This research program focused on studying patients' experiences of feeling respected and in particular the intrapersonal, interpersonal, intragroup and intergroup influences on such experiences. Consequences of feeling respected on patient outcomes were also assessed. The final chapter is a review of the literature on respect at different levels of analysis with emphasis on the example of doctor-patient relations. The second and third chapters focus on patients. With a focus on respect at the intrapersonal level, the second chapter (Study 1) explores patients' meanings of feeling respected. The third chapter (Study 2) provides support for the intrapersonal factors of expectations of the doctor and self-respect influencing respect feelings. It also tests the effect of the doctor's behaviours, an interpersonal influence, on patients' respect feelings. The fourth and fifth chapters focus on the doctor. The fourth chapter (Study 3) provides support for a model of respect as an interpersonal attitude based on the object's inherent worth as a person and respect worthy qualities embraced by the literature. The fifth chapter (Study 4) shows a salient social medical identity to be associated with deindividualization of patients but communication skills' training with individualization of patients, and thus a more respectful attitude towards patients. The sixth chapter (Study 5) shows that patients who self-categorize more strongly as traditional patients feel more respected than patients who self-categorize more strongly as consumerist patients and that respect feelings influence various patient outcomes, including illness perception, patient satisfaction and adherence to advice.