THE ROLE OF CRITICAL LIFE EVENTS IN PREDICTING WORLD VIEWS - LINKING 2 SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGIES

A recent trend in the literature calls for linkages between social cog nition and sociological social psychology. This paper builds on existi ng theory and research in both fields to investigate the association b etween critical life experiences and three world views: mistrust anomi e, and belief in a just world. Data are from a nationally representati ve sample of American adults (N = 829, 464 women and 365 men). The ana lytical model also tests for the direct and modifying influences of re levant social statuses Overall, the events that have the greatest esti mated negative impact on world views are those that represent individu al vulnerability to uncontrollable circumstances, such physical threat or violence, death of a sibling, and recent unemployment. Higher educ ation and income, as well as being white and male, are directly relate d to positive beliefs about the world These statuses also have a modif ying influence on the otherwise negative effects of critical life even ts on world views.