Emerging Insights Into the Nature and Function of Pride

ABSTRACT— Pride, a "self-conscious" emotion involving complex self-evaluative processes, is a fundamental human emotion. Recent research provides new insights into its nature and function. Like the "basic" emotions, pride is associated with a distinct, universally recognized, nonverbal expression, which is spontaneously displayed during pride experiences. Yet, pride differs from the basic emotions in its dependency on self-evaluations and in its complex structure, which is comprised of two theoretically and conceptually distinct facets that have divergent personality correlates and cognitive antecedents. In this article, we summarize findings from the growing body of research on pride and highlight the implications of this research for a broader understanding of emotions and social behavior.     

自豪感的神经基础：比较的视角

自豪感是对自身成就进行评估时产生的积极情绪体验。神经基础研究表明, 心理理论、自我参照、情绪、奖赏和记忆等相关脑区的协同作用构成了自豪感的神经基础, 而神经和生理的比较研究则揭示了自豪感和其他基本情绪以及道德情绪等在神经基础上的异同。以上结果为理解自豪感的复杂神经机制提供了依据。未来研究应对不同种类自豪感以及自豪感与认知过程相互作用的神经机制进行深入探讨。     

The Roles of Praise and Social Comparison Information in the Experience of Pride

Abstract

The authors examined the roles of social comparisons, publicity of success, and praise on the experience of pride in an experiment in which college students successfully completed a timed intelligence task in private and later received 1 of 4 types of feedback from the experimenter: no feedback (private), mere public acknowledgment of completion, general praise containing both a public and an evaluative component, or praise containing explicit comparison information. Half of the participants also received written normative information suggesting they performed at a high level. Participants then completed a number of dependent measures, including a key measure of pride. Overall, results suggest that the public aspect of a performance, together with the superior standing suggested by any praise accompanying this publicity, is important in the experience of pride.     

The role of the amygdala in emotional experience during retrieval of personal memories

ABSTRACT

Although the role of the amygdala in emotional memory retrieval has long been established, how such engagement varies depending on valence and retrieval context is less clearly understood. Participants retrieved personal memories associated with primarily positive, primarily negative, and mixed-valence images, pressing a button when successful. The button press divided trials into search and elaboration phases. Participants provided positivity and negativity ratings immediately following each trial, and then again in a post-retrieval survey. The relation between amygdala recruitment and emotionality exhibited a four-way interaction, with no other significant main effects or interactions. The interaction was driven by a temporal shift in the role of amygdala recruitment during retrieval of memories associated with mixed-valence images: Negativity ratings were supported more by search-related activity whereas positivity was more strongly associated with elaboration. Amygdala activity during retrieval relates to emotional experience in more complicated ways than previously understood. When participants were able to consider positive and negative aspects of the same event, amygdala recruitment during search and elaboration were associated with opposite behavioural effects. Such findings suggest that the amygdala may support distinct aspects of emotional experience for the same memory depending on when during retrieval it is recruited.     

The lived experience of spiritual abuse

Over the years there has been considerable research investigating the controversial issues of cult recruitment, “mind control” and post-group difficulties of ex-members from a variety of religious groups. However, the less-well-defined phenomenon of “spiritual abuse” is still under-researched as a specific phenomenon. This is particularly evident in the lack of studies exploring the subjective, internal experience. This study reports on the lived experiences of six individuals who left five different religious groups that were essentially Judeo-Christian in their orientation. An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) revealed six core themes throughout the participant narratives. They consist of “Leadership representing God,” “Spiritual bullying,” “Acceptance via performance,” “Spiritual neglect,” “Manifestation of internal states,” and “Expanding external/internal tension.” These are offered as a foundation to answer the question What can be described as the lived experience of spiritual abuse? The findings suggest that spiritual abuse is a multi-faceted and multi-layered experience that is both process and event, affecting the bio/psycho/social and spiritual domains of an individual.     

