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Perception des raisons de la pauvreté par des Montréalais canadiens-français. / Understanding the reasons for poverty among French-Canadian residents of Montreal.

Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science/Revue canadienne des sciences du comportement
Authors:
Luc Lamarche at Université de Montréal
Luc Lamarche
Francine Tougas
Francine Tougas
Francine Tougas
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Abstract

Gave a French version of J. R. Feagin's (1972) questionnaire on explanations for poverty (individual, structural, or fatalistic) to groups of Ss in Montreal. Results show that Montreal Ss attributed more importance to structural than to individual explanations (i.e., blamed poverty on the social system rather than on the poor themselves). Demographic variables (e.g., age) associated with the Ss did not appear to influence the results. (7 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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Perception des raisons de la pauvrete par
des
Montrealais
canadiens-francais
LUC LAMARCHE
ET
FRANCINE TOUGAS
Universite
de Montreal
RESUME
Dans une etude effectuee aux Etats-Unis, Feagin (1972) distinguait trois types d'explication
de la pauvrete: individualiste, structural et fataliste. Feather
(1974)
a repris
le
questionnaire de
Feagin aupres d'un echantillon australien. Ces deux auteurs constatent que les Australiens
autant que les Americains ont tendance a blamer les pauvres eux-memes pour leur situation
(raisons individualistes). Cependant, cette perception etait inegalement partagee selon Page,
le statut socioeconomique, etc. Grace a une traduction du questionnaire de Feagin, nous
avons fait
une
enquete semblable aupres d'un echantillon de Canadiens francais de la region
metropolitaine de Montreal, afin de verifier une hypothese selon laquelle il y aurait des
differences entre des groupes de sujets en fonction de certaines variables demographiques.
Les resultats indiquent que les Montrealais de notre echantillon accordent plus d'importance
aux raisons structurales qu'individualistes, c'est-a-dire qu'ils ont plus tendance a blamer le
systeme social que le pauvre lui-meme. Nous suggerons diverses interpretations de ces
resultats. Par ailleurs, nous n'avons pas trouve de differences en fonction de diverses varia-
bles demographiques. Nous reexaminons les resultats de Feagin et Feather a la lumiere de ces
donnees nouvelles et nous formulons des reserves quant a leurs analyses quantitatives.
Dans une etude sur la perception des raisons de la pauvrete, Feagin (1972)
distinguait trois sortes d'explication: individualiste, structurale et fataliste.
Selon l'explication de type individualiste, le pauvre lui-meme est respon-
sable de sa situation defavorisee. L'individu qui explique la pauvrete par
des deficiences structurales rejette le blame sur le systeme social. Par
ailleurs, la malchance, la maladie, etc. relevent
d'une
interpretation des
raisons de la pauvrete du type fataliste. Grace a un questionnaire construct
a partir d'assertions relevees a la suite d'entrevues, Feagin a constate
qu'un echantillon representatif de la population americaine globale at-
tribuait la pauvrete avant tout a des raisons individualistes. Le titre de son
article exprime cette realite: God helps those who help themselves, ce que
Ton pourrait traduire par "Aide-toi et le ciel t'aidera." Les Americains
participent done pour la plupart a une ideologic du succes qui met l'accent
sur la volonte, le travail, la promotion individuelle, l'initiative, autrement
dit, selon eux, "si tu veux, tu peux." Cependant, une analyse plus detaillee
Cette recherche a ete rendue possible grace a une subvention de
1'Universite
de Montreal.
Nous remercions Monique Dussault pour
1'assistance
qu'elle nous a fournie tout au long de
cette recherche.
Les demandes de tires-a-part peuvent etre adressees a Luc Lamarche, Departement de
psychologie, Universite de Montreal, C.P. 6128, Montreal, P.Q.
