Socio-Economic Environment and Human Psychology

Book excerpt: Edited by Ay,se K. Üskül and Shigehiro Oishi, Socio-Economic Environment and Human Psychology focuses on the social and economic conditions that impact on every aspect of an individual's life cycle. This edited collection showcases a variety of approaches to the study of the role of the social and economic environment in human psychological processes, such as: judgment and decision-making, trust, the self, and happiness. Further, it brings together state-of-the-art research from the fields of psychology, anthropology, economics, epidemiology, and evolutionary science. Illuminating how individuals think, feel, and behave in response to the social and economic conditions and settings that shape our daily lives, contributors to this volume explore the role played by economic conditions (wealth, scarcity, disasters); economic change (urbanization, socio-economic mobility); and the type of economic activity or structure (farming, herding, market economy) in the shaping of different psychological processes. As a result, the findings presented in this volume provide readers with important policy implications that have the potential to help to improve the psychological health of citizens at large.