Malnutrition

This work addresses issues arising from the definition and measurement of poverty in terms of nutritional status. A range of issues are covered, focusing on the differing views and perceptions of the related questions of assessing poverty and nutritional status. Possible definitions of a reference standard are discussed as well as energy deprivation, anthropometric measurement, and gender bias.

An interdisciplinary book by one of the most respected scholars in what is broadly development economics but encompasses the most recent insights from philosophical research and empirical work on resource allocation, nutrition science, and anthropology. It has been widely recognized as a seminal work presenting a wide-ranging description of the causes and remedies of poverty and undernourishment, and addressing the current debate over methods of estimating their incidence.

Previous leading commentators on the development of psychology in the Third World have conceived of three major stages: an attempt to assimilate Western psychology, with predictably negative results; the study of indigenous constructs, with more relevant applications; and, finally, transcending stage one and stage two to choose theories and methods on their applied merit alone. Psychology and the Developing World has been assembled to document how close psychology has come to researching that stage. Contributors were carefully selected to provide a unique overview of the latest applications of the discipline as a whole. Their work reveals how psychology is being applied to educational needs, management needs, and health needs. This book shows how development studies and allied disciplines cannot ignore psychology's potential for the Third World.

The increasing gap between developed and developing world will be one of the most important themes of the 21st century. The contributions contained in this volume take a multidisciplinary approach to the problem, offering a comprehensive review of the theoretical issues and empirical findings that relate to the complex and multidirectional link between poverty and demographic behaviours and outcomes in the contemporary developing world. The starting point of the volume is an exact definition of poverty. The contributors go on to analyse in the detail its causes and effects, both at the micro and macro level, concentrating on those factors and consequences which relate more directly to the demographic sphere. Population growth, household structure and labour, fertility, AIDS, urbanization, migration, and mortality are amongst the areas covered, with the major themes discussed and elaborated in an introductory overview chapter.