ABSTRACT OF ISSID EARLY CAREER DEVELOPMENT AWARD WINNER


WED, July 19, 11:15 - 12:00 p.m.

DISPOSITIONAL SENSITIVITY TO BEFALLEN INJUSTICE


Dispositional Sensitivity to Befallen Injustice (SBI) is proposed as a new construct. A self-report questionnaire with four indicators was developed for measuring SBI (frequency of perceived injustice, intensity of anger following injustice, intrusiveness of thoughts about unjust events, punitivity towards the victimizer). In Study I, structural equation modeling and the general rationale of multitrait-multimethod analysis were used to establish the convergent and discriminant validity of this questionnaire vis a vis measures for Trait Anger, Anger In, Anger Out and Frustration Tolerance as related constructs. Additionally, a meaningful pattern of correlations was obtained between SBI and Life Satisfaction, Centrality of Justice, Interpersonal Trust, and Need for Control. In Study II, SBI predicted cognitive, emotional, and behavioral reactions to unjust treatment in the laboratory several weeks later. In Study III, SBI predicted cognitive, emotional, and behavioral reactions to a natural disadvantage which occurred to a person several weeks later. In Study IV, SBI was found to moderate the effect of perceived procedural unfairness in the workplace on a combined measure of self-reported sickliness at work and self-reported absence from work. For justice-sensitive employees (of a German automobile company), the effect of perceived procedural unfairness had a stronger effect on this criterion than for justice-insensitive employees.