Running head: TRAJECTORIES OF RELATIVE DEPRIVATION Social change in South Africa: An historical approach to relative deprivation

Dramatic social change involves profound transformations that impact an entire group moving forward. Such is the reality for race relations in South Africa. Research has found that most people report a trajectory of group-based relative deprivation that parallels actual historical events. However, a significant subset of respondents reported a trajectory where the perceived status of their group remained stable despite dramatic social change. The first goal of our research was to assess whether both the historically “assumed” and “stable” group trajectories arise consistently among South Africans (N = 2,989). The second and more important goal was to identify the factors that might account for this dichotomy in perceived trajectory building on both traditional and recent advances in relative deprivation theory as well as on social identity theory. We hypothesized that higher levels of ingroup identification would be associated with the historically assumed group trajectory. Results supported this hypothesis. The third goal was to examine the association of the different group trajectories with personal well-being, group selfesteem, and interracial attitudes. Results indicate that each group trajectories is indeed associated with a different level of personal well-being, group self-esteem, and interracial attitudes.