Abstract
Sometimes skeptics are tempted to dismiss world beliefs as meaningful phenomena. Such dismissal, we argue, is a mistake. How beliefs about many broad topics impact behavior is well-established. Psychologically rich world beliefs have also peppered the cultural milieu for centuries. Multiple, decades-old literatures have already established psychometrically the existence of world beliefs, proposed effects, and developed sufficient theory to define the beliefs and explain effects (e.g., Belief in a Just World literature). However, a shared, operationalized list of belief dimensions was lacking. Does one craft such a list a priori, with a specific outcome in mind – the typical approach – or seek to discover pre-existing dimensionality empirically, with no outcome privileged – similar to how Big Five traits were identified? The former being tried (Janoff-Bulman, 1989), Clifton and colleagues (2019) chose the latter, sparking an emerging, interdisciplinary effort. Yet the origins of these beliefs remain unknown and developmental psychologists are, now, sorely needed.
Journal Section:
ARTICLE
References
1.
Ainsworth
, M. D. S.
, & Bell
, S. M.
(1981
). Attachment, exploration, and separation: Illustrated by the behavior of one-year-olds in a strange situation
. In: The Life Cycle: Readings in Human Development
(pp. 57
–71
). Columbia University Press
.2.
Article Metrics
(2023
). Almetric
. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/metrics/10.1080/17439760.2021.2016907?scroll=top3.
Bartholomaeus
, J.
, & Strelan
, P.
(2019
). The adaptive, approach-oriented correlates of belief in a just world for the self: A review of the research
. Personality and Individual Differences
, 151
, 109485
. 4.
5.
Beck
, A. T.
, Rush
, A. J.
, Shaw
, B. P.
, & Emery
, G.
(1979
). Cognitive therapy of depression
. Guilford Press
.6.
Beck
, A. T.
(1991
). Cognitive therapy: A 30-year retrospective
. American Psychologist
, 46
(4
), 368
–375
. 7.
Beck
, A. T.
, Kovacs
, M.
, & Weissman
, A.
(1979
). Assessment of Suicidal Intention: The Scale for Suicide Ideation
. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology
, 47
(2
), 343
–352
. 8.
Bem
, D. J.
, & Allen
, A.
(1974
). On predicting some of the people some of the time: The search for cross-situational consistencies in behavior
. Psychological Review
, 81
, 506
–520
.9.
Brewer
, W. F.
(2000
). Bartlett, functionalism, and modern schema theories
. The Journal of Mind and Behavior
, 21
(1-2
), 37
–44
.10.
Brosnan
, K.
, Babakhani
, N.
, & Dolnicar
, S.
(2019
). “I know what you’re going to ask me” Why respondents don’t read survey questions
. International Journal of Market Research
, 61
(4
), 366
–379
. 11.
Carrigan
, P. M.
(1960
). Extraversion-introversion as a dimension of personality: A reappraisal
. Psychological Bulletin
, 57
(5
), 329
–360
. 12.
Charnov
, E. L.
(1976
). Optimal foraging, the marginal value theorem
. Theoretical Population Biology
, 9
(2
), 129
–136
. 13.
14.
Clifton
, J. D. W
. (2013
). Thirteen universal assessments which may contribute to the “good life” [Masters thesis, University of Pennsylvania]
. Scholarly Commons
. https://repository.upenn.edu/mapp_capstone/4115.
Clifton
, J. D. W.
(2020a
). Managing validity versus reliability trade-offs in scale-building decisions
. Psychological Assessment
, 25
(3
), 259
–270
. 16.
Clifton
, J. D. W.
(2020b
). Happy in a crummy world: Implications of primal world beliefs for increasing well-being through positive psychology interventions
. Journal of Positive Psychology
, 15
(5
), 691
–695
. 17.
Clifton
, J. D. W.
(2020c
). Testing if primal world beliefs reflect experiences–At least some experiences identified ad hoc
. Frontiers in Psychology
, 11
, 1145
. 18.
