Relational humility: conceptualizing and measuring humility as a personality judgment

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Social Psychology
• Personality Psychology

Background:

• The study of humility has been hindered by measurement challenges.
• Conceptualizing humility as a personality judgment offers a new perspective.
• Existing measures may not fully capture the nuances of relational humility.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate the 16-item Relational Humility Scale (RHS).
• To provide empirical evidence for a model of relational humility as a personality judgment.
• To establish the psychometric properties of the RHS.

Main Methods:

• Five studies were conducted involving scale development and validation.
• Scale development involved item generation and refinement.
• Validation employed confirmatory factor analysis, experimental designs, and correlational analyses with related constructs.

Main Results:

• The 16-item Relational Humility Scale (RHS) was developed with subscales: Global Humility, Superiority, and Accurate View of Self.
• The factor structure of the RHS was confirmed in an independent sample.
• Evidence for construct, discriminant, and incremental validity was established through various studies.

Conclusions:

• The Relational Humility Scale (RHS) is a psychometrically sound measure for assessing relational humility.
• The findings support the conceptualization of humility as a personality judgment.
• The RHS offers a valuable tool for future research on humility and related social-cognitive constructs.