Investigating the relationship between approval motivation and sensitivity to befallen injustice

Pages: 1693-1700
Sujay Bhandary (Department of Psychology, Rishi Dayaram & Seth Wassaram National College of Arts and Commerce, Mumbai, Maharashtra)

A study was done to investigate the relationship between Approval Motivation and Sensitivity to Befallen Injustice. Questionnaires, Marlow and Crowne’s Social Desirability Scale (1960) to measure approval motivation and Schmitt, Neumann and Montanda’s inventory to measure Dispositional Sensitivity to Befallen Injustice (1995) were administered on undergraduate college students (n=102). The responses were then analyzed using Spearman’s Rank Order Correlation Coefficient and a moderate negative correlation was found, significant at p <0.001. Cohen's d was calculated (using Pearson's r), indicating a medium effect size and a linear regression analysis was carried out to make prediction for Sensitivity to Befallen Injustice due to Approval Motivation. The author thus concludes that need for approval plays a considerable role in lowering of sensitivity to events that are seen as unjust to oneself. The findings could be useful to help increase this sensitivity by lowering approval motivation through which unjust social behaviors might be internalized.