Clifton
, J. D. W.
(2023
). Measuring primal world beliefs
. In W.
Ruch
, A. B.
Baker
, L.
Tay
, & F.
Gander
(Eds), Handbook of positive psychology assessment (Psychological Assessment – Science and Practice
(Vol. 5
, pp. 385
–401
). Hogrefe Publishing Group
.19.
Clifton
, J. D. W.
(2024
). Psychologists return to the first question of Western philosophy
. American Psychologist
. 20.
Clifton
, J. D. W.
, Baker
, J. D.
, Park
, C. L.
, Yaden
, D. B.
, Clifton
, A. B.
, Terni
, P.
, Miller
, J. L.
, Zeng
, G.
, Giorgi
, S.
, Schwartz
, H. A.
, & Seligman
, M. E. P.
(2019
). Primal World Beliefs
. Psychological Assessment
, 31
(1
), 82
–99
. 21.
Clifton
, A. B. W.
, Stahlmann
, A. G.
, Hofmann
, J.
, Chirico
, A.
, Cadwallader
, R.
, & Clifton
, J. D. W.
(2023
). Improving scale equivalence by increasing access to scale-specific information
. Perspectives on Psychological Science
, 18
(4
), 843
–853
. 22.
Clifton
, J. D. W.
, & Kerry
, N.
(2023
). Belief in a dangerous world does not explain substantial variance in political attitudes, but other world beliefs do
. Social Psychological and Personality Science
, 14
(5
), 515
–525
. 23.
Clifton
, J. D. W.
, & Kim
, E. S.
(2020
). Healthy in a crummy world: Implications of primal world beliefs for health psychology
. Medical Hypotheses
, 135
, 109463
. 24.
Clifton
, J. D. W.
, & Meindl
, P.
(2022
). Parents think–incorrectly–that teaching their children that the world is a bad place is likely best for them
. The Journal of Positive Psychology
, 17
(2
), 182
–197
. 25.
Clifton
, J. D. W.
, & Yaden
, D. B.
(2021
). Brief measures of the four highest-order Primal World Beliefs
. Psychological Assessment
, 33
(12
), 1267
–1273
. 26.
Clifton
, J. D. W.
, & Crum
, A. J.
(2024
). Beliefs that drive personality likely concern a situation humans never leave
. Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania
.27.
Collier
, R. M.
, & Emch
, M.
(1938
). Introversion-extraversion: The concepts and their clinical use
. American Journal of Psychiatry
, 94
(5
), 1045
–1075
. 28.
Collins
, B. E.
(1974
). Four components of the Rotter internal-external scale: Belief in a difficult world, a just world, a predictable world, and a politically responsive world
. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
, 29
(3
), 381
–391
. 29.
Conklin
, E. S.
(1923
). The definition of introversion, extroversion, and allied concepts
. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology
, 17
(4
), 367
–383
, 30.
Crum
, A. J.
(2013
). Rethinking Stress: The Role of Mindsets in Determining the Stress Response
.Doctoral dissertation
.31.
Crum
, A. J.
, & Clifton
, J. D. W.
(2024
). Core beliefs
. Department of Psychology, Stanford University
.32.
Crum
, A. J.
, Corbin
, W. R.
, Brownell
, K. D.
, & Salovey
, P.
(2001
). Mind over milkshakes: Mindsets, not just nutrients, determine ghrelin response
. Health Psychology
, 30
(4
), 424
–429
. 33.
Crum
, A. J.
, Phillips
, D. J.
, Goyer
, J. P.
, Akinola
, M.
, & Higgins
, E. T.
(2016
). Transforming water: Social influence moderates psychological, physiological, and functional response to a placebo product
. PLoS One
, 11
(11
), e0167121
. 34.
David
, D.
, Cristea
, I. A.
, & Hofmann
, S. G.
