Self-conscious Emotions – Guilt, Shame And Pride

Who has not felt ashamed after expressing an opinion and guilt after something they did and pride after an achievement? Some of these examples correspond to a series of emotions where there is an evaluation that is related to the self and which we in psychology know as “self-conscious emotions”.

These feelings are actually emotional states that have a number of common characteristics. However, they also have specific characteristics that depend on how someone evaluates a certain behavior and what attribution they constitute. Let’s take a closer look.

Guilt, shame and pride – self-conscious feelings

In recent years, people are very concerned about emotions, and we no longer ignore them; on the contrary, in fact. However, there is much more we can discover about them.

While it is true that there are many studies on basic emotions and emotional intelligence, there is nothing for those with greater variety and complexity. This is the case with self-conscious emotions.

However, there was a gradual increase in interest in this type of emotion. There are also some theoretical models about them that are made now.

According to these various studies, self-conscious emotions share many meaningful properties:

• Secondary emotions. This means that they stem from the transformation of more basic emotions.
• Complex emotions. These are necessary for the earlier development of certain cognitive abilities, such as a notion of the self or self-awareness. That is, there is a need for a difference between the self and others.
• Social feelings. They manifest themselves in interpersonal contexts.

• Moral feelings. This type of emotion is a result of the internalization of cultural values, norms and criteria where someone determined what is right and what is not. This therefore applies to behavior. In addition, these are basic as motivating and controlling elements in moral behavior along with empathy.

Guilt and shame can, for example, inhibit behavior that some consider immoral. They can also facilitate the behavior that is listed as moral because you will feel shame and guilt if you do not feel them. In addition, one can attach pride to good actions and with the reinforcement that results in doing similar actions in the future.

Another important thing to keep in mind is that despite the fact that this type of emotion is considered self-conscious, the various authors who have examined it state that the self-assessment that has been performed does not have to be conscious or explicit.

Different sides of guilt, shame and pride

Despite the qualities that self-conscious emotions share, there are certain things that set them apart. Each of them arises from a given event and has a special subjective experience. In addition, everyone brings with them a number of different types of behavior.

Michael Lewis developed a model that explains self-conscious emotions from two variables:

• The positive or negative evaluation of one’s behavior.
• The internal attribution (global or specific) one can constitute regarding such behavior.

According to the author, we consider our thoughts, feelings and actions as successes or mistakes according to both cultural and personal rules, standards and goals. We also perform internal attributions through them. That is, we reflect on where they come from.

If you consider that success or failure is due to yourself as a whole, the internal attribution would be global. If you consider that it is all due to a particular thought, action or feeling, it would be specific. From there, some emotion also arises.

In addition, the whole process depends on both cultural influences and personal variables. For this reason , one person will consider the same action as a failure while another may view it as a success. The same goes for attributions, which can be global or specific depending on the person.

Below we explain the main characteristics of this type of emotion according to Lewis’ perspective.

Guilt and shame, feelings of negative self-esteem

When most of us feel ashamed, we perform a negative evaluation of our global self. We want to hide or disappear when we feel that we may have acted like an idiot. Thus, running away from all the discomfort is the only thing we want to do at that moment. We actually experience some mental confusion, but getting rid of the emotional state is not as easy as repairing a specific action. Therefore, we resort to mechanisms such as forgetting or interpreting what happened again.

In the same way, guilt arises from a negative self-evaluation, but at a specific level. That is, by a concrete action. We feel guilty for something we did, thought or felt because we hurt someone. In this case, however, we can not take back the action, and guilt requires that we repair the action in order to get rid of the emotional state we feel. It also involves a reflection of our actions going forward.

Lewis considers guilt less destructive and more useful than shame because of the suggestion of corrective action.

Pride and hubris, emotions with positive self-esteem

Pride arises from a positive evaluation of a specific character. When we feel proud, we do so because we feel satisfied with our own actions. Due to the fact that it is such a pleasant emotional state, we will most likely want to feel it again in the future.

Michael Lewis also referred to the disposition of the personality in his explanatory model of self-conscious emotions. It is rather an emotional reaction to refer to hubris or excessive pride. This feeling does not yet exist in Norwegian encyclopedias, and it stems from a positive global assessment associated with narcissism in extreme cases.

When a person feels hubris, it means that they are very happy with themselves. They will thus try to maintain that condition even if it is not easy. In addition, it is usually also associated with a feeling of superiority, and this leads to others rejecting that person.

Conclusion

What do you think when you feel guilt, shame and pride? What do you attribute to pride? Why do you feel guilty? Have you known the state of hubris at some point in your life? If there is something that separates self-conscious emotions, then it is the development process that is related to the evaluation of the self that characterizes them. This is something you can check daily when you feel them.

However, there is still a lot to explore when it comes to this type of emotion, both personally and socially. For example, to what extent are pride and hubris positive emotions? When do they become emotional states that have negative consequences?

Although the emotional universe is exciting, it is also complicated and even mysterious. This is because it is a topic with a large number of variables and properties. Still, it is important to study it because it makes it easier to understand our essence and because it is another contribution that helps you complete the answer to one of the big questions: how do people work?