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A sociological perspective Essay The term inner city life refers to the system of life of those people, who are underclass, cut off from the regular city life. Yet the elemental building blocks of their lives-work, family, community all exists, however in corrupted forms. A sociological perspective: Inner city residents are underpaid socially disorganised, where no one trusts the other and each has to struggle for existence in highly unfavourable conditions. The most precise way to explain inner city life in sociological terms is to consider 1. Criminality: The absence of proper means of existence leads to the demolition of the laws of the community and every member lives by preying on his fellow citizens. 2. Illegality: Due to the absence of proper family values, and absence of fathers in many cases, the young ones tend to grow up devoid of any values and ethics, unready to take the responsibilities of life and family which they have to undertake at a young age. In other words, they are improperly socialised. Moreover, financial, emotional and intellectual deficits aggravate the situation. 3. Schooling: A teacher has a significant contribution is shaping the lives of children. However teachers in inner city life differ from that of the city teachers on various grounds, teaching experience, certification and involvement with the students. In the inner cities there is a dearth of teachers leading to the appointment of less qualified teachers. The more a teacher spends time with her students, the more are they motivated to come up in life? Not only that, proper cooperation of the teachers help children gain confidence, getting a better idea about life. However, lack of cooperation from the teachers leads to a sense of helplessness among the students and leads them to question their own capabilities. 4. Community influence: apart from school, the time a child spends in his community also shapes his personality. Increased prevalence of poverty, exposure to violence and absence of parents at home leads a child to spend most of his after school time in his community. Absence of structured programs or opportunities is reasons enough for the children to go astray. For example, a black family living in a white dominated area has to face sneers and remarks against their race, which has a negative impact on the children. An economic perspective: The most important reasons which effect youths in inner city are: 1. Lower socio economic status: social disadvantage is associated with increased stress among adults throughout the socioeconomic gradient. One of the foremost reasons for this is the stressful working conditions of the youth. Most of the times, they are made to work under extreme conditions. They are made to do menial jobs and are highly underpaid. Most of the times they are unable to provide for themselves the bare necessities of life. Indulging in criminal activities thus becomes an obvious option. 2. Poverty: this is one condition of existence which hampers their growth. Living in poverty can lead to a deficiency in food, clothing, shelter which all people need to fulfil their growth needs. Poverty is the main source of stress, strain, anxiety and frustration among children which need to be overcome. In absence of the basic needs of existence, children often tend to move towards criminal activities. A psychological perspective: Social disadvantage is related to increased stress among inner city circles. One explanation for this is that as one goes down the socioeconomic order, they have fewer psychological resources to meet this stress because of such challenging circumstances. Because these are abilities and resources those individuals draw upon while stressed, to withstand the threats from the environment. According to Gallo and Mathews, the relative lack of resources is mainly due to depletion, with lack of replenishment of the existing resources and also due to a continuous interruption in the process of development. Economic instability, racism, adequate coping methods, negatively affects the psychology of the people mainly the youth. This is actually the critical period of development in which definite behavioural and psychological patterns are formed which exists throughout. This is termed as â€Å"reserve capacity† â€Å"Psychological† and â€Å"Environmental† perspectives are the two main categories in this field. The first emphasises on objective events and conditions, associated with effective adaptive demands, while the latter focuses on individuals’ subjective evaluation of oneself and one’s abilities to cope with the demands. It stresses that â€Å"stressors† are environmental events or conditions that impose stress on individuals and â€Å"stress† is a person’s appraisal to these conditions as taxing or threatening to their psychological makeup. Among the youth, this stress is subject to their level of optimism, adequacy of coping styles, personality traits and other factors.