(2018
). Why cognitive behavioral therapy is the current gold standard of psychotherapy
. Frontiers in Psychiatry
, 9
, 4
. 35.
DeVellis
, R. F.
, & Thorpe
, C. T.
(2021
). Scale development: Theory and applications
. Sage
.36.
Duckitt
, J.
, & Sibley
, C. G.
(2009
). A dual-process motivational model of ideology, politics, and prejudice
. Psychological Inquiry
, 20
(2– 3
), 98
–109
. 37.
Dweck
, C. S.
, & Yeager
, D. S.
(2019
). Mindsets: A view from two eras
. Perspectives on Psychological Science
, 14
(3
), 481
–496
. 38.
Dweck
, C.
, & Yeager
, D.
(2020
). A growth mindset about intelligence
. In Handbook of wise interventions: How social psychology can help people change
, 9
–35
.39.
Evans
, C.
, & McConnell
, T. R.
(1941
). A new measure of introversion-extroversion
. The Journal of Psychology
, 12
(1
), 111
–124
. 40.
Field
, T. A.
, Farnsworth
, E. B.
, & Nielsen
, S. K.
(2014
). Do counselors use evidenced-based treatments? Results of a pilot survey
. VISTAS Online
, 51
, 1
–11
.41.
42.
Furnham
, A.
(1993
). Just world beliefs in twelve societies
. Social Psychology
, 133
(3
), 317
–329
. 43.
Gilliland
, A. R.
(1934
). What do introversion-extroversion tests measure?
. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology
, 28
(4
), 407
–412
. 44.
Goodman
, F. R.
, Disabato
, D. J.
, Kashdan
, T. B.
, & Kauffman
, S. B.
(2018
). Measuring well-being: A comparison of subjective well-being and PERMA
. The Journal of Positive Psychology
, 13
(4
), 321
–332
. 45.
Gosling
, S. D.
(2008
). Personality in non-human animals
. Social and Personality Psychology Compass
, 2
(2
), 985
–1001
. 46.
47.
Guilford
, J. P.
, & Braly
, K. W.
(1930
). Extroversion and introversion
. Psychological Bulletin
, 27
(2
), 96
–107
. 48.
Henderson
, D. K.
, & Gillespie
, R. D.
(1930
). A textbook of psychiatry
(2nd ed). Oxford University Press
.49.
50.
Hofmann
, S. G.
, Asnaani
, A.
, Vonk
, I. J.
, Sawyer
, A. T.
, & Fang
, A.
(2012
). The efficacy of cognitive behavioral therapy: A review of meta-analyses
. Cognitive Therapy and Research
, 36
(5
), 427
–440
. 51.
52.
Janoff-Bulman
, R.
(1989
). Assumptive worlds and the stress of traumatic events: Applications of the schema construct
. Social Cognition
, 7
(2
), 113
–136
. 53.
54.
John
, O. P.
, & Srivastava
, S.
(1999
). The Big Five trait taxonomy: History, measurement, and theoretical perspectives
. In L. A.
Pervin
, & O. P.
John
(Eds.), Handbook of personality: Theory and research
(2nd ed., pp. 102
–138
). Guilford Press
.55.
56.
Kaler
, M. E.
, Frazier
, P. A.
, Anders
, S. L.
, Tashiro
, T.
, Tomich
, P.
, Tennen
, H.
, & Park
, C.
(2008
). Assessing the psychometric properties of the World Assumptions Scale
. Journal of Traumatic Stress
, 21
(3
), 326
–332
. 57.
Kelley
, H. H.
(1967
). Attribution theory in social psychology
. Nebraska Symposium on Motivation
, 15
, 192
–238
.58.
Kelley
, H. H.
(1973
). The processes of causal attribution
. American Psychologist
, 28
(2
), 107
–128
. 59.
Kerry
, N.
, & Clifton
, J. D. W.
(2023
). From bear attacks to neutral faces, dangerous world belief uniquely predicts elevated threat perception
. In: Positive Psychology Center
. University of Pennsylvania
. [Manuscript in prep].60.