CANAD. J. BEHAV. SCI./REV. CANAD. SCI. COMP.,
11(1),
1979
... D'une part, des etudes experimentales (Aderman, Brehm, & Katz, 1974;Chaiken & Darley, 1973) demontrent que les sujets qui sont amenes a s'identifier a la "victime innocente" ne la denigrent pas au contraire des resultats obtenus par Lerner et Simmons (1966). D'autre part, Lamarche et Tougas (1979) ont utilise le meme questionnaire que Feagin (1972) aupres de sujets quebecois francophones. Us constatent que les francophones, riches ou pauvres, attribuent la pauvrete principalement a des causes structurales. ...
... La troisieme de ces questions proposait une serie de facteurs que les repondant(e)s devaient evaluer quant a leur importance pour expliquer I'inegalite. En s'inspirant des recherches anterieures (Feagin, 1972;Lamarche & Tougas, 1979), cinq causes structurales ont ete incluses soit: les politiques economiques du Canada, celles du Quebec, celles des Etats-Unis, le systeme politique nord-americain et la discrimination contre les francophones. Les responses a ces cinq questions etant fortement reliees entre dies, nous les avons regroupees pour ne former qu'une seule echelle de causes structurales. ...
... Ainsi, devant leur echec economique, les francophones feraient des attributions externes. Mais ces interpretations expliquent difficilement pourquoi les francophones, riches ou pauvres, attribuent aussi la pauvrete en general a des facteurs externes (Lamarche & Tougas, 1979). Egalement, ce genre de theorisation concoit les attributions comme des phenomemes purement psychologiques sans dimension sociale et culturelle. ...
La représentation des causes de l'infériorité économique des québécois Francophones
Article
Full-text available
  • Jan 1989
Cette recherche a pour objectif d'étudier la représentation des causes de l'infériorité économique des québécois francophones et d'illustrer la pertinence d'un tel facteur pour comprendre la dynamique sociale. Des étudiant(e)s d'université francophones et anglophones, dont la moitié était informée des études économiques démontrant que les francophones ont un revenu annuel moyen inférieur á celui des anglophones, devaient évaluer l'importance de divers facteurs pouvant expliquer cet écart de salaires. Informés ou non, les sujets reconnaissent l'infériorité économique des francophones mais l'interprètent de diverses façons. Les étudiant(e)s anglophones, surtout quand ils ou elles sont confronté(e)s aux études économiques, ont tendance à blâmer le groupe francophone. Les étudiant(e)s francophones ont tendance à blâmer le groupe anglophone et á accorder plus d'importance à des causes structurales. La discussion souligne la dimension, non seulement psychologique, mais aussi sociale et culturelle de ces attributions et propose qu'il s'agit sans doute beaucoup plus que de simples biais cognitifs ou motivationnels.
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... He categorised these responses as individualistic (blaming poverty on dispositional factors within poor people), fatalistic (blaming poverty on fate or bad luck) or structural (blaming poverty on society). In the last twenty years similar research has been conducted in a number of countries: Australia (Feather, 1974); Barabados and Dominica (Payne and Furnham, 1985); Canada (Lamarche and Tougas, 1979); India (Pandey, Sinha, Prakash and Triparthi, 1982;Sinha, Jain and Pandey, 1980;Singh and Vasudeva, 1977); and the UK (Furnham, 1982). In 1992 Gallup/Social Surveys Ltd published a series of polls examining British explanations for domestic poverty finding that a majority blamed environmental ('circumstances') rather than individualistic ('effort') factors (52% and 12% respectively) and that the percentage favouring individualistic explanations had decreased over recent years although 34% agreed that poverty was due to both. ...
... Ltd 1994) found that 15% of people in the UK ascribed the causes of poverty to individualistic factors whereas 42% ascribed the causes to 'injustice in our society'. A wide range of demographic variables have been reported to influence the kinds of explanations people give for poverty including political preference (Commission of the EuropeanCommunities Report, 1977;Furnham, 1982;Griffin andOhenebasakyi, 1993: Pandey et al, 1982;Zucker and Weiner, 1993); nationality (Commission of the European CommunitiesReport, 1977;Feather, 1974;Lamarche and Tougas, 1979;Payne and Furnham, 1985); and income (Feagin, 1972;Feather, 1974;Singh and Vasudeva, 1977;Sinha, Jain and Pandey, 1980). On the whole, these studies have been interested in the explanations people give for domestic poverty rather than poverty abroad. ...
