Too proud to regulate: The differential effect of pride versus joy on children's ability to delay gratification

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
Einav ShimoniAndrea Berger

Abstract

We examined the effect of the distinct positive emotions pride and joy on children's self-regulation, focusing on their ability to delay gratification (i.e., resist a temptation in favor of a long-term goal). We hypothesized that because pride corresponds to the attainment of long-term goals and joy corresponds to the attainment of immediate desires, the experience of pride may signal sufficient progress toward a long-term goal, resulting in less delay of gratification than the experience of joy. To test this hypothesis, we induced an experience of pride or joy in 8-year-old children. At this age, the ability to self-regulate--and to experience pride and joy distinctively--is relatively mature. We then measured performance in a delay discounting task. We found that, compared with the joy condition and a control condition, children who experienced pride performed worse on the delay discounting task (p=.045), indicating poorer self-regulation. This result suggests that emotions may function as cues for sufficient goal pursuit, thereby influencing self-regulation from a very young age.

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Citations

Aug 7, 2016·Frontiers in Psychology·Junhong YuTatia M C Lee
Dec 29, 2015·Neuropsychologia·Michael GileadNira Liberman
Aug 10, 2019·Frontiers in Psychology·Hiroki P KotabeWilhelm Hofmann

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