A Model of How the Welfare State Leads to Personality Mis-Development

Abstract

Up until this point in the book, we have primarily been preoccupied with laying out the evidential building blocks of the welfare trait theory: now it is time to assemble those blocks of evidence into a coherent model of welfare-induced personality mis-development, beginning by reminding ourselves of what this book is about. This book is about personality and the welfare state. It’s about our attitude to work and the factors that shape that attitude. But most of all, it is about asking how the welfare state might alter the personality profile of the population to any significant degree.