Developmental Changes in Concepts of Justice

Among the cognitive systems known to influence social behavior and social values, concepts of justice are of particular importance. They offer standards against which past and prevailing social orders, laws, regulations, demands, judgments, and the fate of other humans may be measured. Common experience teaches that the awareness of having been treated unjustly can be agonizing and under some circumstances even pathogenic. Attempts to rectify injustice may range from acts of charity to lawsuit; they may incite the individual to acts of revenge or the masses to political revolution. The desire to behave and be treated in a just manner, as well as the need to believe in a just social order - if only as a fictitious entity -are the determinants of a great number of actions and moral judgments (Lemer, 1977). Exactly what qualifies an action or judgment as just, however, is a matter of continuing debate. The standards of justice actually implemented vary according to the situation, the perspective of the observer, and the perceived quality of the social context (Deutsch, 1975). Concepts of justice change with societal change (Sampson, 1975) and they are known to vary as the individual reaches new stages in development (Berg &Mussen, 1975).