The Justice Motive in Adolescence and Young Adulthood

Origins and Consequences

Claudia Dalbert, Hedvig Sallay

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2004
• eBook ISBN: 9781134373482
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: History & Theory in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

This book provides a unique overview of the development of justice-related beliefs in different socialization contexts, and also of the role this plays in protecting mental health and promoting career development for adolescents and young adults. A range of European contributors bridge the conceptual gap between social and developmental psychological perspectives and use a number of original case-studies. This book provides new insights for justice psychology and adds new and important perspectives to studies on youth development.

1 Introduction

Hedvig Sallay and Claudia Dalbert

This book aims to combine developmental psychology with a traditional social psychological topic: the justice motive theory. Since the first paper on ‘the belief in a just world’ (BJW) was published by Melvin Lerner in 1965, there has been steady international interest in the concept (Furnham, 2003). There is now no doubt that the BJW serves important functions. Thus, it is timely to explore how and why this belief develops and how it impacts on development, in particular on development in adolescence and young adulthood.

A short history of the concept

The BJW hypothesis states that everyone gets what they deserve, that good things tend to happen to good people, and that bad people are punished for their behaviour by negative outcomes. In the 38 years since Lerner published his first paper on the belief in a just world in 1965, several studies have been conducted to test the hypothesis that people need to believe that they live in a just world. The number of studies on BJW has increased gradually over the past decades (Maes, 1998), indicating that new directions in this research field are continuing to develop, contributing to different areas of psychological research.

According to Maes (1998), eight stages can be distinguished in the development of BJW research, starting with the identification of the phenomenon, followed by the elaboration of the nature of the observed effect. In the third phase, a self-report measure was developed and the first correlational research was conducted. During the extended fourth stage, experimental and correlational studies were used to validate the scale. In the fifth stage, the construct was found to be multidimensional, and the subdimensions identified helped to resolve the equivocal findings of previous research. In the sixth phase, researchers aimed to develop even better scales, and this led to the seventh phase, in which doubts were cast on the original concept, especially its conceptual and psychometric status. According to Furnham (1990), the last phase can be called ‘acceptance and text-bookisation’, meaning that the concept was accepted scientifically and now features in several textbooks on personality.

Recently, Furnham (2003) reviewed the BJW research conducted in the 1990s. He underlined that, compared to earlier research, which concentrated mainly on the negative side of the BJW, namely victim derogation, more recent research has involved a shift in emphasis, with BJW now being seen as a healthy coping resource with many psychological benefits. This book represents a further step in this direction, showing that BJW is an important personal resource that impacts on development in adolescence and young adulthood, and in different spheres of life.

The functions of BJW

According to Dalbert (2001), the belief in a just world serves three important functions: (a) it endows individuals with the confidence that they will be treated fairly by others; (b) it provides a conceptual framework which makes it possible for people to interpret the events of their personal life in a meaningful way; and (c) it is indicative of the personal obligation to behave fairly. Thus, this belief can be considered an important resource which enables people to deal successfully with the challenges of everyday life and to cope with critical life-events.

Previous studies have demonstrated the different functions of the BJW. The first function — allowing individuals to believe that they will be treated fairly in life — is of great relevance to people engaged in everyday activities, and is an important precondition for their actions. Individuals who ‘play fair’ in their interactions with others can expect others to be fair to them as well. BJW thus endows individuals with a stable trust in the fairness of the world. Trust is an emotional orientation. Individuals high in BJW show more trust in others (Zuckerman and Gerbasi, 1977), and they expect their investments to be fairly rewarded in the future. According to the findings of Tomaka and Blascovich (1994), the more strongly people believe in a just world, the less stressed and threatened they are by achievement situations, and the better their results.

The second function of the BJW — encouraging people to see the world as meaningful and thus to find meaning in life — means that the belief in a just world can be interpreted as a positive illusion. People high in BJW do not believe that events in the complex social world around them are entirely random, but that they are reliable and predictable (Lerner and Miller, 1978). When individuals are confronted with an injustice, either observed or experienced, this threatens their just-world belief, and they are motivated to try to restore justice either psychologically (e.g. by minimising the injustice) or behaviourally (e.g. by compensating the injustice). This belief increases their feelings of control and competence, which make it possible for them to have a positive outlook on their future and to view their past life in a positive way (Lipkus and Siegler, 1993). This results in stable mental health and positive subjective well-being.

