 23. The Self‑Conscious and Social Emotions  513
ence. The earliest emerging form of under -
standing is the ability to recognize the pride 
nonverbal expression, which first appears 
when children reach age 4 (Tracy, Robins, 
& Lagattuta, 2005)—the same age at which 
they begin to show accurate recognition of 
most other expressions. In contrast, the abil -
ity to understand the situations and contexts 
in which pride is elicited seems to develop 
considerably later. Seven-year-olds have dif -
ficulty understanding that pride should be 
attributed to individuals whose success is due 
to internal but not external factors (P. Har -
ris, Olthof, Terwogt, & Hardman, 1987). 
However, by age 9 or 10, children can make 
the appropriate attributional distinctions 
and grant pride only to individuals who are 
the cause of their own success (Kornilaki & 
Chloverakis, 2004). Although research into 
the development of children’s understanding 
of other self-  conscious emotions has been 
scarce, the period from ages 4 to 8 seems to 
be critical; in one study, Chobhthaigh and 
Wilson (2015) found that 7- to 8-year-olds 
could independently predict when another 
individual would feel embarrassment based 
on that person’s past experience, whereas 6- 
to 7-year-olds needed substantial prompting 
to make this connection, and 4- to 5-year-
olds could not make it at all.
Using a cross-  sectional approach with a 
very large sample, Orth, Robins, and Soto 
(2010) delineated a portrait of norma -
tive developmental shifts in trait levels of 
shame, guilt, and authentic and hubristic 
pride across the lifespan. Authentic pride 
increased fairly continuously from adoles -
cence to old age, in a trend that paralleled 
overall well-being. In contrast, hubristic 
pride peaked in adolescence and young 
adulthood, declined throughout the rest of 
adulthood until about age 65, and was sta -
ble in old age. Guilt and shame also showed 
somewhat opposing patterns; guilt increased 
steadily from adolescence through age 70, 
before hitting a plateau, whereas shame 
showed a steady decrease from adolescence 
through age 50, followed by a steady in -
crease  of equal magnitude through old age. 
These findings suggest that self-  conscious 
emotional development generally follows the 
maturity principle of personality develop -
ment (e.g., Roberts, Wood, & Caspi, 2008), 
wherein maturing social roles facilitate the experience and expression of socially and in -
trapsychically adaptive emotions and traits. 
However, longitudinal studies are needed to 
ensure that the observed age differences in 
self- conscious emotions are not due to co -
hort differences.
Biological Correlates and  Consequences 
for Health
Evolutionary accounts suggest that distinct 
emotions orchestrate coordinated suites 
of biological and physiological responses 
to environmentally significant events that 
have recurred throughout human history 
(e.g., Beall & Tracy, 2017). Given evidence 
for evolutionary origins of both pride and 
shame, these two emotions are likely to be 
associated with biological and physiologi -
cal reactions that facilitate their respective 
adaptive goals. In fact, several studies have 
documented associations between shame 
and increases in cortisol and proinflam -
matory cytokines (Dickerson, Mycek, & 
Zaldivar, 2008; Dickerson, Kemeny, Aziz, 
Kim, & Fahey, 2004), which might fa -
cilitate behaviors such as submission and 
withdrawal (Dickerson, Gruenewald, & 
Kemeny, 2009). Pride, in contrast, may be 
associated with hormonal responses such 
as increased testosterone, which could fa -
cilitate gaining social rank (see Tracy et al., 
2010). However, research on the biological 
correlates of these emotions is in its infan -
cy, and much more work is needed to test 
whether shame and pride—along with guilt 
and embarrassment—  are associated with 
distinct physiological or neurological mark -
ers, and how these responses might relate to 
status-  seeking, appeasement, and deference 
behaviors.
Numerous studies have, however, ex -
amined the impact of shame and guilt on 
mental health. Perhaps not surprisingly 
given the clear distinction between these 
two emotions in prosocial versus antisocial 
outcomes, they show highly divergent rela -
tions with various psychological disorders 
and symptoms. Those who are prone to 
shame are also prone to depression, anxiety, 
low self-  esteem, suicidal behavior and self- 
injury, and substance abuse (see Tangney & 
Tracy, 2012, for a review). In fact, clinicians 