The Influence of Social Support on the Relationship Between Neuroticism and Perceived Injustice: A Moderation Analysis
Kaysn Irby, Ethan Leopard, Macie Johnston, Lawren Cochran, and Annaliese Weiss
In this secondary data analysis project, we examine personality, social, and cognitive factors that influence how people respond to traumatic events. Specifically, we investigate the influence of neuroticism and social support (SS) on perceived injustice, with SS as a moderator. Neuroticism is a personality trait defined by chronic emotional instability and psychological distress (American Psychological Association, n.d.). Perceived Injustice is defined as appraisals of blame and loss after traumatic events (Sullivan et al., 2008). We conceptualized and measured SS in two different ways, quantity and quality. The Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support measures quantity of support with three subscales: significant other, family, and friends (Zimet et al., 1988). The Unsupportive Social Interactions Inventory measures quality of support with four subscales: bumbling, minimizing, distancing, and blaming (Ingram et al., 2001). No previous studies have examined these exact variables, in this combination. Previous researchers have reported a positive correlation between neuroticism and injustice perceptions (Zitny & Halama, 2011; Coklar & Donmez, 2019), and a negative correlation between neuroticism and quantity of SS (Wang & Gan, 2011; Wang et al., 2022). We hypothesized that both quantity and quality of SS would moderate the relationship between neuroticism and perceived injustice; both a higher quantity and a higher quality of SS would weaken the relationship. Using data from 472 participants recruited via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, our moderation analysis showed that the quantity of SS moderates the relationship between neuroticism and perceived injustice, while the quality of SS does not. In our presentation, we will discuss potential explanations for the findings, and implications such as developing therapeutic practices targeting cognitive appraisals of trauma.
Kaysn Irby is a senior psychology major, a child and family studies minor, and a human services minor from Greenwood, SC. She is an undergraduate research assistant in Dr. Southard-Dobbs's Stress and Cognition lab.
Ethan Leopard is a senior psychology major and English minor from Laurens, SC. He is an undergraduate research assistant in Dr. Southard-Dobbs's Stress and Cognition Lab.
Macie Johnston is a junior psychology major from Indian Land, SC. She is an undergraduate research assistant in Dr. Southard-Dobbs's Stress and Cognition Lab.
Lawren Cochran is a junior psychology major and human services minor from Cross Hill, SC. She is an undergraduate research assistant in Dr. Southard-Dobbs's Stress and Cognition lab.
Annaliese Weiss is a junior psychology and criminology major, and a human services minor from Clemson, SC. She is an undergraduate research assistant in Dr. Southard-Dobbs's Stress and Cognition Lab. After undergrad, she plans on attending graduate school for experimental psychology.