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A result of a conference at the University of Trier, Germany, this
volume mirrors its goals: * to provide an overview of recent
advances in research on critical life events and the losses
associated with them * to collect and stimulate new perspectives
for the analysis of these events * to compare the psychology of
victims experiencing stress and losses with the psychology of
observers in their reactions to victims. Designed to prevent
developmental psychological myths in the area of life crises, this
collection questions, on an empirical basis, the adequacy of
several widespread generalizations. At the same time its
contributors attempt to draw paths to conceptualizations and
theories in general psychology and social psychology which promise
to be helpful in analyzing and interpreting phenomena in the field
of life crises.
A result of a conference at the University of Trier, Germany, this
volume mirrors its goals:
* to provide an overview of recent advances in research on
critical life events and the losses associated with them
* to collect and stimulate new perspectives for the analysis of
these events
* to compare the psychology of victims experiencing stress and
losses with the psychology of observers in their reactions to
victims.
Designed to prevent developmental psychological myths in the area
of life crises, this collection questions, on an empirical basis,
the adequacy of several widespread generalizations. At the same
time its contributors attempt to draw paths to conceptualizations
and theories in general psychology and social psychology which
promise to be helpful in analyzing and interpreting phenomena in
the field of life crises.
This volume was conceived out of the concern with what the imminent
future holds for the "have" countries ... those societies, such as
the United States, which are based on complex technology and a high
level of energy consumption. Even the most sanguine projection
includes as base minimum relatively rapid and radical change in all
aspects of the society, reflecting adaptation or reactions to
demands created by poten tial threat to the technological base,
sources of energy, to the life-support system itself. Whatever the
source of these threats-whether they are the result of politically
endogeneous or exogeneous forces-they will elicit changes in our
social institutions; changes resulting not only from attempts to
adapt but also from unintended consequences of failures to adapt.
One reasonable assumption is that whatever the future holds for us,
we would prefer to live in a world of minimal suffering with the
greatest opportunity for fulfilling the human potential. The
question then becomes one of how we can provide for these goals in
that scenario for the imminent future ... a world of threat,
change, need to adapt, diminishing access to that which has been
familiar, comfortable, needed."
If the truth were told, this volume and its direct antecedents must
rank among the most ambitious, if not simply pretentious, endeavors
imag inable, at least in the social sciences. The titles of the
volume and the chapters, promising to integrate the experiences of
the sense of justice and the affectional bonding of people in close
relations, seem straightforward and reasonable enough. What they
fail to convey, however, is the simple bald fact that we in the
human social sciences have no firm grasp on either of these two
fundamental experiences-what we sometimes call "love" and "justice.
" To begin with, even as "scientists" committed to under standing
based upon systematic propositions linking publicly observable
concepts, we have no clear consensus concerning the nature of the
affec tional bonds linking people in close relationships-love,
intimacy, caring, mutual responsiveness, or the sense of justice,
fairness, deserving, and in our efforts to under entitlement. And
we are continually handicapped stand these complex, moving
experiences by the persistent tendency to reduce them to
manifestations of, "nothing but," familiar psychological or even
biological processes-"secondary rewards," "selfish genes. " So, why
then this volume? Although there are many answers to the question,
probably the most germane is that the basic issues are so im
portant and intriguing that the recent past has seen rather
dramatic paral lel growth in social scientists' interest in these
two areas-justice and close relationships.
What role does justice play in the formation of public opinion and
the scholarly debates about social problems? Does the perception of
injustice force problems to appear on the political agenda? Does
the perception of an injustice give momentum to social change? Or
are violations of self-interest or threats to one's material
welfare the more important factors? Or are empathy-driven concerns
for the needy and the disadvan taged motivations to solve societal
problems? What is known about the role justice concerns play in
leadership? In several chapters of this volume, justice concerns
and justice motives are viewed in relation to other concerns and
motivations; welfare, self-interest, altruism. It is argued that
the consensus of political theorists converges on mutual advantage
as the main criterion of acceptable solutions to solving socie tal
problems. In economics, self-interest is considered the driving
force and provides the criterion of acceptable solutions.