Kerry
, N.
, Hämpke
, J.
, & Clifton
, J. D. W.
(2024
). Primal world beliefs moderate the relationship between negative experiences and wellbeing
. University of Pennsylvania
. [Manuscript submitted]. Positive Psychology Center.61.
Kerry
, N.
, White
, K.
, O’Brien
, M.
, Perry
, L. M.
, & Clifton
, J. D. W.
(2023
). Despite popular intuition, positive world beliefs poorly reflect several objective indicators of privilege, including wealth, health, sex, and neighborhood safety
. Journal of Personality
. 62.
Kirk
, G. S.
, Raven
, J. E.
, & Schofield
, M.
(2011
). The Presocratic philosophers: A critical history with a selection of texts
(2nd ed.). Cambridge Press
.63.
Koltko-Rivera
, M. E.
(2004
). The psychology of worldviews
. Review of General Psychology
, 8
(1
), 3
–58
. 64.
Kuhn
, T. S.
(1962
). The structure of scientific revolutions
. University of Chicago Press
.65.
66.
Lipkus
, I.
(1991
). The construction and preliminary validation of a global belief in a just world scale and the exploratory analysis of the multidimensional belief in a just world scale
. Personality and Individual differences
, 12
(11
), 1171
–1178
. 67.
Ludwig
, V. U.
, Crone
, D. L.
, Clifton
, J. D. W.
, Rebele
, R. W.
, Schor
, J. A.
, & Platt
, M. L.
(2023
). Resilience of primal world beliefs to the initial shock of the COVID-19 pandemic
. Journal of Personality
, 91
(3
), 838
–855
. 68.
Markus
, H.
, & Zajonc
, R. B.
(1985
). The cognitive perspective in social psychology
. In Handbook of Social Psychology
, 1
(1
), 137
–230
.69.
Mascolo
, M. F.
(2024
). Theorizing “primal beliefs”: A developmental account
. Human Development
, 57
(6
), 347
–353
. 70.
McGrath
, R. E.
(2023
). World beliefs, character strengths, and hope for the future
. PLoS One
, 18
(6
), e0286531
. 71.
Montada
, L.
, & Lerner
, M. J.
(Eds) (1998
). In Responses to victimizations and belief in a just world
. Springer
. 72.
Murray
, D.R.
, & Schaller
, M.
(2012
). Threat(s) and conformity deconstructed: Perceived threat of infectious disease and its implications for conformist attitudes and behavior
. European Journal of Social Psychology
, 42
(2
), 180
–188
. 73.
New International Version
(2011
). BibleGateway.com
. https://www.biblegateway.com/versions/New-International-Version-NIV-Bible/#booklist74.
Nisbett
, R. E.
, & Ross
, L.
(1991
). Person and the situation: Perspectives of social psychology
. Temple University Press
.75.
76.
Pascal
, B.
(1669
). Pascal’s Pensées
. E.P. Dutton and Co., Inc.
(Original work published in 1669). Retrieved from https://www.gutenberg.org/files/18269/18269-h/18269-h.htm77.
Perizonius
, S.
, Wesseldijk
, L. W.
, Clifton
, J. D. W.
, Ullén
, F.
, & Mosing
, M. A.
(2024
). The world as I see it: Genetic and environmental influences on primal world beliefs in a large Swedish twin sample [Manuscript under review]
. Department of Cognitive Neuropsychology, Max Planck
.78.
Perry
, R.
, Sibley
, C. G.
, & Duckitt
, J.
(2013
). Dangerous and competitive worldviews: A meta-analysis of their associations with social dominance orientation and right-wing authoritarianism
. Journal of Research in Personality
, 47
, 116
–127
.79.
80.
Pondiscio
, R.
(2024
). What if school’s approach to mental health is all wrong? Manuscript
. American Enterprise Institute
. [in press].81.
Roberts
, C. S.
