Distributive justice assigns a construct related to the way as the people evaluate the distributions of positive goods (income, freedom, positions politicians) or negatives ones (punishment, sanctions, penalties) in society. When making distributive judgments, the individuals are concerned if the distribution favored or it harmed the involved ones, using parameters or principles that determine which distributive method is more or less just of being applied in the context of the distribution. Related to the distributive justice, many theoretical and empirical studies have been carried through. The main aim of the present work is to make a revision of psychological literature regarding the concept of distributive justice. It will be presented the main psychosocial and developmental theories that deal with this subject. Then, some important empirical studies on distributive justice will be reviewed and criticized. Finally, some consideration about the field of nowadays studies will be made.
Distributive justice; social psychology; developmental psychology