Believing in one’s equal rights: Self-respect as a predictor of assertiveness

Internalized equality and protest against injustice: The role of disadvantaged group members’ self‐respect in collective action tendencies

“…Only to the extent that people are aware of having equal rights can they feel entitled to protest against the violation of their rights (see also Feinberg, ). Confirming this expectation, Renger () showed that self‐respect is empirically linked to assertive responses to injustice in interpersonal contexts whereas other self‐constructs such as general self‐esteem are not.…”

“…Individuals’ sense of having equal rights was likewise not considered in two‐dimensional conceptions of self‐esteem differentiating between self‐competence and self‐liking (e.g., Tafarodi & Swann, ). With its unique focus on people’s conviction of having equal rights, self‐respect was recently empirically distinguished from various self‐constructs (Renger, ) including self‐competence, self‐liking, general self‐esteem (Rosenberg, ), self‐acceptance (Ryff, ), and psychological entitlement (defined as a person’s sense of deserving more than others independent of one’s own input; Campbell, Bonacci, Shelton, Exline, & Bushman, ). Self‐respect can also be theoretically distinguished from self‐efficacy, defined as people's belief in their ability to influence events that affect their lives (cf.…”

“…Self‐respect refers to whether I believe that I have the right to do certain things, while self‐efficacy captures whether I believe that I am able to do them. Overall, there is theoretical and empirical evidence that four different self‐concept dimensions can be distinguished (Renger, ); (a) likability (e.g., self‐liking, Tafarodi & Swann, ; self‐confidence, Renger, ; self‐acceptance, Ryff, , and most of Rosenberg’s () general self‐esteem items load on a self‐liking factor, see Renger, , study 2), (b) competence (e.g., self‐competence Renger, , and Tafarodi & Swann, ; self‐efficacy, Bandura, ), (c) equality (captured by the concept of self‐respect), and (d) superiority (e.g., psychological entitlement, Campbell et al, ).…”

“…Most self‐constructs (including general self‐esteem) have, so far, not been found to predict assertiveness or protest behavior (Renger, ). However, self‐respect refers to a different aspect of self‐evaluation, namely having the (equal) right to do something.…”

“…Although the notion of self‐respect is widely used in everyday language and discussed in other scientific disciplines (e.g., philosophy, Dillon, ; Rawls, ), the concept has been neglected by psychological research (Roland & Foxx, ). A recent approach tried to fill this gap by suggesting a psychological definition of self‐respect (Renger, ). Self‐respect is defined as an individual’s internalized conviction of being a person with equal rights (see also Honneth, ).…”