, & Fisher
, V. E.
(1933
). Another attempt at measures of extraversion-introversion
. The Psychological Clinic
, 22
(2
), 88
–93
.82.
Ross
, L.
(1977
). The intuitive psychologist and his shortcomings: Distortions in the attribution process
. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology
, 10
, 173
–220
. 83.
Rotter
, J. B.
(1967
). A new scale for the measurement of interpersonal trust
. Journal of Personality
, 35
(4
), 651
–665
. 84.
Rotter
, J. B.
(1980
). Interpersonal trust, trustworthiness, and gullibility
. American Psychologist
, 35
(1
), 1
–7
. 85.
Rubin
, Z.
, & Peplau
, L. A.
(1973
). Belief in a just world and reactions to another’s lot: A study of participants in the national draft lottery
. Journal of Social Issues
, 29
(4
), 73
–93
. 86.
Rubin
, Z.
, & Peplau
, L. A.
(1975
). Who believes in a just world?
. Journal of Social Issues
, 31
(3
), 65
–89
. 87.
Ryff
, C. D.
, & Keyes
, C. L. M.
(1995
). The structure of psychological well-being revisited
. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
, 69
(4
), 719
–727
. 88.
Seligman
, M. E.
(1972
). Learned helplessness
. Annual Review of Medicine
, 23
(1
), 407
–412
. 89.
Seligman
, M. E.
(2011
). Flourish: A visionary new understanding of happiness and well-being
. Simon and Schuster
.90.
Snook
, D. W.
, Bélanger
, J. J.
, Kerry
, N.
, & Clifton
, J. D. W.
(2024
). Is a meaningless world easier to destroy? Examining the role of the primal world beliefs in violent extremism
. In: Department of Psychology
. [Manuscript in prep].91.
Stahlmann
, A. G.
, Hofmann
, J.
, Ruch
, W.
, Heinz
, S.
, & Clifton
, J. D. W.
(2020
). The higher-order structure of primal world beliefs in German-speaking countries: Adaptation and initial validation of the German Primals Inventory (GPI-66)
. Personality and Individual Differences
, 163
, 110054
. Article 110054. 92.
Steiger
, M.
, Bharucha
, T. J.
, Venkatagiri
, S.
, Riedl
, M. J.
, & Lease
, M.
(2021
). The psychological well-being of content moderators: the emotional labor of commercial moderation and avenues for improving support
. In Proceedings of the 2021 CHI conference on human factors in computing systems
(pp. 1
–14
).93.
Vilanova
, F.
, Almeida-Segundo
, D. S.
, Moura
, P. B.
, Pratto
, F.
, & Costa
, A. B.
(2024
). The limited impact of adverse experiences on worldviews and ideologies
. Frontiers in Social Psychology
, 2
, 1375527
. 94.
Walton
, G. M.
, & Wilson
, T. D.
(2018
). Wise interventions: Psychological remedies for social and personal problems
. Psychological Review
, 125
(5
), 617
–655
. © 2024 S. Karger AG, Basel
Copyright / Drug Dosage / Disclaimer
Copyright: All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be translated into other languages, reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, microcopying, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Drug Dosage: The authors and the publisher have exerted every effort to ensure that drug selection and dosage set forth in this text are in accord with current recommendations and practice at the time of publication. However, in view of ongoing research, changes in government regulations, and the constant flow of information relating to drug therapy and drug reactions, the reader is urged to check the package insert for each drug for any changes in indications and dosage and for added warnings and precautions. This is particularly important when the recommended agent is a new and/or infrequently employed drug.
Disclaimer: The statements, opinions and data contained in this publication are solely those of the individual authors and contributors and not of the publishers and the editor(s). The appearance of advertisements or/and product references in the publication is not a warranty, endorsement, or approval of the products or services advertised or of their effectiveness, quality or safety. The publisher and the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to persons or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content or advertisements.
2024
You do not currently have access to this content.
