Respect and disrespect are abstract terms. However, even without definitions, we assume consensus view of these two words during conversations. But where and how do we learn what (dis)respect is? Are respect and disrespect polar opposites? Does showing respect earn one respect?
These are some of the questions I strived to answer throughout my 4 years in the RCAT lab. To understand the fundamentals of respect and disrespect, our lab analyze children’s and youth’s narratives of (dis)respect experience with peers and teachers. During my first 2 years of training, I worked collaboratively with my lab members on understanding children’s experience of peer (dis)respect, defining respect, and ethnic minority youth’s experience of teacher disrespect. This set of work has been presented at Smith College’s annual undergraduate research conference in 2014 and 2015, the Society for Research in Child Development Biennial Meeting in 2015, and the American Psychological Association Annual Meeting in 2015.
For the next 2 years, I focused on an independent study using plot and thematic analysis. My work differentiated the process of earning respect from that of feeling / showing respect, and provided constructive support that respect is not the polar opposite of disrespect. Below is the presentation I gave at the 2018 Engaged Scholarship and Social Justice Undergraduate Research Conference at Harvard University. This work has also been presented at the 2018 Jean Piaget Society Symposium, and is in progress of publication.
Karina Huang 
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