pride
Enable an AI agent to recognise pride, assess its grounds and effects, and identify appropriate responses without treating self-valuation as either inherently justified or inherently harmful.
Research draft, second pass
A second pass drafted this model: the structure a model of this thing needs, and what is known about it in the world. The line under this one says how the second half was obtained - researched against sources, or recalled without web access, in which case nothing here was read anywhere and every claim is a lead to verify. Unreviewed either way.
Researched by: Codex + Grok
Purpose and description
Enable an AI agent to recognise pride, assess its grounds and effects, and identify appropriate responses without treating self-valuation as either inherently justified or inherently harmful.
Pride is a self-conscious social emotion in which a person or group evaluates the self as having met or exceeded a valued standard, producing a felt sense of worth, status, or belonging.
It can be Elicit and record what someone is proud of and why it matters to their self-understanding.; Separate reported pride, observable expression and an observer's interpretation.; Examine achievement and credit claims while allowing identity-based pride to have a different basis.; Support an appropriate acknowledgement or celebration that reflects the bearer's preferences and other contributors.; Explore how pride affects learning, cooperation and responses to setbacks.; Reassess unsupported superiority or entitlement claims without treating the person's dignity as conditional on achievement..
Distinguishing features
Distinguish pride from pleasure by asking whether the positive experience involves a favourable evaluation of oneself or a group one identifies with.
Distinguish pride from admiration by checking whether the admired quality is connected to the person's own identity, contribution or affiliation.
Distinguish pride from confidence by separating satisfaction in who one is or what one has done from an expectation of future success.
Distinguish pride from arrogance by recording superiority claims, entitlement or dismissal of others separately; the presence of pride alone does not establish them.
Distinguish experienced pride from a public display by checking for self-report and contextual evidence; posture, celebration or boasting alone cannot settle the internal state.
Scope
+ Who experiences or expresses pride and what they are proud of
+ How an achievement, quality, identity or affiliation becomes a basis for positive self-evaluation
+ The relationship between claimed credit, supporting evidence and other contributors
+ The intensity, persistence and context of pride
+ Expressions of pride and their effects on conduct, relationships and responses to criticism
- The achievement or performance itself, which belongs to an activity or outcome model
- General self-esteem, confidence and self-respect beyond the particular pride appraisal
- Clinical diagnoses or personality classifications
- The organisation and operation of Pride events or identity movements
- Status hierarchies and reputation except where they inform a particular pride appraisal
- Animal groups called prides
Characteristics
- Pride bearer
- Person; identified group; spokesperson claiming to represent a group Separates an individual's experience from a claim that a whole group shares it.
- Object of pride
- Achievement, effort, quality, identity, affiliation or another explicitly named object Identifies what the positive self-evaluation concerns.
- Basis of identification
- Own contribution; shared contribution; affiliation; identification with another person; identity affirmation; mixed; unknown Explains why the object matters to the bearer without assuming personal credit.
- Appraisal breadth
- Specific action or outcome; domain-specific ability; broad self-evaluation; group evaluation; mixed; unclear Shows whether pride stays attached to a particular basis or extends into broader claims.
- Reported intensity
- Bearer-selected scale with anchors and observation time recorded; otherwise unknown Allows comparison within an explicitly defined assessment without inventing a universal pride scale.
- Temporal pattern
- Emerging; currently experienced; sustained; fading; recalled; recurrent; unknown Distinguishes a passing episode from an ongoing source of self-valuation.
- Evidence for attribution
- Self-reported; explicitly expressed; observer-inferred; contested; mixed Prevents an agent's interpretation from being recorded as direct access to someone's feelings.
- Comparison orientation
- Own standards; shared standards; improvement over past performance; superiority over others; no explicit comparison; mixed Separates satisfaction in a valued basis from claims of relative rank.
- Response to challenge
- Untested; considers evidence; revises credit or appraisal; maintains appraisal with reasons; avoids discussion; dismisses challenge; mixed Records observable handling of criticism without inferring a fixed character trait.
Also called
Where this came from
wikidata · CC0 1.0
Also registered as vr.tr.pride-act
Drafted structure
Bundle to layer to finding to question, as the second pass will find it: 5 bundles · 9 layers · 11 findings · 23 questions.
Pride recognition Establish whose pride is being considered and whether the available evidence supports that description.
An agent must distinguish pride from nearby experiences and distinguish a felt state from an attributed or performed one.
Bearer and evidence
Identify the bearer and the basis for attributing pride.
Attributed pride
Record whether pride is self-reported, explicitly expressed or inferred, and preserve disagreement about the attribution.
- Who reports experiencing pride, and who is attributing it to them? provenance
- What words or contextual observations support the attribution, and what alternative interpretations remain? boundary
Self-evaluative content
Locate the connection between the valued object and the bearer's sense of self.
Reason for being proud
Capture what makes the experience pride rather than pleasure, admiration or confidence alone.
