Social Psychology

Abstract

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which recently celebrated its sixtieth anniversary, vouches for the “dignity and rights” of all humankind. Social-psychological insights allow us to conceptualize and understand notions of human dignity that underlie cross-cultural notions of rights. With respect to social-psychological inquiry, House identifies the three faces: psychological social psychology, social structure and personality, and symbolic interactionism. The social structure and personality framework has a long tradition in social psychology, and its influence has extended to the point that it is largely the basis for other sociological subfields, with principles that were once seen as novel widely taken for granted. One of social psychology’s core areas of inquiry is the self-concept, where personal and social identities are reconciled. Little sociological research has richly engaged the psychological substrates for a sense of dignity, which is perhaps the fundamental aspect of human rights.