Motivation the Problem of Distancing

Motivation

The Problem of "Distancing"

Bernice Lott's article "Cognitive and Behavioral Distancing From the Poor" is an examination of one component that makes up classism, which is distancing. Lott defines distancing as "separation, exclusion, devaluation, discounting, and designation as 'other' (Lott, 2002, p. 100). The author's stated aim is to look specifically at how psychology contributes to the propagation of classism. The article describes the role psychologists can play in eliminating distancing. Lott tells the reader that this is a crucial time for attention to be focused on this issue, given that the wage gap is so alarming. Lott mentions the institution of the Resolution on Poverty and Socioeconomic Status, a "resolution [that] ends with the promise of advocacy for research, education, training, and public policy in the interest of low-income members of the national community" and its efforts to tie psychology to social justice with regard to poverty (Lott, 2002, p. 100).

Lott makes her case by citing research on a variety of topics (for example, she goes over visibility of issues affecting poor women in psychological literature). She implies that there is not an appreciation among psychologist that, "social class functions…in interaction with other social categories" like gender, race, and ethnicity (Lott, 2002, p. 101). She makes the criticism that psychological inquiry focuses on the middle-class, which she attributes to the fact that fewer psychologists come from poor backgrounds and thus cannot easily relate to classist discrimination. Next the writer takes a step back and gives background as to how power structures are formed. She discusses how labeling the poor as "racial minorities," "inner city," or "white trash" serves to obscure real definitions of poverty and create divisions within groups of poor people (Lott, 2002, p. 102). The haves also create moral divisions to distance themselves from the have-nots.

Cognitive distancing also puts the poor at a disadvantage. It manifests as "negative beliefs about [the poor's] characteristics, negative expectations about their behavior, and the attribution that their poverty is caused by their own failings" (Lott, 2002, p. 102). Lott points out how pervasive stereotyping of the poor can be, specifically since middle-class people (and even politicians) will freely ascribe negative character traits to welfare recipients as a general group. Lott cites studies in which perceptions about poor people are measured, all of which find that the stereotypical depiction of the poor as lazy or lacking in initiative is pervasive in our culture.