Development of justice sensitivity in young adulthood

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Anna Baumert
• Subject Area: Developmental and Educational Psychology
• Term: from 2014 to 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 248026577

Individual differences in justice sensitivity (JS) have been shown to be relatively stable across time and consistent across forms of injustice. Thus, JS is considered a personality trait. In diverse social situations, this trait has been found to be an important predictor of reactions to injustice. So far, however, we lack empirical knowledge regarding the differential development of JS. The main goal of the planned project is therefore to investigate processes of differential development of JS in emerging adulthood. Specifically, the project aims at investigating a social-cognitive-affective developmental mechanism of personality that has been proposed in various areas of psychology. Generally, it is assumed that the frequent confrontation with specific situational cues over time raises the activation potential of pertinent domain-specific schemas which in turn guide information processing more readily and, thus, strengthen characteristic patterns of reactions. So far, with the exception of a longitudinal study on aggression, this developmental mechanism has not been tested empirically.For JS, there is systematic empirical evidence that this trait involves the activation potential of injustice-related schemata. Therefore, the planned project aims at testing whether the frequent confrontation with injustice-related situations shapes the differential development of JS after the transition to a new social context. In a longitudinal study, experience sampling will be used to assess the frequency of experienced injustice across a time period of two months right after the transition to university. At four points of time within the first year of studies, (a) selective processing of injustice-related information, (b) emotional and behavioral reactions to injustice, and (c) self-reported JS will be assessed. Detailed predictions will be tested regarding the time-related dynamics of differential changes in these variables as indicators of JS. Moreover, situation and person moderators are identified that should shape the effects of frequently experienced injustice on JS. The longitudinal study will be complemented by two laboratory-based experiments that serve to provide rigorous tests of the assumed mechanisms. This way, short-term causal effects can be tested that parallel the processes assumed to guide developmental processes over time.By investigating the differential development of JS in emerging adulthood the planned project can provide important insight for the explanation of reactions to injustice and, thus, highlight potential for the prevention of costly consequences of injustice. Beyond scientific knowledge on JS, the integration of trait and social-cognitive approaches to personality promises important insights regarding crucial developmental mechanisms of personality.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants