Salience-prominence Discrepancy on Pride and Shame for Adults in the Parent and Childless Identities

• In Event: 3481 - Section on Social Psychology Refereed Roundtables (cosponsored with Section on Sociology of Emotions)
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 06. Advances in Sociology of Self and Identity

Abstract

Compared to primary emotions, scholars have paid less attention to the antecedents of secondary emotions. An exception includes some research within the perceptual control model of identity theory, though this research finds no consistent effects of the discrepancy between identity standards and reflected appraisals on secondary emotions. We add to this literature by examining the secondary emotions of pride and shame as outcomes from a different kind of discrepancy: between identity prominence and identity salience. Incorporating insight from the process model of self-conscious emotions, we argue that these emotions are tied to salience-prominence discrepancy because 1) pride and shame are cognition-dependent while the presumably ‘automatic’ process implied by the thermostat analogy in the perceptual control model is not, 2) pride and shame result from the success or failure to attain identity-relevant goals, and 3) prominence-salience congruity is a cognition-dependent identity-relevant goal. Results in the parent and childless identity contexts confirm that salience-prominence congruity is related to pride among women and shame among men, while only salience-prominence incongruity predicts shame among mothers. This work is important because it helps provide context for the antecedents of pride and shame in different identity contexts while further integrating identity theory with the sociology of emotions.

Authors

• Kelly Markowski, Kent State University

• Richard T. Serpe, Kent State University