Studies have shown that the belief in a just world (BJW) is related to psychological well-being. The authors suggest that studies exploring this relationship might benefit by making the distinction between the BJW for self versus for others or in general. In two studies, the authors assessed subjects' perceptions of depression, stress, and life satisfaction for self and for others. Subjects also completed measures of the five-factor model of personality. As predicted, the BJW for self most strongly and consistently predicted decreases in depression and stress, and increases in life satisfaction. When the five personality dimensions were included in the analyses, the BJW for self and for others continued to predict life satisfaction but not depression and stress. The implications of these results concerning the relationship between the BJW and psychological well-being, and how the just world is conceptualized, are discussed.

No abstract

No abstract

Findings from cross-sectional studies on the relationship between perfectionism and the Big Five personality traits demonstrate that conscientiousness shows significant positive correlations with self-oriented perfectionism, and neuroticism with socially prescribed perfectionism. The question is whether conscientiousness and neuroticism also predict longitudinal changes in self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism. A sample of 214 adolescents aged 14-19 years completed measures of the Big Five and perfectionism twice over a period of 5 to 8 months. As was expected, conscientiousness predicted longitudinal increases in self-oriented perfectionism. Neuroticism, however, did not predict any longitudinal increases in perfectionism-neither in self-oriented nor in socially prescribed perfectionism.

This article investigates the relationship between the personal belief in a just world (BJW) and domain-specific beliefs about justice and examines how justice cognitions impact on adolescents' development, particularly on their achievement at school and their subjective well-being. A longitudinal questionnaire study with German adolescents aged 14-19 years was conducted over a period of five to eight months. The pattern of results revealed that evaluations of the school climate and of the family climate as being just were two distinct phenomena, both of which impacted on the personal BJW, which in turn affected the domain-specific beliefs about justice. However, the domain-specific beliefs about justice did not impact on each other directly. Moreover, an evaluation of the family climate (but not of the school climate) as being just reduced depressive symptoms, whereas depressive symptoms did not weaken the evaluation of one's family as being just. The evaluation of the school climate as being just improved the grades received in the next school report, whereas the grades received did not affect the justice evaluation of the school climate. Finally, all relationships persisted when controlling for age and gender. In sum, the pattern of findings supports the notion that justice cognitions impact on development during adolescence.