Internalized equality: Antecedents and consequences of self-respect

• Applicant: Dr. Daniela Renger
• Subject Area: Social Psychology, Industrial and Organisational Psychology
• Term: since 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 458753025

Self-respect is a construct often discussed in other scientific disciplines (e.g. philosophy); in psychology, however, it has been largely neglected until now. A definition recently proposed by the principal investigator fills this gap and defines self-respect as the internalized conviction of an individual to be the owner of equal rights. The present project addresses the antecedents and consequences of self-respect along four central empirical questions: (1) How can self-respect be validly measured and how stable is it over time? (2) To what extent does equality-based respect, i.e. treatment as someone of equal worth who is taken seriously, from different sources (system or personal environment), represent the precondition for self-respect? (3) What specific consequences of self-respect can be empirically found? It has already been correlatively shown that self-respect is related to assertive behavior. Thus, self-respect implies an understanding of entitlement in relation to individual rights (sense of individual entitlement). In addition, it will now be investigated whether self-respect (as the internalization of equal treatment) is also associated with a sense of collective entitlement, i.e. with a perceived duty to protect or actively support the rights of others. A high level of self-respect should be positively associated with prosociality, sustainability thinking and a positive attitude to human rights. (4) Can self-respect contribute to analyzing the individual prerequisites of neighboring models, for example, the disapproval-respect model of tolerance? Self-respect is proposed on the one hand as a predictor of the willingness to respect and tolerate others, even if their ways of life are disapproved of. On the other hand, self-respect can help to examine limits of tolerance, since self-respect should promote the justified rejection of behavior as soon as the rights of third parties are violated.The four questions are examined with the help of five cross-sectional and longitudinal studies with student and non-student, national and international samples. In addition, four experimental studies are devoted to the causal relationships between respect and self-respect on the one hand and self-respect and the (simultaneous) perception of an individual and collective sense of entitlement on the other. It is assumed that a high level of self-respect results in a sense of collective entitlement that curbs the sense of individual entitlement. The construct self-respect thus contributes to the understanding of how in plural societies with diverse opinions the individual conviction of one's own entitlement can be communicated in a socially harmonious way.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants