Interesting research by Liz Gould that tries to look at the psychology of poverty and stress.According to her - "Poverty and stress aren’t just an idea: they are an anatomy. Some brains never even have a chance."
The subject of stress has been the single continuous thread running through Gould’s research career. From the brain’s perspective, stress is primarily signaled by an increase in the bloodstream of a class of steroid called glucocorticoids, which put the body on a heightened state of alert. But glucocorticoids can have one nasty side-effect: They are toxic for the brain. When stress becomes chronic, neurons stop investing in themselves. Neurogenesis ceases.
“Poverty is stress,” she says, with more than a little passion in her voice. “One thing that always strikes me is that when you ask Americans why the poor are poor, they always say it’s because they don’t work hard enough, or don’t want to do better. They act like poverty is a character issue.”
Gould’s work implies that the symptoms of poverty are not simply states of mind; they actually warp the mind. Because neurons are designed to reflect their circumstances, not to rise above them, the monotonous stress of living in a slum literally limits the brain.
1 comment:
Hi. Interesting approach; since basic needs fulfill human nature, were the concepts of "security" and "integrity" are the basement to start to work and put efforts in a committed way as Maslow and Herzberg stated, I deeply believe that this statement could be true. Most of the people under strong poor condition that I know, when they are experimenting deeply stress situations, they quit / stop producing new ideas to overcome the scenarios that they are into. Solutions....? Many people / organizations around the world are working to foster better life standards; but in many situations the "system" blame the people behavior instead to aim the problem. It´s true that people have to put their best efforts to succeed, dreaming and working for it... but the governments have to provide the "minimum access" (good QoS: Quality of Service) to public services, security and judicial stability to create an environment of synergy, where people can develop and use their skills to accomplish and build a systemic "tornado" of growth and happiness.
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