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Research on Humility for Existential Psychologists in the 21st Century

By Kenneth E. Hart, Ph.D.Department of Psychology, University of WindsorWindsor, ON Canada

There is tremendous confusion about what humility is and what it is

not. For example, in contrast to popular belief, it does not connote"humiliation" or "embarrassment." In fact, its true meaning lies in the

exact opposite: ego-transcendence and self-detachment. Relative to their non-humble

counterparts, truly humble people are at very low risk for experiencing (with any

degree of intensity) humiliation or embarrassment. Ambiguity surrounding the term'humility' is reminiscent of people's reactions to the term 'forgiveness'. There is a lot of

confusion on both counts. If you ask 10 people what forgiveness is, you are likely to

receive 10 different answers, and most of them will be wrong. The same holds for

humility. Thus, trying to improve on the pre-operational explication of the construct isa worthwhile goal. This article argues that high priority should be given to improving

our theoretical models or conceptual approaches to understanding what humility is andwhat it is not. If existential psychologists can take the lead in clarifying the meaning ofthe term, researchers will eventually be able to construct good operational definitions.Eventually, this basic research may inform prevention and remedying efforts aimed at

eradicating the existential vacuum presumably associated with lack of humility.

This article represents a step toward greater conceptual clarity. In it, I argue thattheory and research on humility should be informed by work already done on

narcissism. This article also suggests that much can be learned about humility fromtheory and practice associated with 12-step addiction recovery groups such as

Alcoholics Anonymous. For over 60 years now, these groups have been recruitingmillions of people into spiritually-based humility interventions. These real-life social

experiments are ongoing and have been conducted in over 125 countries, withapparent success.

Given the extremely primitive state of our conceptual understanding in the area

humility, I think future research on this topic could benefit from putting the construct

into a larger nomological net. I would recommend future studies give more attention tothose constructs that have previously been elaborated upon which seem most closely

related to (lack of) humility. For example, future research should give attention to the

psychology of pride, conceit, grandiosity, superiority, and other constructs surroundingthe more general trait of narcissism. At the same time, additional research needs toexamine the joint influence of constructs which seem to coalesce to form humility. My

own model suggests that this constellation includes traits such as self-detachment(loss of egotism), empathy, acceptance (both of self and others), tolerance (both ofself and others), forgiveness (both of self and others) gratitude, faith, hope and

optimism.

In terms of conceptualising humility, the interested reader may wish to consult reviews

of humility research conducted by Tangney (2002, 2000) and Exline and her colleagues(Exline, et al., 2003, in press). According to Tangney's review of the literature, key

traits of humble people include accurate (not underestimated) self appraisal of one's

abilities and achievements; the ability to acknowledge one's imperfections andlimitations; an accepting and liberal attitude toward novel ideas and contradictoryinformation and advice from others; the ability to keeping one's abilities and

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accomplishments in perspective (i.e., modesty); lack of self-absorption or the ability to

transcend the self; awareness and appreciation of and value diversity the value of all

things both human and non-human. Exline and her colleagues suggest the cardinal

trait of the humble person is their willingness to take an honest and non-defensiveexamination of their personal attributes. This includes a well-balanced analysis of both

weaknesses and strengths, resulting in an even handed "realistic" view of the self(Exline, et al., 2003, in press).

Existential psychologists and psychotherapists in the 21st Century should make furtherattempts to contextualize humility in this way. Such efforts will prove useful for

refining our conceptual models, for improving our assessment tools and for informing

best practice for preventative (preventing egotism) and remedial interventions(reducing egotism and inculcating humility). In terms of further understanding egotism

("lack of humility") theory, assessment and empirical findings bearing on narcissism

has the potential to inform humility research in a constructive way. For example, adistinction has been made in some quarters between pathological narcissism andnonpathological narcissism. The former being a clinically treatable form of

psychopathology, while the latter consisting of a cluster of interrelated normalpersonality traits. Also, subtypes of nonpathological 'normal' narcissism have beenidentified, suggesting there are qualitatively different types of 'humility deficits.' I

believe greater attention to pertinent aspects of the literature on narcissism would

provide insights into what humility is, and what it is not. Interested readers are

referred to work done by social psychologist Roy Baumeister (e.g., Baumeister, Smart& Boden, 1999)

Also, I think further attention needs to be given to theoretical models pertaining to

narcissism (eg., psychoanalytic theories), especially in light of research (Exline, 2003,

in press) suggesting that humility can be assessed categorically by virtue of low scores

on narcissism scales together with high scores on self-esteem scales. But, such ataxonomy seems premature because the link between humility and high-self-regard

needs solidifying. In the future, existential psychologists concerned with advancing ourunderstanding of humility may wish to address the constructs of self-acceptance and

self-forgiveness as well as associated (lack of) shame. Kurtz and Ketcham (1992) do amasterful job at explicating how truly humble people are not at war with themselves,

harboring no grudges against themselves due to greater levels of self-acceptance ofcharacter flaws.

