Introduction
Psychological impacts are manifested in human life as a result of extremity in life values that we interact with. All situations and phenomenon that human beings find themselves in must be accompanied by a particular attitude, which ultimately creates an impact in the psychological set up. Psychological studies have long developed enthusiasm among researchers in an urge to identify how the interaction with distinct factors within a human environment impacts on psychological dimensions.
All types of factors are responsible for every type of psychological impact, be it social, political, environmental or economical factors. However, many factors have been weighed and carefully evaluated and found to be the causative agents of distress, wrong attitudes, as well as negativity. In addition, societal set up constitutes of people that possess differences in terms of individuality, perceptions, as well as reactions. Thus, different situations impact differently on their lives as well as their psychological reasoning.
Our cultural set up also determines how we perceive societal issues, for instance, colour, races, sexism, employment, poverty etc. Moreover, the psychological impacts are manifested in different people depending on their attitudes towards arising and normal societal issues (Hook, et al., 2004).
The objective of this paper is to investigate into the psychological impacts that are associated with several social-political factors. These will include unemployment, homelessness, as well as ageism. Moreover, it is crucial to describe the potential impact of these social-political factors on the “psychological development, distress, and behavior on a culturally diverse individual” (Hook, et al., 2004).
An overview of psychological impact
Psychological impacts are the inner personal feelings that influence an individual’s conscience, as a result of interactions within the human environment. The individual’s areas that are affected include behavior, attitudes, and the status of emotions. The main contributing agents to the transformation in human attitudes and behavior are social, political, moral, and economic factors that we interact with in our daily lives.
Psychological impact may be manifested either positively or negatively in the life of an individual, depending on the dimension taken by the causal factors. Examples of the social-political factors that influence an individuals attitudes are; unemployment, poverty, diseases, disabilities, sexuality, homelessness, inequality in work places, divorce racism etc. These social-political factors impact on an individual distinctly depending on perceptions, cultural background as well as beliefs (Hook, et al., 2004).
On the other hand, the society is made up of people that belong to diverse cultures, thus concepts of multicultural values impact distinctly upon the societal individuals. Individual’s perceptions and thoughts in relation to diversity make up the distinct cultures found in a societal set up. More over, the interaction of different cultures within a community play a key role in designing personal values and beliefs regarding societal issues, which in turn impact differently on individuals.
Some groups in a society share characteristics, nevertheless, interaction with environmental factors are always the transformation agents that change one’s morals and behaviors. It is also important to note that the social-political factors often have very pronounced psychological impacts on the human as well as the societal life. Three social-political factors and their psychological impacts are herein discussed (Hook, et al., 2004).
Homelessness
Homelessness has become a contentious issue in the recent years. All kinds of people from distinct cultural, social, and political backgrounds are capable of becoming homeless. A home is necessary as a basic need for human beings to lead a normal life; however, it is not always definite that all have a home to live in. Tragic consequences are generally produced in the lives of many individuals as a result of homelessness. The most likely effect is a psychological strain, which contributes to most people losing hope in all that they do in life.
It is also likely for the homeless people to suffer distress in their emotions, a causal factor of disorders that move one’s emotions drastically, when the problem of homelessness becomes a reality.
Of all heavy issues, loss of a home that comes unexpectedly due to fire outbreak or other related issues creates a sudden gap in an individual’s confidence, thus becoming a major source of depression for many people. More over, this does not only affect the life of the infected, but also of the affected since the society has to get involved in restoring the individual lest they be overtaken by psychological illnesses (Pol, 2006).
At the same time, homeless people carry very heavy burdens in the feeling that they ere not safe in their surroundings, and may lack the challenge of inadequate privacy. Especially when the problem becomes prolonged, the mechanisms originally invented to help cope with the trouble do wear away leaving victims suffer depression, which is a fatal problem.
It is also crucial to mention that, people who normally become homeless after a long history of suffering, for instance women who have formerly suffered sexual harassment; it becomes so hard for them to absorb the shock. It is highly possible that psychological trauma will be the result, and so hard to find cure for such a challenge. Homeless people are also limited in accessing social benefits since they are considered low. For instance, education becomes a secondary asset in their lives.
Mostly, orphans are and single parent children have a tendency to face these challenges, a factor which creates self-hatred and failure attitudes in their lives. Most important, lack of a home renders one so anxious about so many issues that surround his life. Anxiety has been proved to cause serious mental stresses that sometimes are so hard to heal, eventually leading to premature deaths (Pol, 2006).
