Effects of perceived discrimination: Rejection and identification as two distinct pathways and their associated effects

Only within the past 30 years have psychologists begun to systematically examine the effects of perceived discrimination (PD) on stigmatized individuals. Since then, the research has offered a variety of findings that may initially seem to contradict one another. The majority of research conducted within a feedback-oriented paradigm has found that perceiving discrimination can help individuals externalize reasons for failure, therefore buffering self-esteem and well-being. Other lines of research have suggested that attributions to prejudice across time and contexts ultimately have deleterious effects on well-being, in spite of whatever short-term gains may result from externalizing failure.; A recent structural equation model examining the effects of perceived discrimination has examined two paradoxical effects; (a) social rejection and (b) identification with one's in-group. While social rejection was found to be inversely related to well-being, ethnic identification was found to buffer the relationship between PD and well-being. By specifying both positive and negative consequences to PD, the Rejection-Identification Model (RIM) provided a deeper understanding of the complexity involved with stigmatization and the struggle faced by those targeted by discrimination.; While the RIM has provided new insights and elucidated several key pathways in the formation of well-being, the model can be improved by incorporating current theory. First, the current study proposes that perceived discrimination only affects collective well-being directly, since discrimination, when perceived as motivated by racial prejudice, is an attack on a person's group-level identity. Any consequences to one's personal identity are thought to be indirect and likely mediated by collective well-being. Second, research stemming from Social Identity Theory suggests that collective well-being and personal well-being are interrelated; therefore, in so far as perceived discrimination affects well-being, collective well-being should have a direct effect on personal well-being. Additional limitations of the perceived discrimination literature include a paucity of research about how Asian Americans are affected by discrimination, inadequate sample sizes rendering poor power for modeling analyses, and an over-reliance on psychology undergraduate students for participants.; Based on these findings, a refinement of the Rejection-Identification Model was proposed and fitted to data collected from 421 African American and Asian American participants. The participants were drawn from both undergraduate psychology classes and the community at-large. Structural equation modeling analyses indicated that the hypothesized alterations to the RIM (RIM-Altered) produced the best fitting model. Consistent with the hypotheses of the study, perceived discrimination was not found to affect personal well-being directly and collective well-being was found to have a direct effect on personal well-being. Racial/ethnic group comparisons and sample comparisons suggested that the RIM-Altered fit both Asian American and African American sub-samples equally well, but that the RIM-Altered fit the college student sample significantly better than the community sample. Limitations, implications, and directions for future research are discussed.