Accounting for Poverty: From Attribution to Discourse
Article
  • Oct 1996
  • J COMMUNITY APPL SOC
In this article it is argued that the attributional literature concerning explanations of poverty is inadequate due to its theoretical presuppositions. It is proposed that a discursive approach is better able to withstand criticism and contribute to a more adequate understanding of poverty accounts. Some examples are given of how a discursive approach might work in practice. Published (author's copy) Peer Reviewed
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... 104) for situational factors, such as low wages. In analogous fashion, "economically colonised" Quebecois used situational attributions more often than their Englishspeaking neighbors (Lamarche & Tougas, 1979). In England, schoolboys attending fee-paying rather than state institutions preferred dispositional explanations (Furnham, 1982b), whereas in Anglo-Australia, Feather (1974) observed that better education and higher income were associated with dispositional rather than situational attributions. ...
Actors, Observers, and Attributions for Third World Poverty: Contrasting Perspectives from Malawi and Australia
Article
  • Apr 1998
“Actors” and “observers” attributions for Third World poverty were assessed. Dispositional attributions were expected to be linked to the withholding of personal donations to overseas aid. A combined total of 582 undergraduates from the University of Malawi (n = 251) and the University of Newcastle in Australia (n = 331) completed the Causes of Third World Poverty Questionnaire, which measures one dispositional factor (Blame the Poor) and three situational factors (Nature, National Governments, and International Exploitation). Strong advocates of donation behavior made the least dispositional attributions, but Malawians blamed dispositions more than did Australians, who blamed situations more than did Malawians. This reversed observer-actor bias underscores the critical influence of community context over societal culture and indicates that social cognition may be relevant to international aid efforts.
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... Contrairement a ce qu'on observe pour les attributions au niveau personnel, plusieurs recherches montrent que, dans 1'explication des faits sociaux, tels que le ch6mage ou la pauvrete, les causes structurelles dominent les attributions internes (Lamarche & Tougas, 1979;Guimond, Dube & Abbondanza, 1984), et que cette tendance augmente avec 1'acculturation dans certains secteurs comme celui des sciences sociales (Guimond, Begin & Palmer, 1989). ...
Positionnement droite / gauche et portraits de groupes politiques. / Left/right positions and portraits of political groups.
Article
Full-text available
  • Jan 1998
The question of how political ideology influences the perception of others is central for an understanding of relations between political groups. To characterize how political positions shape social perception, 95 French students were asked to describe and evaluate four political groups, differentiated as to their proximity and their valorization. A Descending Hierarchical Analysis was applied to the data. The hypothesis of a link between the S's political positioning and the way they used either "dispositional" or "situational" descriptors of political groups was validated. Right-wing Ss used more psychological descriptive categories, while left-wing Ss were more likely to use sociological and political categories. Such perceptive-cognitive processes, linked to ideological patterns, seem to be inseparable from the contents to which they apply, and express the social positioning and the ideological orientations of their authors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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... For example, several studies on political ideology and attributions suggest that ideological conservatives are more likely to attribute poverty to individualistic factors, whereas liberals prefer explanations that emphasise structural or societal causes (Furnham, 1982a(Furnham, , 1983Grin & Oheneba-Sakyi, 1993;Kluegel & Smith, 1986;Pandey, Sinha, Prakash, & Tripathi, 1982;Wagsta, 1993;Williams, 1984;Zucker & Weiner, 1993). The tendency to attribute poverty to individualistic causes has also been linked to personality (Rim, 1984), age (Feagin, 1972;Feather, 1974), income level (Feagin, 1972;Feather, 1974;Singh & Vasudeva, 1977;Sinha, Jain, & Pandey, 1980), education level (Feather, 1974;Singh & Vasudeva, 1977); religion (Feagin, 1972;Feather, 1974;Furnham, 1982b); nationality (Feather, 1974;Lamarche & Tougas, 1979;Payne & Furnham, 1985), and type of academic training (Guimond, Begin, & Palmer, 1989;Guimond & Palmer, 1990). (3) Attributions for DP vary as a function of the speci®c type of poverty being discussed. ...
