Poverty, Personality, and Sensitivity to Residential Stressors

In: Environment and behavior: eb ; publ. in coop. with the Environmental Design Research Association, Band 13, Heft 2, S. 131-163

Abstract

This study evaluates two theories of poverty, one which asserts that poverty and the behavior of the poor are explained by such situational variables as occupation, status, and income and the other which explains poverty in terms of personality traits associated with the so-called Culture of Poverty. Specifically, we test the relative importance of both situational and personality attributes associated with poverty in explaining variations in the individual's evaluation of the residential environment. The study shows that although situational variables are the more important ones, both attributes are indeed significant in the evaluation process.