title: Differences in shame and pride as a function of children's gender and task difficulty.
abstract: 3-year-old children were presented with easy and difficult tasks and their emotional responses of shame and pride were observed. No shame was shown when subjects succeeded on the tasks and no pride was shown when they failed. Significantly more shame was shown when subjects failed easy tasks than when they failed difficult tasks, and significantly more pride was shown when subjects succeeded on difficult than on easy tasks. While there were no sex differences in task failures, girls showed more shame than boys. There were no sex differences in pride when subjects succeeded.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, New Brunswick 08903-0019.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lewis
authors.forename: S M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Alessandri
authors.forename: M W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Sullivan
mesh_terms: D000124:Achievement; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008297:Male; D010553:Personality Development; D010988:Play and Playthings; D011340:Problem Solving; D012649:Self Concept; D012752:Shame