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.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 275-282 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Journal of Experimental Child Psychology |
Volume | 141 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 1 Jan 2016 |
Keywords
- Delay discounting
- Delay of gratification
- Joy
- Positive emotion
- Pride
- Self-regulation
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
- Developmental and Educational Psychology