Ancient philosophical and religious views considered pride as one of the seven deadly sins to be avoided in life. But recent psychological researchers have found that the emotion of pride has also a positive face. They broadened the horizon of such feelings with variations like hubris, confidence and arrogance, and gradually influenced the moral judgement related to it (Tracy & Robins, 2007c, p. 264).
There are two facets of pride– authentic and hubristic. ‘Authentic pride’ is its positive face. It is positively correlated with confidence, productivity, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness and emotional stability (Tracy & Prehn, 2012, p. 15). It is a feeling of ‘well done’ as the consequence of a positive evaluation of a specific successful action (Lewis, 2008, p. 749). It promotes relationships, altruism (Tracy & Robins, 2007b, p. 264), hard work, persistence, goal accomplishment and generosity (Tracy &Prehn, 2012, p. 15). Authentic pride is associated with self-worth and high implicit and explicit self-esteem (Tracy & Prehn, 2012, p. 15). It contributes to the development of a genuine and deep-rooted sense of selfesteem (Tracy & Robins, 2007a, p. 507).
‘Hubristic pride’ is its negative face and corresponds to the classical understanding of pride. It is characterized by egotism and associated with disagreeableness aggression and shame (Tracy & Prehn, 2012, p. 15). It is the exaggerated form of pride, a ‘puffed-up’ feeling, and often results in retribution (Lewis, 2008, p. 749). It may lead to antisocial behaviours with characteristics of overconfidence and dominance (Tracy & Prehn, 2012, p. 15). Hubristic pride is positively correlated with low SE (Tracy &Prehn, 2012, p. 15) and narcissism (Tracy & Robins, 2007c, p. 276).
In simple terms, pride can be positive or negative. The positive side encompasses self-respect, helps to accept limitations and promotes collaborative relations. The negative side is hubris, arrogance and narcissism. This excessive pride never results from any specific experiences of competence or performance (Ahmed & Braithwaite, 2011, p. 56).
Pride being a self-conscious or self-evaluative emotion, it serves as one of the various indicators about one’s self. How one feels about oneself has a decisive role in building up one’s own self. One-sided understanding of pride, such as pride is totally a negative feeling would handicap the efforts of building-up a healthy self and growing-up in a healthy self-esteem.