Much of the empirical work on the second function of the BJW has dealt with reactions to victims, especially victim blaming. In a series of studies, Montada (1998) demonstrated the close relationship between BJW and reactions to different kinds of ‘victims’ (e.g. disabled people, AIDS patients, rape victims). Strong believers in a just world are more likely to make more internal attributions or to blame the victim. In other words, high believers interpret negative outcomes as being less unjust, and thus experience more positive and fewer negative emotions. Later on, laboratory studies (Hafer and Olson, 1998; Hafer, 2000a) revealed that the BJW is also relevant to personal misfortune, as high believers perceive less unfairness in their own lives and thus show less discontent than those with a weak BJW. The implications of internal attributions of experienced unfairness for the victims' mental health are still unclear, however (Dalbert, 2001).

Finally, the third function of the BJW is that it is indicative of the personal obligation to behave fairly. The strength of the BJW varies between individuals (Rubin and Peplau, 1975). The stronger the BJW, the more justice-motivated a person's reactions. For example, the more strongly people believe that they live in a just world, the more they are likely to help innocent victims (Bierhoff et al., 1991; DePalma et al., 1999). Furthermore, strong believers in a just world are highly motivated to achieve their goals byjust means — by acting fairly they respect the terms of the personal contract, which in turn assures them of being fairly rewarded (Hafer, 2000b). In most cases, justice-motivated actions lead to positive outcomes such as coping behaviour and enhanced well-being (Dalbert, 2001). Unjust behaviour, in contrast, is censured by a decrease in self-esteem — but only for those high in BJW (Dalbert, 1999).

As this short history and review of work on the BJW demonstrates, the concept of BJW is now well established. A succession of studies has demonstrated its importance in all aspects of life. With this in mind, our knowledge on the meaning and functions of the belief in a just world could be greatly enhanced by exploring developmental questions: How does the belief emerge and develop during different periods of life? Which factors impact on the development of the BJW during the socialisation process? What are the long- and short-term developmental consequences of being high or low in BJW? This volume unites studies from different parts of Europe, all of which aim to explore the development and the developmental functions of the BJW, particularly in adolescence and young adulthood.

About this book

The chapters of the book are grouped into three parts. The first part comprises studies describing the possible developmental trajectories of the belief in a just world. Dalbert and Radant explore how different parenting dimensions contribute to the development of the belief in a just world. The findings of their cross-sectional study with early adolescents and their parents in Germany show that the perception of a fair family climate seems to result from a combination of nurture and restriction. In contrast, the BJW only appears to be strengthened by nurture, which the authors define as a harmonious family climate with a low rate of conflicts and manipulation. No direct transmission from the parents' BJW to the BJW of the child was observed. As this was a first study exploring the antecedents of the BJW, further studies are still needed to validate these results. The study by Sallay and Dalbert extends this line of research by comparing the just-world beliefs of those brought up in intact families with one-parent families in Hungary. Their cross-sectional study with young adults again shows that a supportive family environment, which is not characterised by either conflicts or inconsistent parenting styles, strengthens the BJW. Comparison of the two family types reveals that one-parent families tend to be more conflict-ridden than intact families. Moreover, the BJW of young adults who were brought up by their mothers alone seems to be weaker than the BJW of those who grew up with both parents. Schönpflug and Bilz test the direct transmission between parents' and child's BJW more closely in a German sample. Their findings show that direct transmission from the parents' to the child's BJW may occur, but only under specific circumstances, e.g. when the child accepts the parents as role models, or when there is a high level of similarity between the parents' BJWs. The last chapter in this part reveals that the BJW has different functions for different age groups. Maes and Schmitt analyse cross-sectional data collected in Germany and show that the BJW decreases in adulthood, but increases again in old age. The change in the strength of the BJW across the life-span seems reasonable when taking into account the different functions it has for different age groups. While the BJW has the function of promoting trust and confidence during adolescence and young adulthood, it serves rather to help individuals reflect positively on their experiences in ‘mature’ adulthood. In old age, the BJW acquires the function of comforting and consoling, and even religious integration.

