Overcoming Hubris

Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.

^{Proverbs 16:18 (KJV)}

It is particularly dangerous for us to make unequal measure during our assessment of ourselves. As unique characters, our focus should be on understanding our strengths, weaknesses, and then learning what is appropriate for us as distinctive individuals. To do so, we must perceive accurately our own thoughts and feelings towards one's self. This is the basis behind introspection.

Introspection is the examination of our own mental and emotional procedure. Before we can accurately scrutinise the cause of our thoughts and actions, we need to recognise the structure behind them. So little by little, we must construct an understanding of our own psychology. What we come to realise will open us up to a pathway of recognition to what ideas impact us meanigfully and why, and also recognise it's effects on other people. Our reasoning skills develop, allowing us to become sympathetic and empathetic in charitable fashion. For that reason, introspection allows us to gain an understanding of others, to develop self-control, the opportunity to determine where we need to mature, and more importantly, acknowledge our abilities. An inability to recognise what skills we do and don't possess results in the development of incompetence. This is the antithesis to the pursuit of perfection.

Dunning-Kruger's explanation for Incompetence

In 1999, the sociologists Justin Kruger and David Dunning had an article titled 'Unskilled and unaware of it: How difficulties in recognizing one's own incompetence lead to inflated self-assessments.' published in the American Psychological Association's Journal of Personality and Social Psychology^®. Within it, Kruger-Dunning write the following about someone who is incompetent but overconfident in their abilities.

In essence, we argue that the skills that engender competence in a particular domain are often the very same skills necessary to evaluate competence in that domain - one's own or anyone else's. Because of this, incompetent individuals lack what cognitive psychologists variously term metacognition, metamemory, metacomprehension, or self-monitoring skills. These terms refer to the ability to know how well one is performing, when one is likely to be accurate in judgment, and when one is likely to be in error.

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As part of their study, they used 140 university students as a focus group. They set out a test of logical reasoning for them to complete. These participants were then asked to rate their logical reasoning skills and performance on the test, relative to their classmates, on a percentile scale. They then randomly selected 70 of those students, and gave them a short logical reasoning training packet. The other 70 were given unrelated materials as a filler task, that took the same amount of time to complete as the training packet. Both groups were then asked to complete a metacognition task, where they appraised how well they think they did on the logical reasoning test. Afterwards, they were all given a chance to reassess how well they performed, relative to their classmates. Dunning-Kruger summarised their results as such.

Thomas Jefferson once said, "he who knows best knows how little he knows." In Study 4, we obtained experimental support for this assertion. Participants scoring in the bottom quartile on a test of logic grossly overestimated their test performance - but became significantly more calibrated after their logical reasoning skills were improved. In contrast, those in the bottom quartile who did not receive this aid continued to hold the mistaken impression that they had performed just fine. Moreover, mediational analyses revealed that it was by means of their improved metacognitive skills that incompetent individuals arrived at their more accurate self-appraisals.

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To conclude, according to Dunning-Kruger's study on incompetence, the students who exercised introspection via the logical reasoning packet were more accurately able to assess their skills compared to their peers, and thus able to improve their performance on the logical reasoning test. It should go without saying that an accurate assessment of one's ability is critical to establishing growth and potential for competency.

What is Hubris?

Therefore, to overcome hubris, we must understand what it is, and whether it's definition even applies to us through introspection. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, the definition of hubris is "a way of talking or behaving that is too proud". So hubris is a synonym of prideful. Introspection will allow us to expose areas where we talk or behave in a prideful manner.

However, it is important to note that one does not require high self-esteem to be prideful or hubristic. It is possible to exercise pride in one's lack of self-esteem too. To underestimate one's abilities is also another expression of hubris. The reason being is that a lack of confidence stems from narcissism. Due to the excessive interest in one's self, even detrimentally, you poorly evaluate one's ability. Low self-esteem is a result of little introspection, not much. Remember, introspection is the examination of one's mental and emotional processes. Such a process builds self-esteem, because self-esteem is confidence in one's worth and abilities. Confidence is built from knowledge, as the Dunning-Kruger effect established. To have low self-esteem is to hold little knowledge of your own psychology.

Conclusion

In short, what must we do to overcome hubris? We must dedicate ourselves to regular self-assessment. Spend time purposely learning about ourselves first. The easiest way is to establish active interaction. Adopt a hobby, learn a new skill, interact with others a little more etc. Compare your actions and thoughts in each situation you face. Acknowledge that we will fail, and failure is a necessary part of introspection. There is no hard and fast rule to this procedure. As long as you are continually assessing your psychology, your actions will aid your introspective endeavours. As a result, we will become less accustomed to hubristic expressions of identity. In this way, we will have overcome hubris.