The main object of this essay is to consider thoroughly what the notion “pride” means. Definition of pride is one of the most significant current discussions in today’s ethics and interpersonal communication. It is interpreted by numerous sources in various ways. Researching definition of this notion, one may find that it is interpreted either as positive or negative feeling from the point of view of ethics. It is becoming difficult to ignore the problem of definition conflicts concerning this notion. In this paper, we will consider this issue in detail.
First of all, we will consider arguments of pride’s being a positive emotion. It is claimed that pride performs a great role in motivating people in different situations. Besides it, this emotion can be considered universally as peculiar to human beings and “is associated with success and satisfaction” (The Sport Journal). Thus, one may come to the conclusion that pride prompts people to achieve their success, improve their abilities, and then be satisfied with their activities. Therefore, pride can give a strong effect on people. The higher one’s pride is, the more he/she in his/her opinion worth. In accordance with all the above mentioned, pride really can be quite a strong motivation force. If to think logically, pride increases one’s self-esteem. This one becomes more confident in own abilities, and thus, he/she becomes able to achieve greater result. When pride is peculiar to the whole society, then this society becomes stronger, able to achieve higher particular goals and be of higher opinion about itself. Higher self-estimation is followed by higher satisfaction. Thus, the statement that pride can cause positive influence is correct.
However, excessive pride might cause quite negative effects. It is admitted that pride might grow and become hubristic feeling (The Sport Journal). This, in its turn, leads to dishonest actions and, as the result, very negative effects. Being hubristic, people might cheat each other and achieve their goals dishonestly. It should be underlined that negative consequences of pride can be met in every sphere of human activities. Such situations happen in everyday fields such as sport, business, games, attitudes within a family or working collective and so on. Therefore, excessive pride decreases ethical and moral level of people, who then do not take into consideration interests of others.
It happens quite often that some especially pride people who achieve greater results than other (for example, in working or in sports) often become very arrogant after some time. They may look at others like on inferior creatures that are not able to be as strong or clever as they are. It might be so because those who use their pride as a tool for reaching their goals do not notice how their pride becomes excessive. It should be carefully noticed that positive pride does not obviously grow into excessive pride. It mostly depends upon personality and background data such as brining up, education, religion, and so on. For instance, if a person is being brought up in an arrogant manner, he/she will hardly think about rights of others in the future. At the same time, deeply religious person is unlikely to have hubristic pride and thus humiliate others.
As it has already been mentioned, pride is often determined as completely negative emotion with harmful effects only. It is stated that pride is the presence of negative thoughts about others (Psychologistworld.com). It is also stated that this emotion includes two main characteristics (so called modes). They are the vanity and hate modes. The first mode is characterized as a feature that expresses superiority about other people, and the second one leads to expressing negative thoughts about them.
It is stated that hate mode prompts one to look for freedom from social burdens. It means that someone who is in this mode denies others’ opinions, concepts, views, and his /her obligation to obey particular common rules (Psychologistworld.com). It is also admitted that such a person perceived his/her life as constant unnecessary obeying others. Therefore, a one with hate mode of pride will not take to consideration wishes, achievements beliefs or opinions of others.
The vain mode, in its turn, is expressed by one’s unwillingness to be tolerant towards an opposite point of view. For such one, nothing is more important that an own opinion. People with pride in the vain mode believe that their opinion is the only one that is correct.
As one can see, pride is a double-edged notion. On the one hand, pride prompts people to improve their skills, abilities, and reach higher goals. A pride society is, as a rule, stronger and has greater belief in its abilities. A one who is motivated by pride is able to achieve better results since personal motivation is the determinant characteristic of success. At the same time, when one’s pride becomes excessive, it decreases person’s morality and he/she might become intolerant towards others. Hate and vanity modes are mostly interrelated and person with too much pride is likely to gain disadvantages of both these ones. All in all, pride shall be directed wisely in order not to become arrogant and still be strong enough.
Works cited
Psychologistworld.com,. 'Pride Emotion - Psychology Of Emotions – Psychologist World'. N. p., 2014. Web. 22 May. 2014.
The Sport Journal,. 'When Pride Goes Wrong'. N. p., 2011. Web. 23 May. 2014.
