Personal Essay: The Definition Of Respect

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Cody Smith Professor Karen Royall English 1301 2 June 2012 Respect What is your definition of respect? Well, to most people respect is just saying yes maim, no maim, yes sir, and no sir, but respect is so much more than that! The dictionary defines respect as esteem for or a sense of the worth or excellence of a person, a personal quality or ability, or something considered as a manifestation of a personal quality or ability. To me, even this definition is not the complete definition of respect. The definition of respect can not possibly be written in just a few sentences, but yet respect is one of those common concepts that nearly everyone can describe. If you ask a big-city gang member or a small town Baptist minister, both will agree that respect is important to human beings and critical for social relations. They may think of it in different ways, but they both know what it is. There are basically three different types of respect, self-respect, respect towards others, and respect from others.…show more content…
If we have basic self-respect, and we show basic respect to others, then it follows that we will not tolerate disrespect from others. If you were to allow another person to be disrespectful to you, then you would not be acting with self-respect. The problem, of course, is that you cannot force others to treat you with respect. Attempting to do that would be disrespectful to others. Yelling at another person, “Stop being disrespectful to me!” is hardly being respectful to them, and it also violates the Golden Rule. So, the challenge is to insist on being treated with respect from others, and if that respect is not forthcoming, to then withdraw from the abusive treatment. By becoming aware of the three types of respect in everyday life and practicing all three types, we have an actionable way to improve our own psychological health as well as contribute to the health of others. So, how do you define
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