Pride
Pride is a human secondary emotion characterized by a sense of security with one's identity, performance, or accomplishments. It is often considered as the opposite of shame and, depending on the context, may be viewed as either a virtue or a vice. Typically, pride arises from praise, independent self-reflection, and/or a fulfilled feeling of belonging.
The word pride may refer to group identity, with manifestations including ethnicity, as well as membership in civil rights movements and associated marginalized groups, such as Feminist Pride, Gay Pride, and LGBTQIA+ Pride. In the context of marginalized groups, the display of pride is generally a show of defiance against those outside the group attempting to instill a sense of shame. Pride may also refer to a sense of patriotism that accompanies membership in a certain national identity, regional identity, or other affiliations.
Pride may also be used to refer to foolhardiness, or a unearned, irrational sense of one's personal value, status, or accomplishments, often used synonymously with hubris or vanity. Pride is interpreted in classical theology as one of the seven deadly sins. When viewed as a virtue, pride in one's abilities is known as virtuous pride, greatness of soul, or magnanimity, but when viewed as a vice, it is often known to be self-idolatry, sadistic contempt, or vanity.
Etymology
The word "proud" originated from the late Old English word "prud",or "prut", likely derived from the Old French word meaning "brave" or "valiant".This term ultimately comes from the Late Latin "prode", meaning "useful".The sense of "having a high opinion of oneself", which does not exist in French, may reflect the Anglo-Saxons' perception of the Norman knights, who referred to themselves as "proud".Ancient Greek philosophy
identified pride as the crown of the virtues, distinguishing it from vanity, temperance and humility, saying:He then concludes that,
By contrast, Aristotle defined the vice of hubris as follows:
While pride and hubris are often deemed the same thing, for Aristotle and many other philosophers, hubris is an entirely different thing from pride.
Such, then, is the proud man; the man who falls short of him is unduly humble, and the man who goes beyond him is vain.’
Psychology
Emotion
In psychological terms, positive pride is a "pleasant, sometimes exhilarating, emotion that results from a positive self-evaluation". It was added to the University of California, Davis, "Set of Emotion Expressions", as one of three "self-conscious" emotions known to have recognizable expressions.The term "fiero" was coined by Italian psychologist Isabella Poggi to describe the pride experienced and expressed in the moments following a personal triumph over adversity. Facial expressions and gestures that demonstrate pride can involve a lifting of the chin, smiles, or arms on hips to demonstrate victory. Individuals may implicitly grant status to others based solely on their expressions of pride, even in cases in which they wish to avoid doing so. Indeed, some studies indicate that the nonverbal expression of pride conveys a message that is automatically perceived by others about a person's high social status in a group.
Behaviourally, pride can also be expressed by adopting an expanded posture in which the head is tilted back and the arms extended out from the body. This postural display is innate, as it is shown in congenitally blind individuals who have lacked the opportunity to see it in others.
Positive outcomes
Pride results from self-directed satisfaction with meeting personal goals; for example, positive performance outcomes elicit pride in a person when the event is appraised as having been caused by that person alone.Pride functions as a display of the strong self that promotes feelings of similarity to strong others, as well as differentiation from weak others. Seen in this light, pride can be conceptualized as a hierarchy-enhancing emotion, as its experience and display helps rid negotiations of conflict.
Pride involves exhilarated pleasure and a feeling of accomplishment. It is related to "more positive behaviors and outcomes in the area where the individual is proud". Pride is associated with positive social behaviors such as helping others and public expression of achievement. Along with hope, it is an emotion that facilitates performance attainment, as it can help trigger and sustain focused efforts, helping individuals prepare for upcoming evaluative events. It may also help enhance the quality and flexibility of the effort expended. Pride can enhance creativity, productivity, and altruism. Researchers have found that among African-American youth, pride is associated with a higher GPA in less socioeconomically advantaged neighborhoods, whereas in more advantaged neighborhoods, pride is associated with a lower GPA.