If, in the future, we categorize on high and low narcissism and high and low self-esteem, we also should be thinking about assessing along the general dimension ofself-deception, social desirability or "lying" (lie scales). In the area of anxiety

assessment for example, a differentiation has been made between false low anxiousand true low anxious persons. The false low anxious people fall into the low anxietycategory erroneously, due to response bias motivated either unconsciously by high

levels of self-deception or denial. They may also be consciously 'faking-good' inresponse to perceived social pressure for desirable responding. The same is likely truefor self-esteem, but in the opposite direction. It will be interesting to see if future

research shows that humble people fall into the true high self-esteem subgroup, and

whether they can be differentiated from the false high self-esteem subgroup based onmeasures of self-deception or impression management. In terms of measurementmodels for humility, I see this as a direction for future research.

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Another useful direction to look when attempting to contextualize humility and place it

within existing frames of understanding is to examine at the literature on self-help

mutual aid support groups for recovering alcoholics who are seeking humility by

ridding themselves of narcissistic grandiosity. I would urge future researchers toconsider this incredibly rich literature. In particular, existential psychologists might

consult the literature on Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), which I think could do a great

deal to inform and facilitate the fledgling area of investigation addressing humility. Weknow a great deal already about humility from the teachings of AA and the huge

professional literature that has rapidly build-up in this area. While much has been

written and about humility in the context of AA, the two single best sources to consultwould be the seminal 1944 paper by H.A. Tiebout, entitled. "Therapeutic Mechanismsof Alcoholics Anonymous" and Ernie Kurtz's chapter on humility (chapter 13) in his

1992 book with Ketcham entitled, 'The spirituality of imperfection'. In both Tiebout'sand Kurtz's papers, I have never seen more accurate and more concise descriptions ofthe true meaning of what AA believes humility to be, and how one can acquire

humility.

Parenthetically, the knowledge base surrounding the concept of humility in the contextof AA is anecdotal and richly qualitative. Furthermore, there is an impressive 60 yearsworth of experiential knowledge and wisdom built up as a result of the world-wide

social experiment known as AA. Future researchers should go to this body of

knowledge and learn from it. Interviewing AA members who have a reputation for

being humble would be one place to start. Much of AA's hard-won wisdom has been

documented, and the reproductions of this wisdom offered by Kurtz and Tiebout areextremely high fidelity. There are other resources, however, and these include the AA"Big Book" and AA's "12x12".

Briefly, AA's 12-step program is a program of spiritual self-actualization. The idea is to

transform the self into the antithesis of its selfish and hedonistic value structure. Thephilosophy underlying the 12-step program proposes that selfishness and self-

centredness (i.e., narcissism) is the root of many people's suffering. AA's "Big Book"and "12x12" (their two major texts) further argue that humility is the antidote to

suffering. But, to implement this solution, the human ego or sense of selfhood must betranscended and a more spacious sense of identity must be found. Tiebout argues that

AA's planned program of recovery does exactly this, and he clearly explains how this

miraculous transformation is accomplished. Briefly, AA's 'steps' shift a person fromhaving a secular experience of reality to having a greater sense that the sacred is

imminent in everyday life. When this presence of the Divine is increasingly available to

awareness, Tiebout argues that humility grows in proportion. The specific mediatingmechanisms by which a person is gradually shifted from being self-focused in nature tobeing God-focused are clearly articulated by Tiebout. I have never seen this explained

better anywhere else.

To summarize then, I think future scholarship on humility can capitalize on workalready done by scholars of narcissism and by knowledge gained by the naturalexperiment embodied in 12-Step groups. Existential psychotherapists should be

especially keen to learn more about how these 12-Step groups seek to inculcate

greater levels of humility. As noted above, their intervention methodology is groundedin the search for the sacred, and this involves a radical reshuffling of an individual'svalue structure. While some would argue that 12-Step groups such as AA are religious,

they are not. There is no dogma or creed. The groups are truly ecumenical. Obviously,'spirituality' will need to be featured in any future discussions of humility.

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References

Baumeister, R.F., Smart, L, & Boden, J.M. (1999). Relation of threatened egotism to

violence and aggression: The dark side of high self-esteem. In R.F. Baumeister (Ed.).The self in social psychology. Key readings in social psychology (pp. 240-284).Philadelphia, PA, USA.

Big Book (AKA, Alcoholics Anonymous). (1976). New York, NY: Alcoholics AnonymousWorld Services.

Exline, J. J., Campbell, W.K, Baumeister, R.F & Krueger, J. (2003, in press). Humility

and modesty. In C. Peterson & M. Seligman (Eds.). The values in action classificationof strengths. Cincinnati, OH: Values in Action Institute.

Kurtz, E. & Ketchum, K. (1992). The spirituality of imperfection: modern wisdom from

classic stories. New York, NY: Bantam Books,

Tangney, J.P. (2002). Humility. In C.R. Snyder & S.J. Lopez (Eds). Handbook ofpositive psychology (pp. 411-419). London. Oxford University press.

Tangney, J.P. (2000). Humility: Theoretical perspectives, empirical findings and

directions for future research. Journal of Social & Clinical Psychology. Special Issue:Classical Sources of Human Strength, 19, 70-82.

Tiebout, H.A. (1944). Therapeutic mechanisms of Alcoholics Anonymous. AmericanJournal of Psychiatry, 100, 468-473.

Twelve and Twelve (AKA 12 Steps and 12 Traditions). (1981). New York, NY:Alcoholics Anonymous World Services