The Relationship Between College Students' Relative Deprivation And Aggressiveness: The Role Of Psychological Stress And Personal Belief In A Just World

Social comparison is an inevitable process of human life.It causes many negative effects,for example,the relative deprivation.It is seen that students' “relative deprivation”is a common phenomenon that currently exists in universities of China,and it is trending towards a more serious state.While students are in a state of relative deprivation,they might use the attack behavior as a self-protection way to gain the sense of security,eliminate their inner stress,and maintain or restore psychological balance.But,this method,attack behavior will also bring negative influence on students' life and study.This essay aims to explore the effects of RD(relative deprivation)on the aggressiveness of college students and its mechanism.This research has four questionnaires,including the relative deprivation questionnaire,psychological stress scale,personal belief in a just world scale,and Buss-Perry aggressiveness scale.They were used to measure 601 students in universities of Yunnan.We construct a moderated mediation model to examine roles of psychological stress and personal belief in a just world.And relationship between the relative deprivation and the aggressiveness of college students.Results are as follows:(1)the sense of relative deprivation significantly positive predicts the aggressiveness;(2)the sense of psychological stress plays a mediating role in the sense of relative deprivation and the aggressiveness;(3)the mediating role of psychological stress regulated by the personal belief in a just world.For individuals with high personal belief in a just world,psychological stress plays the partial mediation.Individuals with low personal belief in a just world,the mediating effect of psychological stress is not significant.This means that the relative deprivation only has the direct effect on aggression in this situation.These results are helpful to explain the effect of relative deprivation on college students' aggression and its internal mechanism.And they also have some enlightenment meaning in intervening and improving the aggressiveness of college students,and promoting their physical and mental health.