Motivational and emotional aspects of the self.
Recent theory and research are reviewed regarding self-related motives (self-enhancement, self-verification, and self-expansion) and self-conscious emotions (guilt, shame, pride, social anxiety, and embarrassment), with an emphasis on how these motivational and emotional aspects of the self might be related. Specifically, these motives and emotions appear to function to protect people's social well-being. The motives to self-enhance, self-verify, and self-expand are partly rooted in people's concerns with social approval and acceptance, and self-conscious emotions arise in response to events that have real or imagined implications for others' judgments of the individual. Thus, these motives and emotions do not operate to maintain certain states of the self, as some have suggested, but rather to facilitate people's social interactions and relationships.
Leary
Mark R
MR
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708, USA. leary@duke.edu
D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology; D001364:Awareness; D003674:Defense Mechanisms; D004532:Ego; D004644:Emotions; D006167:Guilt; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D009042:Motivation; D018187:Personal Construct Theory; D012649:Self Concept; D012752:Shame; D012928:Social Desirability; D012938:Social Perception