Research

During our classes, we have explored topic's such as creating a safe space and in what way our own positions influence ourselves but also the space we occupy.
To further explore this topic, our group decided to focus on the class system, which is very much alive in the labour capitalistic world. However, while doing our research we came across "emotional intelligence" and it's importance. Not only will the improvement of emotional intelligence during young years reflect on the gender binaries and intersexuality but also on self-awareness and self- reflection beyond the self.

On this page, you will find the desk research for this project.

Social hierarchy is pervasive across societies and cultures (A. P. Fiske, 1992; Rai & Fiske, 2011). One of the most prominent systems of hierarchy is socioeconomic status (SES), through which societies rank individuals based on their access to both symbolic and tangible resources such as wealth, education, and prestige (Durkheim, 1893/1984; Marx, 1977; Weber, 1968).

Socioeconomic status (SES) focuses on the availability of resources and the freedom they afford as a key determinant of the association between high SES and stronger orientation toward the self and, by implication, weaker orientation toward others.

The Master said [explaining five practices necessary to implement humanity]: “Courtesy, tolerance, good faith, diligence, generosity. Courtesy wards off insults; tolerance wins all hearts; good faith inspires the trust of others; diligence ensures success; generosity confers authority upon others.”
(Analects 17.6, translated by Leys, 1997)

The present research focuses on self-orientation and other-orientation as key psychological dimensions. The distinction between self-orientation and other-orientation refers to the degree to which a certain behavior or attribute is likely to promote and support aspects of either the self (self-orientation) or likely to promote and support aspects of others, including relations with others (other-orientation). For example, striving for one’s personal goals, and expressing and esteeming the self promote the self and thus exemplify self-orientation. Conversely, caring for and helping others, adjusting to others, and valuing one’s social responsibility promotes others or relations with them and thus exemplifies other-orientation.


Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6095715/






One of the ironies of modern Western societies, with their emphasis on meritocratic values that promote the notion that people can achieve what they want if they have enough talent and are prepared to work hard, is that the divisions between social classes are becoming wider, not narrower.

What implications do these changing patterns of wealth and income distribution have for class identity, social cognition, and social behavior?

One might reasonably ask whether and how much it matters that many people whose occupational status suggests that they are middle class describe themselves as working class. Evans and Mellon (2016) show quite persuasively that this self-identification does matter. In all occupational classes other than managerial and professional, whether respondents identified themselves as a working-class or middle class made a substantial difference in their political attitudes, with those identifying as working class being less likely to be classed as right-wing.

Easterbrook and colleagues also showed that objective indicators of a person's SES were robust and powerful predictors of the importance they placed on different types of identities within their self-concepts: Those with higher SES attached more importance to identities that are indicative of their SES position, but less importance on identities that are rooted in basic demographics or related to their sociocultural orientation (and vice versa).







We aim to consider how early years educators in particular are forced to rethink gender assumptions that arise in caring for and teaching children who do gender in nonconformist ways. Sparks fly when educational institutions, including Early Years education settings, come up against gender-nonconforming children. These sparks have the power to ignite a slow but sure revolution towards gender expansion and ‘gender democracy’ Connell (2009).


Source: https://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/id/eprint/140069/1/Accepted_vsn_Transgender_awareness_in_EYE.pdf







Drawing on recent research on the psychology of social class, I argue that the material conditions in which people grow up and live have a lasting impact on their personal and social identities and that this influences both the way they think and feel about their social environment and key aspects of their social behavior. Relative to middle-class counterparts, lower/working-class individuals are less likely to define themselves in terms of their socioeconomic status and are more likely to have interdependent self-concepts; they are also more inclined to explain social events in situational terms, as a result of having a lower sense of personal control. Working-class people score higher on measures of empathy and are more likely to help others in distress. The widely held view that working-class individuals are more prejudiced towards immigrants and ethnic minorities is shown to be a function of economic threat, in that highly educated people also express prejudice towards these groups when the latter are described as highly educated and therefore pose an economic threat. The fact that middle-class norms of independence prevail in universities and prestigious workplaces make working-class people less likely to apply for positions in such institutions, less likely to be selected, and less likely to stay if selected. In other words, social class differences in identity, cognition, feelings, and behavior make it less likely that working-class individuals can benefit from educational and occupational opportunities to improve their material circumstances. This means that redistributive policies are needed to break the cycle of deprivation that limits opportunities and threatens social cohesion.
One of the ironies of modern Western societies, with their emphasis on meritocratic values that promote the notion that people can achieve what they want if they have enough talent and are prepared to work hard, is that the divisions between social classes are becoming wider, not narrower

Source: https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bjso.12251


Classification
https://www.europeansocialsurvey.org/docs/about/conference/SCHNEIDER_HEATH_Uncovering-ethnic-and-cultural-diversity.pdf
“Uncovering ethnic and cultural diversity in Europe: A new classification of ethnic and cultural groups”






Once we allow our work to breathe, to reflect, to sense the difference, it transforms structures around it or structures created through it.
Intersexuality - It takes into account systems of oppression within the world that hold marginalized people in place.
These systems have an impact on our bodies and identities and continue
to affect our work. This is the methodology of intersectionality as it relates to praxis. Whereas intersectionality can be defined by levels of access to privilege, a research-based model of intersectionality recognizes that in moving between the lateral and hierarchical modes of being, one must be cognizant and thoughtful about how in each context there may be differences to take into account.
Once recognizing that there is potentially something cultural about everything around us, to also recognize its constantly changing nature, that culture is fluid, leads one to consider the capacity to change the culture. If culture is fluid and changing, then it can be changed.
Often we feel trapped in one system, and we feel the system is so much larger than we are, but we are the ones who are keeping that system going.
Once we recognize ourselves, we begin to recognize our positions, and how our positions may be at the expense of others, be those others human or non-human. Once we recognize that we are placed in various systems in ways to keep us moving in place, we stop and then slowly realign our ways of experience, our praxis experiences radical change, one in which we might recognize decolonization as care.

Culture and Social Hierarchy: Self- and Other-Oriented Correlates of Socioeconomic Status across Cultures

The psychology of social class: How socioeconomic status impacts thought, feelings, and behavior

Decolonization as care , Uzma Z. Rizvi

Transgender awareness in the early years of education