Social competency and social perceptivity in self and others

Males who self-reported heterosocial problems and whose role-play interactions were judged to be low on social competence were compared to a group of high socially competent males on their ability to judge their own and others' social competency. Results indicated that in comparison to the high-competent group, low-competent males showed less agreement with judges in rating their own and others' levels of competency. Using profile components of elevation, scatter, and pattern, more detailed analyses showed that the two groups differed primarily on scatter. The low-competent individuals had less scatter, suggesting that they have a discrimination deficiency. Implications of the results are discussed for the etiology and treatment of social incompetence and for future research.     

真实自豪对人际信任的影响:一个有调节的中介模型

采用整群随机抽样法对四川某医科大学与重庆某综合类大学553名大一到大三的学生进行施测,运用结构方程模型技术考察了自豪与社会支持、拒绝敏感性、人际信任之间的关系。结果发现：（1）社会支持在真实自豪和人际信任之间起完全中介的作用,真实自豪通过社会支持对人际信任间接产生影响;（2）拒绝敏感性对社会支持的中介作用起到调节作用,即社会支持对人际信任的影响随着个体拒绝敏感性水平的降低而提升;（3）自大自豪对个体的人际信任水平没有预测作用。     

顿悟体验的心理与神经机制

顿悟体验研究是揭示顿悟本质的重要途径。先前研究从认知角度对顿悟问题解决中的"旧而无效解题思路如何抛弃"与"新而有效解题思路如何形成"过程进行了颇多探讨,但较少探讨顿悟体验本身。顿悟体验研究对理清创造性顿悟中关键过程间的关系及阐明顿悟的科学规律均有重要的意义。基于创造性顿悟的"新旧交替"的动态视角,本项目拟借助多元方法来对言语类和视图类问题解决过程中尝试解题阶段和答案闪现阶段的顿悟体验的心理实质与脑机制进行研究。本项目成果不仅可以丰富和优化顿悟问题研究的方法学体系,而且能从知情转化层面深化对创造性顿悟脑机制的认识。     

The link between dispositional pride and creative thinking depends on current mood

Pride has long been considered a characteristic of creative geniuses, but the link between pride and creative thinking has yet to be systematically examined. In Study 1, we found that authentic pride related positively, whereas hubristic pride related negatively to creative thinking, assessed using the Unusual Uses Task, a behavioral measure of creative thinking. In Study 2, we found that the relation between pride and creativity depends on current mood. Specifically, authentic pride was most strongly related to creativity in the happiness condition, whereas hubristic pride was most strongly related to creativity in the anger condition. We discuss implications for understanding the affective processes underlying creativity and the adaptive and maladaptive consequences of pride.     

Status signals: Adaptive benefits of displaying and observing the nonverbal expressions of pride and shame

A growing body of research suggests that pride and shame are associated with distinct, cross-culturally recognised nonverbal expressions, which are spontaneously displayed in situations of success and failure, respectively. Here, we review these findings, then offer a theoretical account of the adaptive benefits of these displays. We argue that both pride and shame expressions function as social signals that benefit both observers and expressers. Specifically, pride displays function to signal high status, which benefits displayers by according them deference from others, and benefits observers by affording them valuable information about social-learning opportunities. Shame displays function to appease others after a social transgression, which benefits displayers by allowing them to avoid punishment and negative appraisals, and observers by easing their identification of committed group members and followers.     

Body,environment and adventure: experience and spatiality

The purpose of this article is to investigate human spatiality and perception in general, with the experience of adventure sports as its background. These activities highlight especially our strong relationship with the world when we consider the specific way in which the environment participates in the development of human potential. We first analyse the notions of risk and instability as important elements in adventure sports. Then we explore the notion of experience and spatiality, considering the way in which we establish our relationship with the world. The theoretical background is found in the phenomenology of Merleau-Ponty and Bachelard’s phenomenology of imagination to investigate perspectives of space among adventurers. We hold that more than a different range of corporeal techniques, adventure sports can teach us a way of interrogating and looking at the world. They require a peculiar sensibility that allows our body to experience the environment in favour of a corporeal wisdom. Alternative sports indicate the possibility that we have to build up different ways of inhabiting the world and comprehending it.     

