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Perceived group and personal discrimination: differential effects on personal self‐esteem
Author(s) -
Bourguig David,
Seron Eleonore,
Yzerbyt Vincent,
Herman Ginette
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
european journal of social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.609
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1099-0992
pISSN - 0046-2772
DOI - 10.1002/ejsp.326
Subject(s) - psychology , self esteem , social psychology , context (archaeology) , identification (biology) , group identification , developmental psychology , paleontology , botany , biology
In two studies, we investigate the differential influence of perceived group and personal discrimination on self‐esteem in the context of the Rejection–Identification model (Branscombe, Schmitt, & Harvey, 1999). We first polled a group of African immigrants and found that whereas personal discrimination was negatively related to personal self‐esteem, group discrimination was positively associated with it. As expected, identification served as a buffer between personal discrimination and self‐esteem. We replicated these effects in a second study using women as our respondents. These results suggest that perceiving group discrimination may be positively related to self‐esteem because people feel less alone in their plight, thereby alleviating the ill‐effects of exclusion. We discuss these results in relation to both the Rejection–Identification model and the discounting hypothesis (Crocker & Major, 1989). Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.