Authentic and Hubristic Pride: Through A Christian Worldview
John C. W. Young
California Baptist University
Abstract
The bible tells us: “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard others as more important than yourselves” (Philippians 2:3). But there is something about the human condition that causes us to want to promote ourselves and make ourselves look better than others. That something is what we call pride. The research viewed and discussed in the article addresses the two-sided nature of self-esteem and narcissism as it relates to one’s exposure to childhood experiences. A Christian worldview is discussed and compared to the research conducted to see if there are consistencies or discrepancies…show more content… That something is what we called pride. It’s within all of us to some extent, within every human heart. The bible tells us: “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard others as more important than yourselves” (Philippians 2:3). However, as clear as that is, there is something in us that wants to prove to others that we are better, or more important than they are, more valuable than they are. Exaggeration and parodies are often great ways of depicting sin issues and exposes the underlying ugliness that lies within us. It grants us the thought of asking these questions: Do you ever find yourself trying to top someone else’s story? Do you ever notice yourself trying to posture yourself so that…show more content… Based off childhood environmental exposure and experiences, “it would determine ones’ self-regulation and development of narcissism which is characterized by defensive self-esteem and dissociated implicit and explicit self-representations” (Tracy, Cheng, Robins, Trzesniewski, 2009). They discuss how there is two different types of pride, a positive pride, and a negative pride to where the good pride is connected to a genuine self-esteem and the negative pride is someone over compensating by having a grandiose view of superiority. An inflated sense of entitlement, and low empathy for others. When parents over- idealize their young children and place unrealistic demands upon them. The child comes to feel that he or she must be perfect, and is made to feel rejected when perfection is not achieved. They describe this rejection may be due to compounded social experiences such as being excluded, ridiculed, and humiliated by others, which accentuate the child’s feeling of having failed to meet the ideal standards of his or her parents. In response to this internal conflict, the child’s positive and negative self-representations may become dissociated, so that a perfectionist view of self can be maintained at an explicit level, with all negative self-images buried at an implicit level. The study conducted showed how the self-conscious emotions of shame and hubristic pride likely play an
