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Responses to Victimizations and Belief in a Just World pp 87–105Cite as

Belief in a Just World, Well-Being, and Coping with an Unjust Fate

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Part of the book series: Critical Issues in Social Justice ((CISJ))

Abstract

People ordinarily operate on the basis of unquestioned assumptions about the self, the world and the future. These cognitive schemata describe the benign world or optimism about the future, the meaningful world and the self as worthy (cf., Epstein, 1990; Janoff-Bulman, 1979; Weinstein, 1980). They do not comprise exact descriptions of reality but rather positive misperceptions; therefore they are named by Taylor (e.g., 1989) as positive illusions. Taylor and Brown (1988) showed that this kind of illusions seems to be adaptive for mental health and well-being.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Kaiserslautern, D-67653, Kaiserslautern, Germany

    Claudia Dalbert

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  1. Claudia Dalbert
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Trier, D-54286, Trier, Germany

    Leo Montada

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, N2L 3G1, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

    Melvin J. Lerner

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Dalbert, C. (1998). Belief in a Just World, Well-Being, and Coping with an Unjust Fate. In: Montada, L., Lerner, M.J. (eds) Responses to Victimizations and Belief in a Just World. Critical Issues in Social Justice. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-6418-5_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-6418-5_6

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-3306-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4757-6418-5

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