This study presents the adaptation of the Uncertainty Response Scale (Greco & Roger, Pers. Individ. Differ, 31:519-534, 2001) to Portuguese. This instrument was administered to a non-clinical community sample composed of 1596 students and professionals, allowing a thorough validity and invariance analysis by randomly dividing participants into three subsamples to perform: an exploratory factor analysis (sample one: N = 512); a preliminary confirmatory factor analysis to identify the final solution for the scale (sample two: N = 543); and the confirmatory factor analysis (sample three: N = 541). Samples two and three were also used for multi-group analysis to assess measurement invariance, invariance across gender, sociocultural levels, and students versus active professionals. Results showed the scale reflects the original factorial structure, as well as good internal consistency and overall good psychometric qualities. Invariance results across groups reached structural invariance which provides a confident invariance measurement for this scale, while invariance across gender and sociocultural levels reached metric invariance. Accordingly, differences between these groups were explored, by comparing means with multi-group analysis to establish the scale's sensitivity toward social vulnerability, by demonstrating the existence of statistically significant differences regarding gender and sociocultural levels on how individuals cope with uncertainty, specifically in terms of emotional strategies, as a self-defeating strategy. Thus, females scored higher on emotional uncertainty, as well as low sociocultural levels, compared with higher ones. Therefore, it is proposed that this scale could be a sound alternative to explore strategies for coping with uncertainty, when considering social, economic, or other environmental circumstances that may affect them.

This article argues that understanding uncertainty in contemporary societies and its psychosocial consequences is possible through a transdisciplinary perspective. This integrates sociological, psychological, economic and political dimensions. To address this, we offer a critical theoretical reflection that draws on diverse conceptual perspectives within the social sciences. In recent years, in psychological research, uncertainty has been mainly analysed as an intrapsychic phenomenon and as a psychological trait through the concept of (in)tolerance of uncertainty. In contrast, we argue for a psychosocial analysis of uncertainty, considering its socio-economic and political origins, thereby challenging its trait-like analysis. For example, we highlight the inputs of attachment theory for the understanding of uncertainty, connecting it to Marris’s thesis of an unequal distribution of uncertainty and of the power to cope with it (1996). This analysis of uncertainty integrates psychological dimensions with social ones within contemporary western societies, proposing the use of the concept of psychosocial uncertainty. The consequences of uncertainties impact upon employment, relationships and communities, where we can locate the social origins of depression, anxiety, distrust, victim-blaming or lack of cohesion in communities. Besides precarity at work, we now face precarious forms of living, endangering the fundamental processes of psychic and social individuation. Finally, we locate the social origins of uncertainty and its psychological consequences within the responsibilities of social sciences. Drawing on psychology, from social and community psychology to clinical and organizational psychology, we query the relationship between theory and practice. Underpinning this argument is an appreciation of Marris’s contribution to the construction of ‘politics of collaboration/association and reciprocity, as opposed to politics of disempowering uncertainty/dissociation’.

This study presents the development of the Psychosocial Uncertainty Scale (PS-US), which articulates the perception of uncertainty in the social context and its psychological experience. It was validated with a sample of 1596 students and active professionals (employed and unemployed). By randomly dividing this sample in three sub-samples, the following analyses were performed: exploratory factor analysis (sample one: N = 827); preliminary confirmatory factor analysis identifying the final version of the scale (sample two: N = 382); confirmatory factor analysis (sample three: N = 387). Multi-group analysis was used to assess measurement invariance, gender, sociocultural level, and group of origin invariance, by using samples two and three. Group differences were explored with the complete sample through Multiple Indicators and Multiple Causes (MIMIC) Models. Associations between this scale and the Uncertainty response Scale were explored through Structural Equation Modelling. Exploratory and confirmatory analyses’ results showed good internal consistency and overall good psychometric qualities. The scale reached full metric invariance across groups, gender, SCL level and group of origin. Results highlight the sensitivity of the scale towards social vulnerability, proving the existence of sociocultural levels’ effects on experiences of psychosocial uncertainty within working contexts, relationships and community living and self-defeating beliefs; and gender and students versus professionals’ effects on psychosocial uncertainty. Furthermore, the scale associated significantly with Uncertainty Response Scale’s dimensions, specifically with emotional uncertainty, which can be considered a self-defeating strategy. Results suggest that emotional coping strategies, are explained by psychosocial uncertainty by 57%, and so, may have social origins.

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Contemporary societies challenge long-standing projects of the “good society” and social equality through neoliberal economic policies. Social forms of uncertainty generated by financial deprivation, precarity, and inequality seem to have effects on agency and coping and so socioeconomic and psychological consequences. This study aims to test these relationships, as well as a hypothesis on the potential impact of these constructs on beliefs of sociopolitical control and social dominance, which have implications for social justice. A mediation model explores the effects of financial access (the manifest benefit of work) on psychosocial uncertainty (which reflects the perception of uncertainty in the social context and the experience of its consequences within work, relationships, and the adoption of self-defeating beliefs) and on emotional coping strategies towards uncertainty, and their effects on personal agency, sociopolitical control (SPC), and social dominance orientation (SDO). Data are derived from a study of 633 participants in Portugal. Although personal agency is influenced by financial access and psychosocial uncertainty, it is not proved as a significant mediator for SPC and SDO. Nevertheless, financial access, psychosocial uncertainty, and emotional coping significantly contribute to the model, supporting the hypothesis that financial access protects against psychosocial uncertainty. Both have an impact on SPC and SDO. Therefore, financial deprivation and psychosocial uncertainty potentially contribute to extremism and populism in societies characterised by socially created forms of uncertainty. Implications of results for psychological intervention, namely in vocational/professional counselling, are discussed.

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