OURNAL OF SOCIAL ISSUES zyxwvu 4 OLUME 26, NUMBER 2, 1970 Expectancy zyx Theory in the Study of Poverty Gerald Gurin and Patricia Gurin University of Michigan zyxw Much of the literature on poverty, historical as well as con- temporary, follows one of two general interpretative approaches. One approach focuses on the institutional aspects of the problem -on the current realities that the poor must deal with. The other focuses on the problems “in” the poor-on pathologies that are the residue of past disadvantage. zyxw At times the distinction between these two approaches has been quite subtle and not sharply delineated. Rainwater, in ear- lier articles as well as in this issue zyxw (1970), has pointed out mani- festations of these two approaches in sociological analyses of poverty and disadvantage-some approaches stressing the sub- cultural distinctiveness of the poor and others their limitations in the opportunity structure. Rainwater further notes that the dis- tinction between these two approaches has not been adequately recognized or discussed in the theoretical sociological literature, and he indicates some of the negative consequences of this neglect on our understanding of the problems of poverty. For psychologists who have been interested in problems of poverty this bifurcation has also had some negative consequences, although for converse reasons : the distinction between these two approaches has often been too sharply drawn. Psychological and situational approaches are sometimes considered antithetical and even mutually contradictory. Approaches that have focused on reality problems have often assumed that motivational and psy- 83