Research on Humility for Existential Psychologists in the 21st Century

By Kenneth E. Hart, Ph.D.

Department of Psychology, University of Windsor
Windsor, 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 is
a worthwhile goal. This article argues that high priority should be given to improving
our theoretical models or conceptual approaches to understanding what humility is and
what it is not. If existential psychologists can take the lead in clarifying the meaning of
the 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 that
theory and research on humility should be informed by work already done on
narcissism. This article also suggests that much can be learned about humility from
theory and practice associated with 12-step addiction recovery groups such as
Alcoholics Anonymous. For over 60 years now, these groups have been recruiting
millions of people into spiritually-based humility interventions. These real-life social
experiments are ongoing and have been conducted in over 125 countries, with
apparent 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 to
those 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 surrounding
the more general trait of narcissism. At the same time, additional research needs to
examine 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 of
self 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 and
limitations; an accepting and liberal attitude toward novel ideas and contradictory
information and advice from others; the ability to keeping one's abilities and
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-defensive
examination 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 further
attempts 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, a
distinction has been made in some quarters between pathological narcissism and
nonpathological narcissism. The former being a clinically treatable form of
psychopathology, while the latter consisting of a cluster of interrelated normal
personality traits. Also, subtypes of nonpathological 'normal' narcissism have been
identified, 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 a
taxonomy seems premature because the link between humility and high-self-regard
needs solidifying. In the future, existential psychologists concerned with advancing our
understanding 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 a
masterful 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 of
character 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 of
self-deception, social desirability or "lying" (lie scales). In the area of anxiety
assessment for example, a differentiation has been made between false low anxious
and true low anxious persons. The false low anxious people fall into the low anxiety
category erroneously, due to response bias motivated either unconsciously by high
levels of self-deception or denial. They may also be consciously 'faking-good' in
response to perceived social pressure for desirable responding. The same is likely true
for 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 on
measures of self-deception or impression management. In terms of measurement
models for humility, I see this as a direction for future research.
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 to
consider 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. We
know 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 consult
would be the seminal 1944 paper by H.A. Tiebout, entitled. "Therapeutic Mechanisms
of 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's
and Kurtz's papers, I have never seen more accurate and more concise descriptions of
the 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 context
of AA is anecdotal and richly qualitative. Furthermore, there is an impressive 60 years
worth 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 are
extremely 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. The
philosophy 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 be
transcended 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 from
having 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 mediating
mechanisms by which a person is gradually shifted from being self-focused in nature to
being 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 work

already done by scholars of narcissism and by knowledge gained by the natural
experiment 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 grounded
in the search for the sacred, and this involves a radical reshuffling of an individual's
value 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.
 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 Anonymous
World 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 classification
of 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 of
positive 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. American

Journal of Psychiatry, 100, 468-473.

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