Pride is a positive aspect of personality. It is considered to be a positive emotion and is observed in human beings throughout the world. It is fostered through positive approval received from others and is associated with successful accomplishment and satisfaction.
A positively supported child will grow up to be proud of their accomplishments, striving to achieve a parents accolades and the degree they are given or withheld helps to mould character. Hubristic pride is not to be confused with well earnt pride and the satisfaction one receives from successful performance and positive feedback.
A person receiving continual accolades for every little achievement can easily become full of themselves thus experiencing hubristic pride. Hubris is out of touch with reality. It denotes an extreme sense of pride, loss of contact with reality and an overestimation of one’s own competence, accomplishments or capabilities.
The person becomes conceited, caught up in their own superiority and arrogance as seen in persons in power who manifest contempt for others. They are ‘puffed up,’ full of their own self-worth, and display an abhorrence of what they perceive is beneath or unworthy of themselves. Vanity is similar to hubris, but refers to an inflated sense of one’s image or appeal in the eyes of others. Hubris, simply put, denotes foolish pride, conceit, arrogance, extreme self-confidence etc. Vanity often accompanies great wealth, physical strength and beauty.
When hubris takes over athletes they may resort to cheating, violence, selfishly taking advantage of others and display little remorse for wrong action. This lack of perspective enables individuals to choose to engage in hubristically motivated behavior. Needing to be ‘top dog’ at all costs is often behind drug taking in sport. The athlete will claim the limelight and derive pleasure in shaming others by claiming their superiority. They have poor relationship skills and tend to bully and put others down to make themselves feel superior thus generating conflict especial in team sports.
Hubristic pride is not to be confused with the satisfaction one receives from successful performance and positive feedback. For a person to be ‘balanced’ one does need to have a sense of one’s own worth and take pride in themselves. We all need to respect ourselves and have enough self-esteem to stand up for ourselves and be proud of whom we are as individuals.
Pride in achievements and striving to reach a goal may lead a person to be motivated towards training harder, working longer, eating better, learning to take better care of themselves and changing attitudes and behaviours that are not supportive of their goals.
 
The feeling of being successful, striving to achieve and pride in achievement is often the motivator for ongoing activity which leads people to want to achieve greater success that may involve study, saving, hours of practice, a diligent work effort. Pride in your own success or the shared pride of achievement with friends, family, teams or individuals can bring happiness, contentment and joy to all involved. There is nothing wrong with the satisfaction one receives from successful performance and positive feedback.
Whether we like it or not Australia has a problem called the “Tall Poppy” syndrome. Australians have always liked to cut down their successful people, their ‘tall poppies’. It is a developed culture with an attitude of hostility geared toward successful people and behaviors. Conspicuous success arouses envious hostility towards successful people or so called “tall poppies” . Ways will be created to cut them down to size. This culture of “tall poppying” contributes to thwarting the success of Australia’s most creative and energetic people, hurts the economy, and spoils their efforts to strive for something better.
This is the same syndrome where the kids who do well on tests face abuse on the playground from those who don’t. There is underlying anger about what another person possesses and enjoys; the desire is to take it away or spoil it. This “tall poppy” syndrome attacks the very qualities we value, and if it succeeds, it ruins hope and contribute to a successful person being intimidated about expressing pleasure in achievement and can prevent them striving for further success. Feelings of pride serve to enhance an individual’s self-concept serving individuals and groups positively.
To full understand pride we also need to look at Ego. Ego and pride are often confused. Ego is rather selfish and often has no basis in fact, while pride tends to be less selfish and is typically based on the facts of a person’s achievements and qualities.
Ego translates into conceitedness and is often associated with an unrealistic confidence in the possessor’s own abilities. It needs to be constantly feed as it is a weak sense of pride and needs an outward show, and constantly requires more. Ego is not content with being and becoming and is constantly seeking further reassurance through the acknowledgement and praise of others and always has something to prove.
Pride is a form of inward content, which assuredly shows itself passively in action, deed, and personality, among other things. ‘To be’ is enough for pride. It needs nothing more than self-contentment and acknowledgement and elates itself, being what it is.
I am proud to be me!
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