Ageism
A society is usually characterized by three categories of people, who are sorted in accordance to sex, age, and race. Earlier research findings on ageism have reported that age is a virtue that is highly valued in the United States. Old people are the most successful ones in a society, having overcome so many challenges in life. In some few communities, the aged are always considered as wise and the source of a society’s blessings.
However, recent have seen the issue of age become a ground for criticism in all aspects. Today, people hate becoming old to the form of prejudice that the old are exposed to in the modern society. The stereotyping results have always described old people as physically sick, senile, vulnerable, and ineffective in terms of sex. The modern society has failed to embrace the natural process of ageing due to the fact it has a lot of vulnerability as well as social limitations (Stanford, 2009).
Reaching the age of retirement does not mean that old people have lost their vigor creativity or productivity. Bu the society has been corrupted to an extent of not considering old age as a valuable gift. Therefore, the negative societal perceptions have contributed to the old perceiving themselves wrongly. They feel neglected in the society and some even feel useless and unworthy. This eventually leads to a psychological trauma, ultimately leading to an individual’s death before their designed age.
Their psychology becomes too weak to absorb the societal perceptions and misconduct towards them. Other societies have even forgotten to feed the old who are helpless in the feeling that they have no major benefits in the society.
Distresses as well as depression are psychological impacts that normally affect the old in the feeling that the society hates them with a passion. Research studies have shown that only about 7.5% of the aged in the whole world are able to cope with the modern corrupt society, and live up to the expected standards in their time (Stanford, 2009).
Unemployment
With the current increment in population numbers all over the world, unemployment problem has raised an alarm. Today’s world constitutes of educated and enlightened people at all heights, but who are jobless and generally desperate. However, as the rate of jobless people increases, many people’s minds are filled with endless psychological disturbances. The fact that young people have no experience has rendered majority of them to live jobless or even performs poor-paying jobs.
Of all other psychological impacting pressures, Unemployment has become an issue of concern, causing the most pronounced effects on the life of a human being. First, lack of a job renders one so anxious about so many issues that surround his life. Anxiety has been proved to cause serious mental stresses that sometimes are so hard to heal, eventually leading to premature deaths (Deprez, 2009).
Additionally, unemployment is a major source of hopelessness, where an individual ends up becoming desperate, and this has effected negatively in the society today. Desperate individuals are a target for many spears of life, since it is easier for them to compromise even on unintended issues. It is also evident from research that unemployment has been a source of rampant educational criticisms, in the feeling that education has become useless.
Today people have become so educated, equipped with all forms of skills, but the employment industry is overall frustrating. Similarly, there is always a feeling that the undersigned curriculum is so demanding than the fruits are in the employment industry. This attitude has been a common source of depression for many people especially the young, who feel much neglected in the society today. Depression has been reported as a main fatal disease that has killed many people, who in the feeling that are neglected die easily (Deprez, 2009).
More over, many unemployed people often feel much embarrassed, and hate sharing about the same issue since they feel that it is their failure or their fault not to be employed. This kind of embarrassment leads to endless shame, a factor that ruins societal relationships. The unemployed feel helpless and useless in the society for not being in a position to participate in societal development through their knowledge and skills.
Hatred is also an issue that has taken pre-eminence, where the jobless feel that those employers are demanding too much from helpless people, thus end up developing the wrong attitudes. Occasionally, joblessness in the family has resulted in physical and psychological trauma, where parents are not able to feed their young ones.
It also a major component that plays a key role in the rampant divorce that occurs in the modern world. Distress is a major characteristic and indications of joblessness in many individuals. Therefore, it is evident that psychological impacts felt as a result of unemployment have radical and pronounced psychological impacts in human life (Deprez, 2009).
Conclusion
Psychological impact portrays the transformation in the human psychological set as a result of the interplay of distinct forces in the human environment. However, the impacts on human psychology largely depend on the kind of environment that one is subjected to. The individual as well as the societal culture are determinant factors for the extremity of the psychological impact. More over, these impacts are felt due to challenges in coping mechanisms in an individual’s environment.
At the same time, the psychological impacts are characterized by major signs as depression, distress, anxiety, hopelessness etc. Nevertheless, more empirical and theoretical studies should be conduced to establish the relevant strategies that would be utilized in order to overcome fatal psychological impacts.