ISSN 1671-3710
CN 11-4766/R
主办:中国科学院心理研究所
出版:科学出版社

›› 2011, Vol. 19 ›› Issue (11): 1667-1674.

• 研究前沿 • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Admiration: A Positive Emotion of Witnessing Excellence and Emulating

CHEN Shi-Min;WU Bao-Pei;FANG Jie;SUN Pei-Zhen;GAO Liang;XIONG Hong-Xing;ZHENG Xue   

  1. (1 Department of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, China)
    (2 Department of Educational Psychology, Chinese University of Hongkong, China)
    (3 School of Educational Science, Xuzhou Normal University, Xuzhou 221116, China)
  • Received:2011-05-06 Revised:1900-01-01 Online:2011-11-15 Published:2011-11-15
  • Contact: ZHENG Xue

Abstract: Admiration is a feeling of great liking and respect for an excellent person or an emotional response to witness excellent deeds or character, whose prototypical components are appreciation and inspiration. This emotion is evoked by many factors including extraordinary skill, virtue, positive attitude, self-improvement motive, and similar values and so on. Secretion of oxytocin can be facilitated by admiration for virtue. Admiration for skill and virtue activate separate but also overlapping brain area. Admiration can function to inspire oneself, increase self-efficacy and outcome expectation, influence vocational intention, and motivate prosocial and affiliative behavior. Future research should broaden the concept and component of admiration, distinguish between admiration and worship, conduct the study of application and cross-cultural or localized research.

Key words: admiration, admiration for virtue, admiration for skill, upward comparison, model