社会交往情境中权力和反馈对情绪的影响

以往关于权力是否影响情绪的研究存在结果争议,这意味着可能存在其它因素的作用。本研究基于权力控制理论和社会距离理论,探究了社交情境中权力和反馈对情绪的影响。研究1采用经验取样法收集了140名被试五天内的1706段社交经历,研究2采用实验法考察了148名被试的社交经历。结果表明,权力和反馈对情绪存在交互影响:(1)当个体处于低权力情境时,反馈影响情绪,反馈越积极,情绪也越积极;(2)当个体获得积极反馈时,权力不影响情绪;当个体获得消极反馈时,权力影响情绪,权力越高,情绪相对更积极。本研究有助于厘清以往研究关于权力与情绪关系的争议。     

The impact of perceived experience on likelihood judgments for self and others: an experimental approach

This study examines the effect of an experimental manipulation of perceived experience on self and others' likelihood ratings for a set of relatively commonplace misfortunes. Participants were randomly assigned to a condition in which they were asked whether they had ever experienced the events (designed to induce higher perceived experience) or whether they had done so frequently, typically, etc. (designed to induce lower perceived experience). The manipulation led to increases in ratings of both perceived self‐likelihood and others' likelihood, in ease of imagining the outcome and recall of a past occurrence, and to decreases in perceived control over the events in the higher perceived experience condition. The increases in ease of imagining mediated the impact of manipulated experience on comparative likelihood whereas the decreases in perceived control did not. There was little evidence that event controllability moderated the impact of experience on comparative likelihood for these events. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Parental experience of childhood cancer using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

Whilst survival rates for childhood cancer have improved dramatically over the past three decades, it is still a devastating diagnosis for family members and an illness which severely disrupts the lifestyle of the family unit. Developing an understanding of the impact of the illness on the family is crucial to better support families’ deal with the demands of the illness. In this study nine families in which a child was diagnosed with cancer were interviewed twice over a 12 month period, approximately 6 months apart. Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, a semi-structured interview was used to explicate parent's experience of childhood cancer. The results revealed five super-ordinate themes; (1) a pivotal moment in time, (2) the experience of adaptation in relation to having a sick child, (3) the nature of support, (4) re-evaluation of values during a critical life experience and (5) the experience of optimism and altruism. Findings indicate that parents express both negative and positive experiences as they re-evaluate the meaning and purpose of life, seek to redefine themselves, often in terms of priorities, relationships, sense of community and achieve degrees of optimism and altruism. Implications for addressing the needs of parents and for further research are discussed.     

A continuing sense of self in the lived experience of dementia

ABSTRACT

Diagnosis with dementia often leads to an overwhelming fear of loss of self, which is assumed in the social discourse about the condition. After my own diagnosis with dementia in 1995, I reflected on this fear from a Christian theological perspective and was nonetheless able to discover a sense of hope. Highlighting what remains in dementia, as seen through the lens of the lived experience, provides a counter-story to the views of outside observers, which have dominated the literature to date. Although people with dementia experience a change in their cognitive sense of self, there are still important aspects of self that remain, which are: a sense of being an embodied self, in relationships with others and with God, and being able to find meaning in the present moment. By demonstrating that people living with dementia have a continuing sense of self, the aim is to prompt improved pastoral care and ministry.     

Evidence for two facets of pride in consumption: Findings from luxury brands

This paper documents the multifaceted nature of pride in consumer behavior. Drawing on recent psychological research on pride, we provide evidence for two separate facets of pride in consumption. In a series of studies, we propose a model wherein luxury brand consumption and pride are systematically interrelated. Whereas authentic (but not hubristic) pride leads to a heightened desire for luxury brands, hubristic (but not authentic) pride is the outcome of these purchases, and is the form of pride signaled to observers by these purchases. Further, we show that these effects are generally exacerbated for those low in narcissism. These findings shed new light on why consumers purchase luxury brands, highlighting a paradox: these purchases may be sought out of heightened feelings of accomplishment (and not arrogance), but they instead signal arrogance to others (rather than accomplishment).