Economics
In the field of economic psychology, pride is conceptualized on a spectrum ranging from "proper pride", associated with genuine achievements, and "false pride", which can be maladaptive or even pathological. S.E.G. Lea and P. Webly, the researchers of the journal, 'Pride in economic psychology', examined the role of pride in various economic situations. They claimed that pride is involved in all economic decisions, because those decisions are linked to the self of the person who makes them. Understood in this way, pride is an emotional state that works to ensure that people take financial decisions that are in their long-term interests, even when in the short term they would appear irrational.Sin and self-acceptance
Inordinate self-esteem is called "pride". Classical Christian theology views pride as being the result of high self-esteem, and thus, high self-esteem was viewed as the primary human problem. However, beginning in the 20th century, "humanistic psychology" diagnosed the primary human problem as low self-esteem stemming from a lack of belief in one's "true worth". Carl Rogers observed that most people "regard themselves as worthless and unlovable". Thus, they lack self-esteem.In the King James Bible, people exhibiting excess pride are labeled with the term "haughty".
Terry Cooper describes excessive pride as an important framework in which to describe the human condition. He examines and compares the Augustinian-Niebuhrian conviction that pride is primary, the feminist concept of pride as being absent in the experience of women, the humanistic psychology position that pride does not adequately account for anyone's experience, and the humanistic psychology idea that if pride emerges, it is always a false front designed to protect an undervalued self.
He considers the work of certain Neo-Freudian psychoanalysts, namely Karen Horney, and offers promise in addressing what he describes as a "deadlock between the overvalued and undervalued self".
Cooper refers to their work in describing the connection between religious and psychological pride as well as sin to describe how a neurotic pride system underlies an appearance of self-contempt and low self-esteem:
The "idealized self", the "tyranny of the should", the "pride system", and the nature of self-hate all point toward the intertwined relationship between neurotic pride and self-contempt. This explains how a neurotic pride system underlies an appearance of self-contempt and low self-esteem.
Thus, hubris, which is an exaggerated form of self-esteem, is sometimes actually a lie used to cover the lack of self-esteem the hubristic person feels deep down.
Hubris and group narcissism
Hubris is associated with more intra-individual negative outcomes and is often associated with expressions of aggression and hostility. Hubris is not necessarily associated with high self-esteem but with highly fluctuating or variable self-esteem. Excessive hubris tends to create conflict and sometimes leads to the termination of close relationships, which has led it to be understood as one of the few emotions with no clear positive or adaptive functions.A group that boasts, gloats, or denigrates others tends to become a group with low social status or to be vulnerable to threats from other groups. "ubristic, pompous displays of group pride might be a sign of group insecurity rather than a sign of strength", while those who express pride by being filled with humility whilst focusing on members' efforts and hard work tend to achieve high social standing in both the adult public and personal eyes. Hubristic pride occurs when we experience pride in the absence of an eliciting event or even for eliciting events that we did not achieve.
Research from the University of Sydney found that hubristic pride is correlated with arrogance and self-aggrandizement and promotes prejudice and discrimination. However, authentic pride is associated with self-confidence and accomplishment and promotes more positive attitudes toward outgroups and stigmatized individuals.
Ethnic
Across the world
Pride in one's own ethnicity or one's own culture can be regarded positively, though like earlier discussions on pride, it has been known to justify atrocity.A 2017 piece by David Robson in the BBC noted that psychological research concludes that cognitive styles differ significantly across cultures, especially between "WEIRD" populations and those in East and South Asia. According to this research, Western societies tend to exhibit individualistic and analytic thinking—emphasizing personal traits, categorization by abstract similarity, and narrow visual attention, whereas many East Asian societies tend to show collectivistic and holistic thinking—emphasizing contextual relationships, social interdependence, and broad visual attention. Robson notes these differences appear shaped not only by philosophy and social norms but also by historical–environmental factors, such as frontier settlement patterns, pathogen prevalence, and agricultural systems. Research has suggested these mindsets are learned rather than innate and can shift within a single immigrant generation.
A contrast has been noted specifically between how pride manifests in the U.S. and China.
The value of pride in the individual or the society as a whole seems to be a running theme and debate among cultures. This debate shadows the discussion on pride so much so that perhaps the discussion on pride should not be about whether pride is necessarily good or bad, but about which form of it is the most useful.
Pride has gained a lot of negative recognition in the western cultures, largely due to its status as one of the Seven Deadly Sins. It was popularized by the Pope Gregory I of the Catholic Church in the late sixth century, but before that it was recognized by a Christian Monk named Evagrius Ponticus in the fourth century as one of the evils human beings should resist.