Arrogant, Pride, Ego ... Oh My

 Arrogant 

- having or revealing an exaggerated sense of one's own importance or abilities

As with the opposite chief feature of self-deprecation, arrogance is a way of manipulating others’ perceptions of yourself in order to avoid taking a “hit” to your self-esteem. In this case, however, the basic strategy is to get others to see you as special, perfect or flawless — diverting attention from your ordinary imperfections, weaknesses and failings — and thereby keeping your self-esteem artificially inflated. ["Arrogance" published on Personality & Spirituality.net]

Components of Arrogance: ["Arrogance" published on Personality & Spirituality.net]

• In the case of arrogance, the early negative experiences typically consist of disapproval or outright criticism from significant others, especially the parents but also siblings and others.
• From such experiences of competition, disapproval and conditional love, the [individual] comes to perceive their well-being as dependent upon others’ perceptions
• As a result of this misconception, the [individual] becomes gripped by an entrenched fear of her vulnerability to negative perceptions.
• The basic strategy for coping with this fear of vulnerability to others’ perceptions is to manipulate others’ perceptions—to ensure that there is never anything for them to disapprove of or criticize.
• A more subtle form of the arrogance strategy is to point to evidence which, hopefully, will lead others to reach the right conclusion by themselves. Hence the chief feature of arrogance puts on a mask which quietly says to the world, “I’m not being arrogant. I’m not saying I’m better than you. It’s just that…” Arrogance keeps up the same message, typically by telling true stories which indirectly convey yet more evidence of one’s own specialness and wonderfulness. “I’ve had such a hard day! Silly people won’t stop calling me just to say how much they like my new book.”

Ego 

- a person's sense of self-esteem or self-importance.

There are at least two interrelated parts of the ego. One part is that it enables self-reflective awareness and the capacity to justify one’s actions to self and others. In this regard, it relates to the concept of a person. That is, some scholars define a person as an entity that can self-reflect and give accounts for their actions, and it is clear that the cognitive portion of the ego is closely connected to this ability. ["What Is the Ego?" by Gregg Henriques Ph.D. posted on www.psychologytoday.com]

The well-known social psychologist Elliot Aronson argues that this motivational force of “self-justification” plays a central role in our lives. He cites the massive literature in cognitive dissonance as being evidence for the strong motivational forces that are in operation as the ego generates defenses. What is the ego defending? Aronson argues that the ego tries to maintain a consistent, justifiable place in the world. In the excellent book, Mistakes Were Made, But Not by Me, Aronson and his co-author Carol Tarvis recount the many and varied ways the ego works to justify one’s place in the world. They give examples of politicians, lawyers, and everyday people tangling themselves in knots trying to justify why they did what they did and why they were not to blame. ["What Is the Ego?" by Gregg Henriques Ph.D. posted on www.psychologytoday.com]

Interestingly, they talk about how self-justification can account for both tendencies narcissists have for self-enhancement, as well as people with low self-esteem who diminish their abilities or capacities. The reason has to do with the fact that self-justification is also about maintaining a consistent, justifiable view of one’s self and one's place in the social world. So, people with low self-esteem are looking for a specific kind of evidence to maintain their narrative. It is also the case that people will discount themselves because it justifies them avoiding getting into conflict with others or taking responsibility for leadership. ["What Is the Ego?" by Gregg Henriques Ph.D. posted on www.psychologytoday.com]

Pride

Pride is emotional response or attitude to something with an intimate connection to oneself, due to its perceived value. Oxford defines it amongst other things as "the quality of having an excessively high opinion of oneself or one's own importance" This may be related to one's own abilities or achievements, positive characteristics of friends or family, or one's country. Richard Taylor defined pride as "the justified love of oneself", as opposed to false pride or narcissism. Similarly, St. Augustine defined it as "the love of one's own excellence", and Meher Baba called it "the specific feeling through which egoism manifests."[Wikipedia]

Philosophers and social psychologists have noted that pride is a complex secondary emotion which requires the development of a sense of self and the mastery of relevant conceptual distinctions (e.g. that pride is distinct from happiness and joy) through language-based interaction with others. Some social psychologists identify the nonverbal expression of pride as a means of sending a functional, automatically perceived signal of high social status. In contrast, pride could also be defined as a lowly disagreement with the truth. [wikipedia]

Pride is sometimes viewed as corrupt or as a vice, sometimes as proper or as a virtue. With a positive connotation, pride refers to a content sense of attachment toward one's own or another's choices and actions, or toward a whole group of people, and is a product of praise, independent self-reflection, and a fulfilled feeling of belonging. With a negative connotation pride refers to a foolishly and irrationally corrupt sense of one's personal value, status or accomplishments, used synonymously with hubris. While some philosophers such as Aristotle (and George Bernard Shaw) consider pride (but not hubris) a profound virtue, some world religions consider pride's fraudulent form a sin, such as is expressed in Proverbs 11:2 of the Hebrew Bible. In Judaism, pride is called the root of all evil. When viewed as a virtue, pride in one's abilities is known as virtuous pride, the greatness of soul or magnanimity, but when viewed as a vice it is often known to be self-idolatry, sadistic contempt, vanity or vainglory. Other possible objects of pride are one's ethnicity, and one's sexual identity (especially LGBT pride).[wikipedia]