Relative Deprivation

Relative Deprivation

1. Berkowitz (1972a) argued that subjective frustration is one of an array of aversive events (e.g. heat, cold)

   • this produce an instigation to aggress
     • the actual expression of aggression is strengthened by aggressive associations (e.g. past associations)
       • heat can be am 'aversive event' that faciliates individual and collective aggression (Andersen & Andersen, 1984)
         • E.G: under the condition of perceived relative deprivation : blacks in the US in the late 1960s people feel frustrateed
           • the heat of long, hot summer aplifies frustration
             • especially in poor and overcrowded neighbourhoods with little air conditioning
               • increases the spreading of individual acts of aggression
                 • the it is transformed into true collective violence by a process of social facilitation (Zajonc, 1965)
                   • Social facilliation: is the tendency for people to perform differently when in the presence of others than when alone..

2. A discrepancy between the experiences and expectations

   • A sense of having less than we feel entitled to

3. Deprivation it is always relative to other conditions:

   • one persons's new-found prosperity may be someone else's terrivle deprivation

4. J- curve hypothesis (Davis, 1969)

   • people construct their future expectations from past and current attainments
     • tha tunder certain circumstances attainments may suddenly not meet the expectations
       • when this happens relative deprivation is acute

5. two forms: egoistic and fraternalistic

   • egoistic: a sense that an individual has less than the other ones
     • Walker and Mann (1987): a study of unemployed workers
       • these individuals reported symptoms of personal stress: headaches; indigestion; sleeplessness
   • fraternalistic: a sense that our group has less than it is entitled to, relative to its aspirations or to other groups
     • Vanneman and Pettigrew (1972) conducted surveys in large cities in the US
       • They discovered that Whites who expressed the most negative attitudes towards Black were those who felt most strongly that Whites as a group were poorly off relative to Blacks as a group
     • In India, where there had been a rapid decline in the status of Muslims relative to Hindus
       • Tripathi and Srivasta (1981) found that Muslims who felt most fraternalistically deprived (e.g. in terms of job opportunities) expressed the greatest hostility towards Hindus.

6. Rest on perception of injustice