Emotion, attribution and action in different forms of Relative Deprivation

Different kinds of emotions experienced and causes attributed by participants in the various conditions of Relative Deprivation such as Egoistic Relative deprivation, Fraternalistic Relative Deprivation and Double relative Deprivation was investigated in this study on 53 students in the age range of 17 to 21 who were selected randomly as the sample. Actions taken after feeling relatively deprived were also seen. Condition of ERD, FRD and DRD was created experimentally by the researcher with the help of instruction, allocation of marks and justifications given to the participants. In order to determine the attributions made and emotions felt during these condition of RD, Likert's five point scale measuring eight emotions- anger, sadness, anxiety, jealousy, discontent, shame, proud and happiness and seven attributions – ability, performance, task difficulty, source, luck, chance and sex discrimination was used. In the results it was found that Anger, sadness, discontent and shame was more prominent in DRD in comparison to other two forms of RD and proud and happiness was more in FRD. Participants considered ability and performance responsible for their deprivation more in the case of FRD and gender discrimination was attributed more in the condition of DRD. Individual Protest was the significant action taken by the participants and it was more prominent in DRD in comparison to other forms