

The use of blood money by powerful people during the judicial process following different kinds of homicides (workplace homicides, state homicides, gun homicides and so on) has become commonplace within the neoliberal context. Based on data obtained from five cases in Turkey, this chapter shows, on the one hand, how the use of blood money serves as an effective tool in the hands of powerful people to consolidate power relations, particularly necropower, as well as the relationship of domination, which rests upon class and identity-based inequalities. The analysis indicates that the blood money offers made by powerful people allows them to minimize potential penalties within penal courts and also to keep their privileged positions in the social hierarchy by purchasing the ‘right to kill’. On the other hand, the resistance of the oppressed and aggrieved people to the subjugation of life to the power of death is analysed with a particular focus on the role of power asymmetries between perpetrators and victims and their unequal positions in the social hierarchy. This conflictual relationship, which we qualify as an expression of necrodomination, offers novel insights into Turkey’s historically shaped system of domination.

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