The Self-Conscious Emotions: Theory and Research

Jessica L. Tracy · Richard W. Robins · June Price Tangney

Nov 2013 · Guilford Publications

About this ebook

Timely and authoritative, this volume reviews the breadth of current knowledge on the self-conscious emotions and their role in psychological and social functioning. Leading investigators approach the subject from multiple levels of analysis, ranging from basic brain mechanisms to complex social processes. Chapters present compelling advances in research on the most fundamental self-conscious emotions: embarrassment, guilt, humiliation, pride, and shame. Addressed are neural and evolutionary mechanisms, developmental processes, cultural differences and similarities, and influences on a wide array of social behaviors and personality processes. A unique chapter on assessment describes and evaluates the full range of available measures.

About the author

Jessica L. Tracy, PhD, is Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of British Columbia. Her research and publications focus on the expression, psychological structure, and cognitive elicitors of self-conscious emotions, as well as their links to personality and self-esteem regulation. Dr. Tracy founded the annual Society for Personality and Social Psychology Pre-Conference on Emotion, and her work has been honored by the Wellcome Trust-New Scientist Essay Competition, as well as by dissertation awards from the New York Academy of Sciences and the American Psychological Association.

Richard W. Robins, PhD, is Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Davis, where he is Director of the Personality, Self, and Emotions Laboratory; Director of the California Families Project; and a member of the core faculty for the National Institute of Mental Health Training Program in Affective Science. Dr. Robins is Associate Editor of Personality and Social Psychology Review and past Associate Editor of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. He is a recipient of the Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contribution to Psychology from the American Psychological Association and both the Theoretical Innovation Prize and the Diener Award for Outstanding Mid-Career Contributions to Personality Psychology from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. His research focuses on personality, emotion, the self, and ethnic-minority youth development.

June Price Tangney, PhD, is Professor of Psychology at George Mason University. She is coauthor of Shame and Guilt and coeditor of the Handbook of Self and Identity. She has served as associate or consulting editor for several journals, and is currently associate editor of American Psychologist. Her research interests include the development and implications of moral emotions. Currently, her work focuses on moral emotions among incarcerated offenders.