Sociological and social psychological exchange theories share these
basic assumptions. Thus, questions are raised and answered
concerning how justice and these other important motives appear in
the analyses of societal prob lems and the search for solutions.
Moreover, in addition to the issue of conflicting motives-self
interest, altruism, justice-it is commonly recognized that the
definition of what is just and what is unjust is open to question.
In public as well as in scientific dialogues, diverging views about
justice have to be integrated or decided upon.
The preparation of this volume began with a conference held at
Trier University, approximately thirty years after the publication
of the first Belief in a Just World (BJW) manuscript. The location
of the conference was especially appropriate given the continued
interest that the Trier faculty and students had for BJW research
and theory. As several chapters in this volume document, their
research together with the other contributors to this volume have
added to the current sophistication and status of the BJW
construct. In the 1960s and 1970s Melvin Lerner, together with his
students and colleagues, developed his justice motive theory. The
theory of Belief in a Just World (BJW) was part of that effort. BJW
theory, meanwhile in its thirties, has become very influential in
social and behavioral sciences. As with every widely applied
concept and theory there is a natural develop mental history that
involves transformations, differentiation of facets, and efforts to
identify further theoretical relationships. And, of course, that
growth process will not end unless the theory ceases to develop. In
this volume this growth is reconstructed along Furnham's stage
model for the development of scientific concepts. The main part of
the book is devoted to current trends in theory and research."
The preparation of this volume began with a conference held at
Trier University, approximately thirty years after the publication
of the first Belief in a Just World (BJW) manuscript. The location
of the conference was especially appropriate given the continued
interest that the Trier faculty and students had for BJW research
and theory. As several chapters in this volume document, their
research together with the other contributors to this volume have
added to the current sophistication and status of the BJW
construct. In the 1960s and 1970s Melvin Lerner, together with his
students and colleagues, developed his justice motive theory. The
theory of Belief in a Just World (BJW) was part of that effort. BJW
theory, meanwhile in its thirties, has become very influential in
social and behavioral sciences. As with every widely applied
concept and theory there is a natural develop mental history that
involves transformations, differentiation of facets, and efforts to
identify further theoretical relationships. And, of course, that
growth process will not end unless the theory ceases to develop. In
this volume this growth is reconstructed along Furnham's stage
model for the development of scientific concepts. The main part of
the book is devoted to current trends in theory and research."
What role does justice play in the formation of public opinion and
the scholarly debates about social problems? Does the perception of
injustice force problems to appear on the political agenda? Does
the perception of an injustice give momentum to social change? Or
are violations of self-interest or threats to one's material
welfare the more important factors? Or are empathy-driven concerns
for the needy and the disadvan taged motivations to solve societal
problems? What is known about the role justice concerns play in
leadership? In several chapters of this volume, justice concerns
and justice motives are viewed in relation to other concerns and
motivations; welfare, self-interest, altruism. It is argued that
the consensus of political theorists converges on mutual advantage
as the main criterion of acceptable solutions to solving socie tal
problems. In economics, self-interest is considered the driving
force and provides the criterion of acceptable solutions.
Sociological and social psychological exchange theories share these
basic assumptions. Thus, questions are raised and answered
concerning how justice and these other important motives appear in
the analyses of societal prob lems and the search for solutions.
Moreover, in addition to the issue of conflicting motives-self
interest, altruism, justice-it is commonly recognized that the
definition of what is just and what is unjust is open to question.
In public as well as in scientific dialogues, diverging views about
justice have to be integrated or decided upon."
If the truth were told, this volume and its direct antecedents must
rank among the most ambitious, if not simply pretentious, endeavors
imag inable, at least in the social sciences. The titles of the
volume and the chapters, promising to integrate the experiences of
the sense of justice and the affectional bonding of people in close
relations, seem straightforward and reasonable enough. What they
fail to convey, however, is the simple bald fact that we in the
human social sciences have no firm grasp on either of these two
fundamental experiences-what we sometimes call "love" and "justice.
" To begin with, even as "scientists" committed to under standing
based upon systematic propositions linking publicly observable
concepts, we have no clear consensus concerning the nature of the
affec tional bonds linking people in close relationships-love,
intimacy, caring, mutual responsiveness, or the sense of justice,
fairness, deserving, and in our efforts to under entitlement. And
we are continually handicapped stand these complex, moving
experiences by the persistent tendency to reduce them to
manifestations of, "nothing but," familiar psychological or even
biological processes-"secondary rewards," "selfish genes. " So, why
then this volume? Although there are many answers to the question,
probably the most germane is that the basic issues are so im
portant and intriguing that the recent past has seen rather
dramatic paral lel growth in social scientists' interest in these
two areas-justice and close relationships."
This volume was conceived out of the concern with what the imminent
future holds for the "have" countries ... those societies, such as
the United States, which are based on complex technology and a high
level of energy consumption. Even the most sanguine projection
includes as base minimum relatively rapid and radical change in all
aspects of the society, reflecting adaptation or reactions to
demands created by poten tial threat to the technological base,
sources of energy, to the life-support system itself. Whatever the
source of these threats-whether they are the result of politically
endogeneous or exogeneous forces-they will elicit changes in our
social institutions; changes resulting not only from attempts to
adapt but also from unintended consequences of failures to adapt.
One reasonable assumption is that whatever the future holds for us,
we would prefer to live in a world of minimal suffering with the
greatest opportunity for fulfilling the human potential. The
question then becomes one of how we can provide for these goals in
that scenario for the imminent future ... a world of threat,
change, need to adapt, diminishing access to that which has been
familiar, comfortable, needed."
The "belief in a just world" is an attempt to capmre in a phrase
one of the ways, if not the way, that people come to terms
with-make sense out of-find meaning in, their experiences. We do
not believe that things just happen in our world; there is a
pattern to events which conveys not only a sense of orderli ness or
predictability, but also the compelling experience of
appropriateness ex pressed in the typically implicit judgment,
"Yes, that is the way it should be." There are probably many
reasons why people discover or develop a view of their environment
in which events occur for good, understandable reasons. One
explanation is simply that this view of reality is a direct
reflection of the way both the human mind and the environment are
constructed. Constancies, patterns which actually do exist in the
environment-out there-are perceived, represented symbolically, and
retained in the mind. This approach cenainly has some validity, and
would probably suffice, if it were not for that sense of
"appropriateness," the pervasive affective com ponent in human
experience. People have emotions and feelings, and these are
especially apparent in their expectations about their world: their
hopes, fears, disappointments, disillusionment, surprise,
confidence, trust, despondency, anticipation-and certainly their
sense of right, wrong, good, bad, ought, en titled, fair,
deserving, just."
This volume argues that the commitment to justice is a fundamental
motive and that, although it is typically portrayed as serving
self-interest, it sometimes takes priority over self-interest. To
make this case, the authors discuss the way justice emerges as a
personal contract in children's development; review a wide range of
research studying the influences of the justice motive on
evaluative, emotional, and behavioral responses; and detail common
experiences that illustrate the impact of the justice motive.
Through an extensive critique of the research on which some
alternative models of justice are based, the authors present a
model that describes the ways in which motives of justice and
self-interest are integrated in people's lives. They close with a
discussion of some positive and negative consequences of the
commitment to justice.
This volume argues that the commitment to justice is a fundamental
motive and that, although it is typically portrayed as serving
self-interest, it sometimes takes priority over self-interest. To
make this case, the authors discuss the way justice emerges as a
personal contract in children's development; review a wide range of
research studying the influences of the justice motive on
evaluative, emotional, and behavioral responses; and detail common
experiences that illustrate the impact of the justice motive.
Through an extensive critique of the research on which some
alternative models of justice are based, the authors present a
model that describes the ways in which motives of justice and
self-interest are integrated in people's lives. They close with a
discussion of some positive and negative consequences of the
commitment to justice.
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