NCJ Number
170725
Journal
Social Justice Research Volume: 9 Issue: 3 Dated: (September 1996) Pages: 223-238
Date Published
1996
Length
16 pages
Annotation
This study investigates the construct validity of a self- report questionnaire for dispositional sensitivity to befallen injustice (SBI; Schmitt, Neumann, and Montada, 1995).
Abstract
The items of this questionnaire are combinations of four indicators of SBI (frequency of perceived injustice, intensity of anger, intrusiveness/perseverance of thoughts about the event, punitiveness) with 18 types of unfair situations (e.g., performing better than others without getting any appreciation or reward). At Occasion 1, SBI, trait anger, anger in, anger out, anger control, self-assertiveness, and attitudes toward equality were measured. At Occasion 2, the subjects (57 advanced psychology students) took part in a lottery for distributing scarce teaching resources among students. The lottery led to objective advantages for some students and to objective disadvantages for others. Four reactions to the event were measured at Occasion 3: judgment of the lottery as unjust, anger about the lottery, experiencing the lottery as demotivating, and approval of activities against the lottery. These reactions were regressed on the variables measured at Occasion 1. SBI was the only significant predictor of the justice judgment and the approval of activities. Anger about the lottery depended only on objective disadvantage/advantage. Experiencing the lottery as demotivating depended negatively on anger control and positively on the intrusiveness/perseverance of thoughts about the event, a subscale of the SBI inventory. 1 table, 1 figure, and 29 references