Two neglected moral emotions in university settings: Some preliminary data on pride and shame

Pride and shame, two moral emotions partially neglected by the literature, can also be categorized as achievement emotions, because of their salience within everyday school and academic life. Our aims were to explore whether they are organized in a setting-specific manner and whether they differ in two settings, learning exam-relevant material and taking exams. Five hundred and forty university students evaluated pride and shame related to the two settings. A confirmatory multitrait-multimethod analysis indicated higher salience of type of emotion rather than type of setting; however, the structure of pride and shame was best explained when also type of setting was accounted for. A repeated-measure analysis of variance revealed higher levels of the positive emotion compared to the negative emotion, with the latter higher for the evaluative setting. Findings are discussed in light of their theoretical and applied relevance.