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PsychologyNiche
intermediate

The Justice Motive as a Personal Resource

Claudia Dalbert (2001)

Published
Jan 1, 2001
Journal
Critical Issues in Social Justice
DOI
10.1007/978-1-4757-3383-9
View OriginalView PDF

At a GlanceAI

Argues that personal belief in a just world can serve as a coping resource that helps people manage threats and maintain well-being.

SummaryAI

This chapter frames the justice motive—especially belief in a just world—as a personal resource people draw on to interpret events and regulate distress. It highlights how perceiving the world as fair can support coping and psychological functioning when individuals face adversity or uncertainty. The key implication is that just-world beliefs are not only ideological positions but can operate intrapsychically as a resilience-related mechanism, with consequences for how people respond to injustice.

Method SnapshotAI

The chapter offers a theoretical synthesis of justice-motive and belief-in-a-just-world research to argue for a resource-based perspective.

BackgroundAI

Basic social psychology of justice, including the belief in a just world and coping/self-regulation concepts.

In Collections

Psychology41 papers

The Belief in a Just World

In this collection I gather (mostly) psychological studies devoted to people’s fundamental belief that the world is just. This construct, it seems to me, quite strongly affects our perception of the world and, importantly, our reaction to ongoing events — especially when we start blaming others, guided implicitly by precisely this motive. The collection includes both curated works, which at some point I read carefully and can say something sensible about, and new works being published on the topic.

ES
Evgeny Smirnov

The belief in a just world is not merely a philosophical/theoretical construct. It helps on the daily basis to maintain well-being. That's something I see also in my counselling.

— ES