Psychology

details attached, the only has to be from a documentary named “Unnatural Causes” episode “not just a paycheck” unfortunately I could not include the documentary it self it was only on our university site private the website that I included has the full transcript of the episode and some clips, 1 page answer for each prompt. thank you

Short-Answer Questions

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Short-Answer Questions

How income cuts and job losses would affect my family and community

With our household income cut by half and some of the earners laid off, a lot would change within the family in terms of how we live, the things we buy, the food we eat, the relationships within the family, our mental health, and personal behaviors. The first thing that we would do is a re-evaluation of our daily and monthly expenses. There would be a need to cut down our expenses by half to ensure that we do not run out of cash. We would have to relocate to a cheaper house or neighborhood to minimize the family’s rental expenses. The food we eat would be different since the amount of money available for food purchases would decrease. We would go for cheaper meals or reduce the number of meals that we take every day. With such changes in livelihood, optimism and a sense of hope for the future would fade quickly, and the mental health of the family members would be affected negatively. This effect is illustrated in the documentary – “the local hospital’s caseload tripled because of depression, alcoholism, and domestic abuse” (Baynard & Chisolm, 2008).

Relationships between parents and children, siblings, and neighbors would be ruined since people would be bitter and some would not cope with the new reality well. The community would also be negatively affected by the changes resulting from decreased household incomes and job losses. The ability of families to pay off debts and mortgages would be crippled. Home sales would go down since people would have a lesser disposable income to afford homes. The documentary states that before the loss of jobs due to closure of the factory, “workers led a middle-class life – owning homes, buying new cars and taking vacations” (Baynard & Chisolm, 2008). With job losses, the people ended up scraping by on severance pay and unemployment benefits that would end within the first year. Property values would fall due to a decrease in demand, while investment, business development, and the maintenance of physical spaces would decrease significantly. Crime would increase due to the lack of income sources for families.

How social protections like universal health care, secure pensions, job training and placement assistance, 80% unemployment pay, income supports for families, paid parental leave, and universal childcare reduce the stress and associated poor health effects of SES-related strains

Social protections are nationally defined sets of basic social security benefits that ensure that all people have access to services and benefits that are deemed necessary for all. Social protections such as secure pensions and universal health care protect people from the harsh effects of strains that result from unemployment, pay cuts, and layoffs, and job insecurity. They ensure that people continue to have access to services such as healthcare, education, and access to food even when facing challenges such as unemployment and layoffs (International Labour Organization, 2020). Universal healthcare ensures that people without jobs or those facing layoffs access to essential healthcare services. Secure pensions ensure that the elderly who have retired continue having enough income to take care of themselves. Job training and placement assistance are put in place to make it easy for people to transition to new jobs and work environments without a lot of struggles or challenges.

Child benefit packages and universal childcare facilitate access to education and healthcare for children, which helps break the intergenerational poverty cycle by ensuring that families stay above the poverty line even when incomes have been cut off. Through such social protections, families are relieved of the financial strains or burden of education and medical care. Income support for families helps families to avoid poverty, establishing security for families with low or no income, and enabling them to invest in their productive capacities. Without these social protections, families would not be shielded from the negative effects of SES-related strains, which would increase poverty rates.

References

Baynard, J., & Chisolm, R. (2008). Unnatural causes: Is inequality making us sick?.

International Labour Organization (2020). “Social Protection.” ILO | Social Protection Platform | Theme | Why a Social Protection Floor?. www.social-protection.org/gimi/ShowTheme.action?id=2485.

EPISODE LINK

https://unnaturalcauses.org/episode_descriptions.php?page=7

Short-answer Questions

Based on Documentary: Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick, Episode “Not Just a Paycheck”

Please respond to the following prompts, including examples from the documentary:

• In the documentary, laid-off workers found that unemployment payments or wages from available jobs cut their income by at least 50%. Further, psychologist Rick Price reminds us that, “involuntary job loss isn’t just something that affects a particular individual…it ripples through whole families and communities.” Assume that earners in your household were laid off and your household income was reduced by half. Explain how these changes would affect your family and community. For example, consider some of the following ways in which job loss or reduced wages might affect:

• Where you live
• What you and others typically eat
• Yours and others’ mental health, optimism, and sense of hope for the future
• Relationship with parents, siblings, other family members, neighbors
• Ability to pay off mortgages and/or other debts
• Property values and home sales
• Upkeep and maintenance of physical spaces
• Public services (e.g., libraries, community programs)
• Schools and senior centers
• Business development and investment
• Crime and personal behaviors

• Socioeconomic-related factors such as layoffs, unemployment, and job insecurity have a negative effect on health. Public policies that provide a social safety net can buffer unemployed workers and their families from economic disruptions and uncertainties that affect health. How might social protections like universal health care, secure pensions, job training and placement assistance, 80% unemployment pay, income supports for families, paid parental leave, and universal childcare, to name a few public policies, reduce the stress and associated poor health effects of these SES-related strains?