Children's use of display rules in pride-eliciting situations

Abstract

This brief report presents the results of research about the development of pride in young children. It is assumed that pride is a complex emotion, involving feeling, social and moral aspects. In its feeling aspect pride is a complex form of pleasure, deriving from situations of self-achievement. In its social aspect pride is a selfevaluative emotion (Taylor, 1985), closely linked to children's evaluation of their performance and their appraisal of social situations (Stipek, 1983). It is distinguished from shame in its positive valence. In its moral aspect—in English society at least— pride should not invite comparisons of self-worth; otherwise, positively valued pride is transformed into negatively valued arrogance (Harre, 1986). Preschool children may not yet have developed their own standards of achievement, looking instead to their parents for acknowledgement and praise (Kagan, 1981). Yet display of the mature concept of pride obliges children to subdue their pleasurable feelings such that others do not evaluate their pride as arrogance. The social knowledge of what is, or is not, an acceptable emotional expression underlies children's use of display rules. Display rules, according to Snyder (1974), require the motivation and ability to control one's behaviour in accordance with one's knowledge of the appropriateness of a particular emotional expression in a particular context. The appropriateness of the emotional expression, such as the smile that accompanies gratitude, is learned at an early age (Cole, 1986). The knowledge of its social appropriateness results in the social display of an emotion that may be at odds with the child's affective experience, as in the display of pleasure when receiving a disappointing gift (Cole, 1986; Saarni, 1979). The present study considers a commonplace domestic situation—two siblings engaged in a competitive game in the presence of their mother. The game was