(2016) Science and education, 5, 131-135. Odessa.

Liudmila Falkovska,
senior lecturer, Department of Social and Applied Psychology,
Zhytomyr State University named after Ivan Franko,
40, Velyka Berdychivska Str., Zhytomyr, Ukraine

CONSTRUCT OF JUSTICE AS A MECHANISM OF BEHAVIOUR REGULATION

The article deals with the concept of justice, as a construct which is considered as a psychological mechanism of behaviour regulation. The relevance of the research can be explained, on the one hand, by the possibility of using the objectively valid empirical method – the repertory grid technique (RGT or RepGrid) by J. Kelly, on the other hand, by the renewal of the research interest of the national psychology in the internal mechanisms of social behaviour regulation, in contrast to the popular external, essentially administrative mechanisms. According to the understanding of justice by an individual or a group of people, there will be implemented such model of behaviour which is brought into the highest possible compliance between the demands of the community and their own interests. The important thing is not only the process of understanding justice, but also its meaning, which makes this construct functional, efficient. In the theoretical and empirical research, it has been proved that the construct is a bipolar axis that evaluates situations, in which a personality is involved, as fair or unfair ones towards all interaction parties; it takes part in making decisions about their future behaviour and thus, regulates further relations. Possibility and strength of this relationship will be determined by the level of satisfaction with the balance between “fair-unfair”, at the level of common sense. As a form of rational synthesis as a certain kind of integrity in which a person (group) realises his/her (its) place in the world, the construct of justice manifests itself due to the presence of four characteristics: the situation, interaction parties, the party that is considered as deprived one and the interaction party that is interested in solving a situation in its favour. In order to study justice as a construct, it is necessary to simulate all four features, so using “critical incident method” will be the most relevant for this aim.

sense of justice, disgust for injustice, construct “fair / unfair”, the internal mechanism of behaviour regulation, legal and regulatory situation, assessment, decision-making, action.

1. Waal, de Frans (2016). Istoki morali: v poiskakh chelovecheskogo u primatov [The Bonobo and the Atheist In Search of Humanism Among the Primates]. Moscow: Al’pina non-fikshn [in Russian].
2. Falkovska, L. M. (2014). Rol konstrukta spravedlyvosti v rehuliatsii pravovoi povedinky [Role of construct of justice in the regulation of legal behaviour]. Problemy politychnoyi psykholohiyi – Problems of political psychology: Collection of Scientific Papers, 1, 127- 136Kyiv: Milenium [in Ukrainian].
3. Fransella,F. & Bannister, D. (1987). A new method to study personality: Guide to the repertoire individual methods: translation from English. (Zabrodin Yu. M. & V. I. Pokhylko Trans.). Moscow: Progress [in Russian].
4. Huisman, R. (1992). Faktor spravedlivosti, ili “I eto posle vsego, chto ya dlya tebya sdelal...” [Factor justice, or "This is, after all I’ve done for you...”]. Moscow: Knowledge [in Russian].
5. Brosnan, S. F. & de Waal, F. B. M. (2014). Evolution of responses to (un)fairness [in English].