Responses to Perceived Discrimination and Relative Deprivation

Abstract

Except for A llport’s (1954) classic treatise, most social psychological analyses and studies o f prejudice have concentrated on trying to determ ine why members of the majority group dislike m inorities and discrim inate against them (Stephan, 1985), w ithout considering how minority or subordinate group members respond to perceived discrim ination and defend themselves against it. Yet, com prehend­ ing the phenom enon o f prejudice may well require understanding the reactions of the persecuted as well as the persecutors. For this reason, my own research has focused on exploring the phenom enology o f being the target o f discrimination.