ABSTRACT
Many social psychologists became interested in authoritarianism and inequity because of political upheavals surrounding the Great Depression, World War II, the cold war, and the social movements of the 1960s. Most of the theory and research about authoritarianism sought to explain mass support for totalitarian dictatorships. Nonetheless, authoritarianism has two important elements that contribute to distress and help explain its social patterns: inflexibility in dealing with practical and interpersonal problems, and suspiciousness and mistrust. These two elements, rather than authoritarianism broadly speaking, form the main links to distress. Structural amplification concentrates high levels of distress among the most disadvantaged individuals and in the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods. The sense of equity links the quality and nature of marital relationships to depression. Equity theory's distinction is the prediction of elevated distress among persons who are unfairly advantaged. In American usage the word "discrimination" implies an unjust categorical treatment.
