In 2003, psychologist, Suniya S. Luthar performed a case study on adolescents brought up by both high and low socioeconomic income families. The aim of this experiment was to explore possible contrasts between the affluent and low-income adolescents. The upper-class youth reported remarkably higher levels of anxiety and depression. Anxiety of the white-collar families scored a 24% versus the normal average: 17%. Similarly, the wealthy male youth tested 59% for the use of illicit drugs compared to the typical 39%.
Luthar proposed two justifications between this correlation among affluent families and high substance use and elevated levels of anxiety and depression. The two theories include pressures to succeed and the isolation from parents or guardians. Many psychologists that study wealthy families tend to notice the “intensely competitive society of the rich.” The youth and adult’s success is demanded and their inadequacy is highly noticeable. These pressures are main causes of the teenager’s anxiety and depression. Likewise, survey findings indicate that more children are left alone when in a high socioeconomic family, rather than a blue-collared household. This dilemma creates negative matters, because of the empty, lonely, adult-less homes. The adolescents feel not connected with their families, they weren’t needed, and they lose their, “fundamental emptiness of purpose.” Ordinary individuals tend to view the prosperous and rich families of this world as “perfect” and “ideal.” While that lifestyle contains its physical perks, there are deeper, psychological complications with this culture, including excessive anxiety and depression. A famous individual known as Christopher McCandless is widely notorious for his disappearance from his family and backpacking through the country where he was eventually found dead in Alaska. McCandless was raised in a highly affluent household and while his extreme actions can be judged as “living an adventure,” some of his behaviors could have stemmed from a deep-seated mental state. Luthar proposed one of the reasons that affluent children are more troubled is their isolation from their parents or guardians. This can certainly apply to McCandless, as his father, Walt, was a prominent aerospace engineer employed by prestigious companies, such as NASA and Hughes Aircraft. Walt and his wife, McCandless’ mother, became entrepreneurs and started a consulting firm, User Systems Inc. While owning their own business, it can be assumed that they would have been office, more than spending valuable personal time at home with their McCandless and the eight other children. The successful User System Inc. …show more content…
brought the McCandless family a fortune, which they used on their children, or at least Chris. McCandless had his final two years of college paid for, he had money for law school, and his parents offered to buy him a car. These examples exemplify Luthar’s other argument, the pressures of an affluent child to succeed. With over sixty-four thousand dollars put into McCandless’ education, it can be assumed that his parents were keen on him to graduate and become an accredited lawyer.
Both the isolation from his parents and pressures to succeed indirectly led McCandless to follow the ideas of the Transcendentalist movement, a series of concepts that emphasize, “in order to understand the nature of reality, one must first examine and analyze the reasoning process that governs the nature of experience.” This quote explains that Transcendentalism is rebelling against what is seen as the current society. The movement also emphasized nature is pivotal in discovering one’s self and others around them. Another consequential idea of the Transcendentalist movement is the concept that money is irrelevant and unnecessary in society. An influential leader in the Transcendentalist movement was Henry David Thoreau who is well known for his simple lifestyle in nature and his famous work, Walden. In these writings, he quotes, “Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb-nail.” In this specific line, Thoreau emphasizes a simple way of life in nature with little wealth. McCandless excels in portraying his desire for a deficiency of personal luxury. He donated the twenty-four thousand dollars in his law school fund to a charity devoted to feeding the hungry. McCandless abandoned his beloved
Luthar proposed two justifications between this correlation among affluent families and high substance use and elevated levels of anxiety and depression. The two theories include pressures to succeed and the isolation from parents or guardians. Many psychologists that study wealthy families tend to notice the “intensely competitive society of the rich.” The youth and adult’s success is demanded and their inadequacy is highly noticeable. These pressures are main causes of the teenager’s anxiety and depression. Likewise, survey findings indicate that more children are left alone when in a high socioeconomic family, rather than a blue-collared household. This dilemma creates negative matters, because of the empty, lonely, adult-less homes. The adolescents feel not connected with their families, they weren’t needed, and they lose their, “fundamental emptiness of purpose.” Ordinary individuals tend to view the prosperous and rich families of this world as “perfect” and “ideal.” While that lifestyle contains its physical perks, there are deeper, psychological complications with this culture, including excessive anxiety and depression. A famous individual known as Christopher McCandless is widely notorious for his disappearance from his family and backpacking through the country where he was eventually found dead in Alaska. McCandless was raised in a highly affluent household and while his extreme actions can be judged as “living an adventure,” some of his behaviors could have stemmed from a deep-seated mental state. Luthar proposed one of the reasons that affluent children are more troubled is their isolation from their parents or guardians. This can certainly apply to McCandless, as his father, Walt, was a prominent aerospace engineer employed by prestigious companies, such as NASA and Hughes Aircraft. Walt and his wife, McCandless’ mother, became entrepreneurs and started a consulting firm, User Systems Inc. While owning their own business, it can be assumed that they would have been office, more than spending valuable personal time at home with their McCandless and the eight other children. The successful User System Inc. …show more content…
brought the McCandless family a fortune, which they used on their children, or at least Chris. McCandless had his final two years of college paid for, he had money for law school, and his parents offered to buy him a car. These examples exemplify Luthar’s other argument, the pressures of an affluent child to succeed. With over sixty-four thousand dollars put into McCandless’ education, it can be assumed that his parents were keen on him to graduate and become an accredited lawyer.
Both the isolation from his parents and pressures to succeed indirectly led McCandless to follow the ideas of the Transcendentalist movement, a series of concepts that emphasize, “in order to understand the nature of reality, one must first examine and analyze the reasoning process that governs the nature of experience.” This quote explains that Transcendentalism is rebelling against what is seen as the current society. The movement also emphasized nature is pivotal in discovering one’s self and others around them. Another consequential idea of the Transcendentalist movement is the concept that money is irrelevant and unnecessary in society. An influential leader in the Transcendentalist movement was Henry David Thoreau who is well known for his simple lifestyle in nature and his famous work, Walden. In these writings, he quotes, “Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb-nail.” In this specific line, Thoreau emphasizes a simple way of life in nature with little wealth. McCandless excels in portraying his desire for a deficiency of personal luxury. He donated the twenty-four thousand dollars in his law school fund to a charity devoted to feeding the hungry. McCandless abandoned his beloved