- What does the bearer regard as good or worthy about themselves or a group they identify with? definition
- How is the valued object connected to the bearer's contribution, identity or affiliation? boundary
Grounds and credit Describe the basis of pride, the standards applied and any claims about responsibility or comparative standing.
Assessing pride requires knowing what supports it without assuming that every form of pride is a claim to earned achievement.
Valued basis
Identify the object and standard that make pride intelligible to its bearer.
Basis and standard
Record whether pride concerns effort, an outcome, a quality, belonging or identity affirmation, and whose values make that basis significant.
- What exactly is the bearer proud of, and which feature of it matters? definition
- Whose standard makes this basis worthy of pride, and does the bearer endorse that standard? provenance
Credit and comparison
Examine contribution claims and the role of comparison without treating affiliation as personal authorship.
Claimed contribution
Separate the bearer's contribution from shared work, enabling conditions and identification with someone else's achievement.
- Does the bearer claim personal or shared credit, or only a meaningful connection to the achievement? boundary
- What evidence supports the claimed contribution, and which other contributors or conditions are acknowledged? provenance
Scope of positive evaluation
Distinguish satisfaction in a particular basis from broader conclusions about worth, superiority or entitlement.
- Does the appraisal concern this particular achievement or identity, or extend to general superiority over others? boundary
- What treatment, privileges or recognition does the bearer believe this basis of pride warrants? definition
Experience and expression Record how pride is experienced over time and expressed in a particular social setting.
Private feeling, public celebration and claims to recognition may differ, so an agent must track their relationship rather than substitute one for another.
Felt course
Describe the intensity, timing and accompanying feelings of a pride episode.
Episode pattern
Record the bearer's account of when pride arises, how it changes and whether other emotions accompany it.
- When did this pride arise, and does it persist or recur in identifiable situations? measurement
- How strongly does the bearer report feeling it, using what scale, and what other feelings accompany it? measurement
Display and audience
Relate expressions of pride to audience, intention and local expectations.
Expression context
Record words, gestures or celebrations together with the bearer's intended meaning and the audience's interpretation.
- How is pride expressed or deliberately kept private, and before which audience? provenance
- Does the expression seek celebration, recognition, solidarity, resistance to devaluation or some other response? definition
- Where do the bearer's intended meaning and the audience's interpretation differ? boundary
Consequences and response Assess what pride accompanies or motivates and determine how an agent may respond appropriately.
Neither praise nor correction follows automatically from the presence of pride; action depends on its observed effects, grounds and the bearer's aims.
Conduct and revision
Examine how pride relates to subsequent choices and handling of challenge.
Behavioural consequences
Record reported motives and observed conduct while keeping causal interpretations provisional.
- What subsequent actions does the bearer connect to this pride, such as renewed effort, sharing credit, withdrawal or asserting rank? provenance
- What observations support that connection, and what other explanations could account for the conduct? boundary
Handling disconfirmation
Record responses when achievement, credit or comparative claims encounter contrary evidence.
- When a relevant claim is challenged, does the bearer examine the evidence, revise the claim or respond in another observable way? measurement
- Is the challenge directed at a checkable claim, or does it instead devalue the bearer's identity or belonging? boundary
Appropriate agent response
Choose acknowledgement, inquiry or challenge according to the situation and the agent's role.
Response selection
Identify a response that recognises the meaningful basis of pride, respects preferences and addresses specific unsupported or harmful claims where relevant.
- What acknowledgement or practical support does the bearer want, and what is within the agent's authorised role? action
- Which specific claim or conduct, if any, needs clarification or challenge, and what evidence supports addressing it? action
- How can the response recognise the bearer while accurately acknowledging others' contributions and avoiding unsupported status claims? action
Evidence and external alignment What the world already says about this thing, gathered so the model can be checked against it.
A model that cannot be lined up against existing standards, identifiers and practice cannot be adopted by anyone who already uses them.
Reported evidence
Findings from the breadth pass, kept separate from the structural claims.
Kinds and varieties
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Authentic / achievement pride
- Hubristic pride
- Collective / group pride
- National pride
- Civic / civic-honor pride
- LGBTQ+ Pride (social movement and festival)
- Family / parental pride
- Professional / craft pride
- Which of these kinds and varieties hold for the sense of pride this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Sources
- Pride - APA Dictionary definition of pride as a self-conscious emotion tied to self-evaluation against a standard.
What the second pass must settle
- Does the registry intend pride to include the moralised disposition sometimes called a vice, and if so how should that usage relate to episodes of positive self-evaluation?
- Which distinctions between forms of pride are sufficiently supported across contexts to use as model categories rather than provisional interpretations?
- What evidence is sufficient to attribute collective pride without treating a spokesperson's claim as the experience of every group member?
- Which measurement approaches allow useful comparisons of pride across people, languages and settings without conflating feeling intensity with willingness to express it?
- How should an agent distinguish protective identity affirmation from superiority claims when the same expression has contested social meanings?