How can Respectfulness in Medical Professionals be Increased? A Complex but Important Question.

Respectfulness is demanded of doctors and predicts more positive patient health-related outcomes but research is scarce on ways to promote it. This study explores two ways to conceptualize unconditional respect from medical students, defined as respect paid to people on the basis of their humanity, in order to inform strategies to increase it. Unconditional respect conceptualized as an attitude suggests that unconditional respect and conditional respect are additive, whereas unconditional respect conceptualized as a personality trait suggests that people who are high on unconditional respect afford equal respect to all humans regardless of their merits. One-hundred and eighty one medical students completed an unconditional respect measure then read a description of a respect-worthy or a non-respect-worthy man and indicated their respect towards him. The study found a main effect for unconditional respect and a main effect for target respect-worthiness but no interaction between the two when respect paid to the target was assessed, supporting the attitude-based conceptualization. This suggests that unconditional respect can be increased through relevant interventions aimed at increasing the relative salience to doctors of the human worth of individuals. Interventions to increase unconditional respect are discussed

Holistic individualism in the age of aquarius: Measuring individualism/collectivism in new age, Catholic, and atheist/agnostic groups

The New Age has been reported to be an exemplary religion of modernity, that emphasizes the importance of autonomy and self-development. Attempts to establish whether New Age ideas and practices were oriented toward self-transcendence or if, instead, they reinforced secular individualistic values and behaviors have become a central point of debate among researchers. In order to bring some new light to this debate we compared New Age with Roman Catholic and atheist/agnostic participants on a battery of social-psychological measures, including values, self-concepts, and individualism/collectivism. Results indicate that New Age individuals adopt an individualist outlook similar to that of nonreligious people, but also define themselves using a set of abstract holistic self-concepts, show avoidance of competitive goals, and stress values of universalism. We call this pattern "holistic individualism" for its fusion of an individualistic value orientation with highly abstract holistic perceptions of the self. © 2008 Society for the Scientific Study of Religion

The Morality‐Agency‐Communion (MAC) model of respect and liking

Traits can primarily facilitate one's own goals (agentic) or those of others (communal) with the former linked with respect and the latter with liking. However, communal traits vary in morality, which has been associated with respect. Four studies tested the impact of traits varying in morality, agency (competence or assertiveness) and communion (warmth) on ratings of respect and liking. Studies 1 and 2 used vignettes targeting integrity (communion-moral), competency (agency-competence) and friendliness (communion-warmth), while Studies 3 and 4 considered a broader range of pre-rated traits (Studies 3 and 4). Communal traits with a limited moral component were associated more with liking than with respect. Communal traits with a stronger moral component were associated at least as, and sometimes more, strongly with respect than liking. Moral traits were the most respected trait type and were similarly liked as warmth traits. Morality influences whether communal traits primarily influence liking and/or respect

Unconditional respect for persons and the prediction of intergroup action tendencies

Unconditional respect for persons is an orientation that rests on the assumption that all people have intrinsic worth and deserve respect simply by their being human. This paper reports three cross-sectional studies concerning unconditional respect in intergroup relations in three very different contexts. In all three studies, unconditional respect was positively related to positive action tendencies, and negatively related to negative action tendencies, toward other groups. Regression analyses showed that respect was a significant predictor of negative action tendencies even when attitude to the other group, social dominance orientation, empathy, and the quality and quantity of intergroup contact were statistically controlled. Moderation analyses showed that respect was particularly important under conditions of high threat. The implications of unconditional respect for intergroup relations are discussed. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley and Sons, Ltd