The Empowering Role of the Belief in a Just World for the Self in Adaptive Psychological Functioning

Abstract

The belief in a just world predicts a broad range of positive and negative behaviours, emotions, and cognitions. The belief in a just world for the self (BJW-self), more specifically, tends to be associated with positive and adaptive outcomes for the individual. While much research has been devoted to exploring the associations between BJW-self and a variety of outcomes, comparatively little attention has been paid to the mechanism by which BJW-self promotes these positive outcomes. A review of the literature, in particular the central theoretical tenets of justice motive theory, reveals that the functioning of just world beliefs is closely associated with a sense of control over one’s current and future life circumstances; BJW-self is theoretically a source of empowerment in everyday life. Thus, the central aim of this thesis was to explore the role of empowerment as the mechanism by which BJW-self facilitates adaptive psychological functioning. To this end I conducted five studies consisting of eight independent samples in order to provide empirical insights from multiple angles on the functional role of empowerment. Following the introductory chapter reviewing the extant literature on BJW-self, Chapter 2 outlines a study employing latent variable structural equation modelling with two crosssectional samples and one longitudinal sample to investigate the associations between BJWself, a sense of empowerment, and adaptive psychological functioning, represented by the indices of life satisfaction, meaning in life, optimism, resilience, depression, anxiety, and stress. In an attempt to answer the complex question of causation Chapter 3 reports on three studies in which I establish the causal associations between BJW-self, empowerment, and positive and negative affect. Chapter 4 reports on an applied study exploring whether the empowering function of BJW-self operates similarly for prisoners and non-prisoners. Taken together, these studies suggest that BJW-self is associated with adaptive psychological functioning via a process of empowerment. In the two cross-sectional samples (Chapter 2) BJW-self was positively associated, through empowerment, with indices of life satisfaction, the presence of meaning in life, optimism, and resilience, and negatively associated with depression, anxiety, and stress. It was unrelated to the search for meaning in life. Over a one-year period, BJW-self seems to be unrelated to empowerment. Methodological limitations, however, may explain this finding. Experimental evidence (Chapter 3) suggests that BJW-self causes a sense of empowerment, which in turn causes increases in positive affect, and decreases in negative affect. Finally, findings from the applied study (Chapter 4) indicate that BJW-self functions to empower adaptive outcomes in a similar way for prisoners and non-prisoners alike. Seemingly, one’s objective life circumstances do not hamper the adaptive utility of BJW-self. This thesis closes with a general discussion of how it has made a new contribution to knowledge. Specifically, I discuss theoretical and methodological contributions to the study of justice motive theory, highlight the strengths and limitations of the work, and expound upon important considerations for future research.