The Influence Of Junior High School Students’ Belief In Just World And Time Perspective On Intertemporal Decision-making

Belief in a just world(BJW)refers to an individual’s recognition that the world is just and that what he deserves is what he gets.Time perspective(TP)is a generalization of an individual’s time attitude,which is formed by the interaction between the past and the future,and can influence people’s current behavior.Intertemporal decision or intertemporal choice(IC)is a process in which people make a decision in the face of different gains and losses in the present and future,combining reality with cognition.Previous studies have shown that belief in a just world and time perspective have an impact on intertemporal decision-making preference,but in these studies,the dimensions of belief in a just world are not divided in detail,and the relationship between each dimension of time perspective and intertemporal decision-making is not specifically discussed.And the previous research on intertemporal decision-making is mostly in personal situations,and the research objects are mostly adults.Junior high school students have particularity for adults,and the adolescent stage is also in the critical period of the growth of intertemporal decision-making ability,so it is worth further research on intertemporal decision-making of junior high school students.This study explores the above problems through three studies.First of all,study 1 explored the status quo of junior high school students’ belief in a just world,time perspective and intertemporal decision-making through questionnaire.A total of 580 questionnaires were distributed,of which 527 were valid.The subjects included students of grade one and grade two.The results show that: in terms of belief in a just world,the second grade students have stronger self belief and belief in a just world than the first grade students;High academic achievement is stronger than low academic achievement in self belief,present belief and future belief in a just world;Only child has stronger belief in a just world than non only child.In terms of time perspective,high achievers are more inclined to past positive and future time perspective,while low achievers are more inclined to present fatalism and past negative time perspective;Only child is more inclined to past positive time perspective than non only child.In the aspect of intertemporal decision-making,female students are more likely to get far and large benefits than male students;The only child is more likely to get far and large benefits than the non only child.In Study 2,based on Study 1,after exploring the basic level of junior high school students’ belief in a just world and time perspective,the subjects were divided into two groups.The belief of just world can be divided into self others group and present future group.The time perspective can be divided into future group,past positive group,past negative group,present pleasure group and present destiny group.On this basis,we discuss the impact of just world belief and time perspective on intertemporal decision-making in personal situations.The results show that: the belief of present future justice world has a significant main effect on intertemporal decision-making in personal context,and the future group is more inclined to long-term return than the present group;The main effect of time perspective on intertemporal decision-making is significant.The past negative group is more inclined to short-term return than the future group,the past positive group and the present hedonic group.There is no interaction between belief in a just world and time perspective.In Study 3,there were 720 questionnaires distributing to the same subjects as study 1,and 666 valid questionnaires were obtained.The participants were divided into four intertemporal decision-making scenarios: sharing delayed benefits with partners,sharing delayed benefits with strangers,sharing instant benefits with partners and sharing instant benefits with strangers.To explore the influence of belief in a just world,time perspective and intertemporal decision-making scenarios on group intertemporal decision-making.The results show that: the main effect of self others’ belief in a just world is significant,and the self group is more inclined to immediate gains than the other group;The main effect of intertemporal decision-making scenarios is significant,and the order of delay discount rate from small to large is:sharing delayed benefits with partners,sharing immediate benefits with strangers,sharing immediate benefits with partners and sharing delayed benefits with strangers;The interaction between self others justice world belief and time perspective is significant;The interaction between time perspective and intertemporal decision situation is significant;There was significant interaction among self others justice world belief,time perspective and intertemporal decision-making situation;There is a significant interaction between the belief of the present future just world and the intertemporal decision-making situation;There is a significant interaction among the belief of the present future just world,time perspective and intertemporal decision scenarios.The main conclusions are as follows:(1)The demographic variables such as grade,gender,academic achievement and only child have an impact on junior high school students’ belief in a just world,time perspective and intertemporal decision-making.(2)In the intertemporal decision-making of individual and group situations,the intertemporal preferences of junior high school students with different just world beliefs and time perspective tendencies are different,which indicates that intertemporal decision-making situation is indeed an important factor affecting the delay discount rate.(3)In group situation intertemporal decision-making,delay discount and social discount work together,and the participation of others will change junior high school students’ intertemporal decision-making preference.