Speaker
Raha Sheivari, York University
Title
The Impact of Income Inequality on Psycho-Social Well-Being
Abstract
In my thesis project, I discuss the issue of income inequality and investigate its relationship to mental health. There is an extensive body of research, mostly in the fields of social epidemiology and health policy, showing that mental health differences are systematically related to income inequality. I investigate the ways in which income inequality has been discussed in psychology, and analyze psychological contributions as well as the research gaps, regarding the relationship between income inequality and mental health. I further unfold this relationship by discussing that societies with high levels of income inequality, experience higher levels of anxiety disorders, depression, addiction, obesity, and teenage births, in comparison to societies with more equal economies. I discuss that income inequality causes mental illness through a complex network of psycho-social pathways. Social status, quality of social relationships, social cohesion, social support, and discrimination are among the major psycho-social pathways identified to have damaging effects on psychological well-being. I argue that income inequality should be understood as a form of structural oppression in psychology, since it is structurally imposed by the processes of powerful social institutions and systematically reproduced through social policies. Finally, I investigate the ways in which greater economic equality can have beneficial impacts on psychological health and argue that it is important for psychologists to address the issue of income inequality, in order to improve the psycho-social well-being of individuals and communities.