Poverty in developing nations: A cross-cultural attributional analysis
Article
  • Nov 1999
  • EUR J SOC PSYCHOL
A survey of anti-poverty activists and non-activists in Canada and the Philippines was conducted to assess their beliefs about the causes of poverty in developing nations. Principal components analysis revealed that the respondents' poverty attributions could be distinguished along five main dimensions: exploitation, characterological weaknesses of the poor, natural causes, conflict, and poor government. Group breakdowns revealed several significant differences related to respondents' countries of residence and social ideologies. A path analysis suggested that attributions fully mediated the relationship between social ideology and participation in anti-poverty activism. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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DIFFERENCES IN THE PERCEPTION OF POVERTY OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS / DIFERENCIAS EN LA PERCEPCION DE LA POBREZA DE ESTUDIANTES UNIVERSITARIOS
Article
  • Mar 2022
The objective of this research is to find significant differences according to the perception of poverty of university students. The perception of poverty has its repercussions in the way ofperceiving the causes of social phenomena such as poverty. Through a sample made up of 100 students from 3 universities, it was found that there are significant differences in aspects such as cultural learning theory, theory of powers that be and deterministic theory. It is concluded that the attribution theory can be used to understand the perception of social phenomena such as the causes of poverty.
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Attributions for "Third World" Poverty: Contextual Factors in Australia and Brazil
Article
  • Sep 1998
Western (or "First World") societies continue to be confronted by the ever growing problem of "Third World" poverty. Financial donationsfrom "Western "publics are one possible contribution to seeking remedies, but these partly depend on donor experience and perceptions, which are likely to be indirect and subject to attributional biases. Exposing such biases may help to correct them. This paper compares attributions for Third World poverty between Brazilian "actors" living in a developing economy and Australian "observers" living in a more industrialised one. One hundred textile workers completed Harper et al.'s Causes of Third World Poverty Questionnaire and Lerner's Just World Scale, with both scales back-translated into Portuguese for the Brazilians. Australians were more likely to stress natural disasters, reflecting the focus of their own media, whereas Brazilians consistently emphasised national corruption. These findings indicate the influence of local perspective, thereby implying that there is scope for donor publics to be sensitised to alternative perceptions of poverty.
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The Role of Psychology in the An alysis of Poverty: Some Suggestions
Article
  • Sep 1991
The aim of this article is to draw together research findings in social and organisational psychology literature to illustrate that psychology has a role in helping eliminate poverty. Following an analysis of poverty similar to that of Mehryar (1984) which asserts that the cause and solution of poverty both are politico-economic, it is argued that certain psychological findings (relating to perceptions of poverty and the nature of institutional decision-making systems) may well aid such a struggle.
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Type of Academic Training and Causal Attributions for Social Problems
Article
  • Jan 1990
To provide evidence of the effects of academic training on causal attributions, undergraduates in social science, commerce, and engineering were compared at different points of their training in terms of their explanations of poverty and unemployment. Analyses showed no field differences in causal attributions at the beginning of the 1st academic year but significant differences at the end of the year, with social science Ss blaming the system more than commerce or engineering Ss. Longitudinal analysis showed that, within a 6-mo interval, causal attributions of the Ss changed significantly as a function of their field of study. Differential employment prospects were related to attributional change. Results confirm the hypothesis that exposure to the culture of the social sciences reinforces a system-blame ideology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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Education and Support for Dominant Ideology
Article
  • Jul 2008
  • CAN REV SOCIOL
Utilisant les résultats du sondage national sur la qualité de la vie de 1977, nous avons examiné les quatre hypothèses qui expliquent l'influence de l'instruction sur l'opinion publique au sujet de l'inégalitééconomique. Les hypothèses sont l'instruction, la socialisation, la reproduction, et l'investissement. L'élément français-anglais et les différences d'âge sont examinés également. Les résultats des analyses multivariées favorisent la socialisation ainsi qu'une des versions de l'hypothèse d'investissement. Les problèmes rencontrés au cours de l'étude du concept d'une idéologie dominante et son utilité dans l'analyse du processus de légitimation au Canada, sont discutés également. Using the Quality of Life (1977) national survey, we tested four hypotheses explaining the effects of education on people's beliefs about economic inequality. The hypotheses are enlightenment, socialization, reproduction, and investment. French-English and age differences are also examined. Results of the multivariate analyses favour the socialization and one version of the investment hypotheses. Problems in thinking about the concept of dominant ideology and its utility in analyzing legitimation processes in Canada are discussed.
