Effort- and Valence-Based Just World Beliefs Scales

Abstract

The Effort- and Valence-Based Just World Beliefs Scales (E-V-BJW; Cheng et al., 2023) were developed to offer a nuanced, two-dimensional measure of an individual’s sense of justice. Specifically, the scales differentiate between the belief that positive outcomes are tied directly to expended effort (E-BJW) and the belief that outcomes are contingent upon an individual’s inherent moral quality or attributed valence (V-BJW).

The items for these measures were uniquely derived from culturally relevant proverbs, defined as succinct sayings arranged for maximal effect (Miller-Naudé & Naudé, 2010), and tailored for two distinct cultural groups: Chinese and German. The resulting instrument consists of a 9-item Chinese version and an 8-item German version. Psychometric evaluation across samples of college students and working adults demonstrated robust results regarding factor structure, reliability, and various forms of validity.

Keywords

Effort-Based Belief in a Just World, Valence-Based Belief in a Just World, Belief in a Just World (BJW), German and Chinese Versions, Incremental Validity, Justice, Morality, World View, Cross-Cultural Assessment.

Authors

Cheng, Yuan; Nudelman, Gabriel; Otto, Kathleen; Ma, Jianhong

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Purpose

The primary objective of the Effort- and Valence-Based Just World Beliefs Scales is to provide a comprehensive and culturally informed assessment of the core psychological construct of Belief in a Just World (BJW). By separating BJW into two distinct dimensions—effort (E) and valence (V)—the scales allow researchers to examine differential predictors and outcomes associated with these specific justice orientations.

This dimensional approach moves beyond traditional monolithic BJW measures, enabling a finer-grained analysis of how individuals perceive the relationship between their actions (effort) or their moral standing (valence) and the subsequent rewards or punishments they receive.

Construct

The scale measures Just World Beliefs, which is a fundamental psychological construct reflecting the conviction that the world is a fair and orderly place where people generally get what they deserve. The E-V-BJW scales operationalize this construct via two distinct sub-factors:

• Effort-Based Belief in a Just World (E-BJW): This dimension captures the belief that outcomes are directly proportional to the amount of effort or hard work invested. Success is seen as a reward for diligence and perseverance.

• Valence-Based Belief in a Just World (V-BJW): This dimension reflects the belief that outcomes are determined by an individual’s moral character, inherent goodness, or attributed positive or negative valence. Good deeds lead to good fortune, and evil deeds lead to punishment, regardless of effort expended on the task itself.

Validity

The scales demonstrated strong evidence of validity across multiple psychometric tests, supporting their application in cross-cultural psychological assessment.

Convergent Validity: Both the Chinese and German versions of the E-BJW and V-BJW scales showed significant relationships with established measures of BJW, including personal BJW and BJW for others. This confirms that the new dimensions align appropriately with the broader concept of Convergent Validity.

Discriminant Validity: The E-BJW measure exhibited satisfactory Discriminant Validity. It showed substantially stronger associations with related concepts such as hard work, self as a source of justice, internal locus of control (LOC), and self-efficacy when compared to the correlations these items held with the V-BJW scale.

Incremental Validity and Measurement Invariance: Crucially, the E-BJW dimension predicted hard work beyond the predictive power of traditional personal BJW and BJW for others, supporting its unique Incremental Validity. Furthermore, nomological consistency tests confirmed a satisfactory level of Measurement Invariance for the latent E- and V-BJW constructs across the Chinese and German versions, suggesting that the scale measures the same underlying construct equivalently in both cultural groups.

Reliability

The scales demonstrated acceptable to strong levels of Internal Consistency, assessed using Cronbach’s alpha ($alpha$), in both cultural samples.

• Chinese Sample: The five-item E-BJW measure achieved a consistency of $alpha = .85$. The four-item V-BJW measure also showed high reliability with $alpha = .85$.

• German Sample: The E-BJW measure demonstrated strong reliability with $alpha = .85$. The V-BJW measure showed acceptable reliability with $alpha = .76$.

Factor Analysis

Both Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analysis supported the theoretical two-factor structure (Effort vs. Valence) across the Chinese and German versions.

Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA): For the Chinese version, the EFA results strongly supported the proposed 2-factor model, accounting for 56.88% of the total variance. Similarly, the German version yielded an interpretable solution where the two factors accounted for 51.87% of the total variance, confirming an acceptable component structure.

Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA): Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) further validated the structure. In the Chinese sample, the two-factor model provided a superior fit compared to a single, undifferentiated factor model. After the deletion of one problematic item, the final 2-factor Chinese model showed an improved and excellent overall fit (e.g., SRMR = .03, CFI = .96, RMSEA = .08). The final 2-factor German version also demonstrated good fit indices (e.g., SRMR = .04, CFI = .97, RMSEA = .08).

Instrument

Test Type: Original Inventory/Questionnaire.

Format: Participants indicate their agreement with the items on a 7-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 = strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree. Administration methods include Electronic and Paper formats.

Language Available: English (Primary), Chinese, and German.

Population Group: Human; Male; Female.

Age Group: Adulthood (18 years & older).

Population Details: Respondents included College Students and Working Adults, studied in China and Germany.

Test Methodology: Test Validity; Convergent Validity; Discriminant Validity; Test Reliability; Internal Consistency; Factor Analysis; Confirmatory Factor Analysis; Exploratory Factor Analysis; Measurement Invariance.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Permissions: May be used for Research and Teaching purposes.

Fee: There is no fee for non-commercial use.

Test Year: 2023

References

Cheng, Y., Nudelman, G., Otto, K., & Ma, J. (2023). Conceptualization, measurement, and validation of effort- and valence-based just world beliefs. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 39(3), 194–210. https://doi.org/10.1027/1015-5759/a000703

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Items of the Effort- and Valence-Based Just World Beliefs Scales

Test items are available. The Chinese version consists of 9 items, and the German version consists of 8 items (final versions). The instrument includes the following two subscales:

• Effort-based belief in a just world (E-BJW)

• Valence-based belief in a just world (V-BJW)

Chinese Version

German Version

Note. Italicized items and items with an asterisk were deleted during the final refinement of the scale structure. All items for both language versions are rated from 1=strongly disagree to 7=strongly agree.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier:

• Cheng, Yuan: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0857-4503

• Otto, Kathleen: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5737-2575

• Nudelman, Gabriel: No data is Available

• Ma, Jianhong: No data is Available

Affiliation:

• Cheng, Yuan: NingboTech University, Business School

• Nudelman, Gabriel: Academic College of Tel Aviv–Yaffo, Department of Psychology

• Otto, Kathleen: Philipps University of Marburg, Department of Work and Organizational Psychology

• Ma, Jianhong: Zhejiang University, Department of Psychology and Behavioral Science

Affiliation Email addresses:

Cheng, Yuan: [email protected]

Correspondence Address:

Cheng, Yuan: NingboTech University, Business School, Qianhu South Road 1, Ningbo, China, 315100, [email protected]