Self-Conscious Emotions
Emotions such as guilt, pride, shame, and hubris.
Succeeding or failing to meet the standards, rules, and goals of one's group or society determines how well an individual forms relationships with other members of the group. Living up to one's own internalized set of standards—or failing to live up to them—is the basis of complex emotions. The so-called self-conscious emotions, such as guilt, pride, shame, and hubris, require a fairly sophisticated level of intellectual development. To feel them, individuals must have a sense of self as well as a set of standards. They must also have notions of what constitutes success and failure, and the capacity to evaluate their own behavior.
Because these emotions are complex, they have generally been thought of as adult emotions. But very little research had, until recently, been done to confirm this.Research has now shown that children start to develop self-conscious emotions surprisingly early in life. Before a child reaches the third birthday, he or she has started to manifest these emotions in some form.
Self-conscious emotions are difficult to study. For one thing, there are no clear elicitors of these emotions. Joy registers predictably on a baby's face at the approach of a parent, and fear appears at the approach of a stranger.
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