Interrelation between Attribution and Emotion in the Framework of Relative Deprivation

Abstract

Relative deprivation is a feeling which occurs when we compare ourselves with those who are better off than us. Feeling of relative deprivation has been linked with various types of action tendencies such as protest, participating in riots, juvenile delinquency and so on. The main objective of this study was to understand the relationship between attribution and emotion in the context of relative deprivation. Two separate experimental studies were conducted to investigate the relationship between attribution and emotion which were generated after feeling of relative deprivation. In the first study, sample size of 53 students were taken and conditions of injustice were created experimentally by the researcher with the help of instruction, allocation of marks and justifications given to the participants. In the second study, 120 male students were taken as sample and the condition of relative deprivation was created through construction of two scenarios amongst which one was perceived as fair and other unfair. Likert’s five point scale was used to measure Emotions, Attributions and Action. In the analysis, Pearson’s correlation was used to find the relationship between the variables and Regression was done to find the predictor variables. In the analysis of study 1, it was found that attribution on Gender discrimination was positively correlated to Anger, Sadness, Jealousy and Discontent and in the regression analysis it was found that these emotions were significantly predicted by attribution on Gender discrimination. In study 2, there was positive significant correlation between Anger and external controllable attribution bias, hopelessness and external controllable attribution bias. Shame was found to be positively correlated to internal uncontrollable attribution error.