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Explanations of poverty in Australian and American samples: The person, society, or fate?
Article
A sample of Australian respondents from metropolitan Adelaide rated the degree of importance of 11 reasons for poverty previously used with adult Americans by Feagin (1972). Results indicated that the Australians were less likely to blame poverty on the poor themselves than the Americans. In both Australian and American samples reasons attributing poverty to personal responsibility were judged more important by older age groups and by Protestants compared with Catholics. Responses were also related to differences in sex, occupational status, educational attainment, and income. Factor analysis yielded three factors indicating that the 11 explanations of poverty could be clasified as reasons concerned with socio-economic influences, with personal responsibility, and with personal misfortune. Results were discussed in terms of the psychology of causal attribution and their implications for social change were noted.
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Internal‐External Control in the Motivational Dynamics of Negro Youth*
Article
  • Apr 2010
Internal and external control were used as a basis for understanding the motivational dynamics of disadvantaged individuals. Data, obtained from 2 studies on negro youth, were factor analyzed. Several distinctions, important in understanding negro youth, were related to the locus of control, the effects of fate and chance, and in dealing with systematized social barriers. Aspiration and performance were positively related to belief in one's personal control but negatively related to the general belief about internal control. In dealing with failure, externally oriented youth showed more effective individual aspirations for nontraditional occupations and greater participation in attempts to overcome barriers to negro achievements. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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A Study of Class Consciousness*
Article
  • Jul 2008
  • CAN REV SOCIOL
A partir d'un échantillon aléatoire de la population de London, Ontario, nous examinons l'étendue de la conscience de classe et la relation de cet état d'esprit avec les variables religion, ethnicité et classe sociale. Le degré de conscience de classe ouvrière observe est plus prononcé qu'on le dit habituellement dans le cas du Canada. Des analyses à deux et à plusieurs variables révèlent que la classe sociale a un effet plus prononcé sur la conscience de classe que la religion et I'ethnicité. Les travailleurs manuels sont beaucoup plus portés que les employés non-manuels à exprimer des attitudes sociopolitiques révélant une conscience de classe ouvrière; c'est au niveau des cadres de grandes entreprises que l'on rencontre le plus la conscience l'appartenir à la classe moyenne. Among a randomly drawn sample of London, Ontario, residents we examined the prevalence of class consciousness and the relationship of this state of mind to religious, ethnic, and class variables. The degree of working-class consciousness expressed by the sample was greater than that usually alleged to exist in Canada. Bivariate and multivariate analyses revealed that social class had a far stronger impact on class consciousness than had religious and ethnic factors. Manual workers to a far greater extent than non-manual employees expressed sociopolitical attitudes indicative of working-class consciousness; the greatest amount of middle-class consciousness was found among upper-echelon personnel of large organizations.
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Class, conflict, and mobility. Theories and studies of class structure
  • Jan 1972
  • Y Lamarche
  • M Rioux
  • R Sevigny
Lamarche, Y., Rioux, M., & Sevigny, R. Alienation et ideologie dans la viequotidienne des Montrealais francophones (Vol. 1). Montreal: Presses del'Universitede Montreal, 1973. Lopreato, J., & Hazelrigg, L.E. Class, conflict, and mobility. Theories and studies of class structure. San Francisco: Chandler, 1972.