Following this exploration of how the BJW is formed in the family context and develops across different ages, the second part of the book gives an insight into how the BJW serves as a developmental resource helping individuals to resolve developmental tasks and sustain mental health in adolescence and young adulthood. Correia and Vala analyse the relationship between BJW, subjective well-being and trust in young adults in Portugal. Findings of two questionnaire studies unambiguously show that the BJW uniquely impacts on life satisfaction, but not on self-esteem, when controlling for optimism and internal locus of control. Their third study, based on a representative sample of young adults in Portugal, demonstrates that BJW is positively associated with institutional, but not interpersonal trust. Dalbert and Dzuka investigate the impact of BJW on mental health, described in terms of subjective well-being, in German and Slovakian adolescents, and test whether the adaptive relationship between BJW and well-being holds when controlling for the global personality dimensions, neuroticism and extraversion. This question was addressed because neuroticism has been shown to be negatively associated with both BJW and well-being. Their three studies confirm that BJW and well-being have a unique relationship, even when controlling for the global personality. Moreover, BJW sometimes seems to work as a buffer protecting the mental health of those with deficits in their global personality structure, i.e. those low in extraversion. In the next chapter, Dalbert reviews studies aboutjustice concerns in school. She outlines the implications of (unjust) experiences in school and highlights how these experiences are shaped by the belief in a just world (BJW). Finally, she describes the consequences of the BJW and (un)just experiences in school for a successful school career and personality development, namely its functions for the students' legal socialisation, their feelings of empowerment, their achievement motivation and achievement and, lastly, their well-being. Maes and Kals also explore the school context, and focus on the role that justice beliefs — in particular the belief in immanent justice and ultimate justice — play in learning processes. According to the belief in immanent justice, there is a direct link between good behaviour and good luck and between bad behaviour and bad luck. According to the belief in ultimate justice, in contrast, all current injustices will be resolved or compensated in the long run. The authors demonstrate that the belief in ultimate justice enhances coping and adaptation. The role of the belief in immanent justice seems to be more ambiguous, as it only serves as a resource for adolescents with consistently good learning outcomes. Otto and Dalbert investigate the three functions of the BJW in a sample of young prisoners in a German detention centre. Their results show that, compared to those with a weak BJW, strong believers in a just world experience fewer disciplinary problems during imprisonment, perceive their trial and their sentence as more just, feel more guilty about their crime and are less likely to justify or excuse their crime, report more anger control and less overt anger, and are more convinced that they will succeed in attaining their personal goals. However, these adaptive functions seem to hold only for young prisoners with a less serious criminal career (e.g. first-time prisoners or those first convicted later in adolescence).

Finally, the third part deals with the impact of the BJW on career development in young adulthood. Most chapters in this part focus on the issue of unemployment, which is shown to be a serious problem for young adults in Croatia, Germany, Slovakia and Hungary. Each chapter addresses different aspects of the topic, thus helping readers to gain a broad understanding of the phenomena, irrespective of the country in question. Dalbert reviews previous studies on BJW and its impact on coping and mental health for those who have recently entered unemployment. She argues that the BJW is a personal resource which helps unemployed young people to cope with their situation and, in particular, to avoid ruminating about their fate. Consequently, persons strong in BJW enjoy better mental health in the early stages of unemployment and are thus better able to engage in problem-focused coping. Leaving school and applying for their first job is a decisive point in young people's lives, and the BJW may enable them to cope with this task more successfully. Cubela Adoric focuses on the stability of the BJW in a sample of young Croatian adults (particularly those experiencing long-term unemployment before gathering any kind of previous job experience at all), and also employed young adults. She investigates how repeated experiences of unfairness during the job search or at the workplace weaken the BJW and how the BJW is associated with the affective and cognitive responses to these unfair experiences. The key result of this study is that the BJW remains relatively stable despite frequent rejections, but that repeated experiences of unfair treatment during the job search or at the workplace diminish the BJW. Sallay's study, which focuses on graduating students who have or have not yet found a job, was conducted in 1999 and 2001, following the rapid political and societal changes in Hungary. In addition to the BJW, this study also considers anticipated fairness at the workplace. The fairer subjects anticipated their future workplace to be, the more positive their attitudes towards life, the fewer personal problems they mentioned, the higher their self-esteem, and the less depressed they were. This effect was above and beyond the well-documented positive impact of BJW on well-being. Thus, the impact of BJW on subjective well-being can be seen as mediated by the anticipated fairness at the workplace. Finally, Dette et al. concentrate on the BJW's impact on career development outside the field of early unemployment. They focus on the BJW's functions for the goal perspectives of German school-leavers. Previous research suggests that expected success is a central predictor of goal investment. As one function of the BJW is to provide trust in being treated fairly by others, the authors expected the BJW to be positively associated with the perceived probability of success in vocational and social personal goals. The expected adaptive relationship between the BJW and belief in successful goal attainment was indeed observed for social and vocational goals, and holds even when controlled for global personality dimensions or goal-specific predictors, e.g. social self-efficacy for social goals.

With its aim of integrating studies on the development of just world belief from various European countries, this volume will be of interest to a diverse group of advanced students of...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Full Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• Notes on contributors
• 1 Introduction
• PART 1 The development of the belief in a just world
• PART 2 The belief in a just world as a resource for mental health and coping in adolescence
• PART 3 Belief in a just world and career development
• Index