AUTHORS’ RESPONSE Keeping the Self in Self-Conscious Emotions: Further Arguments for a Theoretical Model

As researchers who study topics at the interface between self and emotion, we are often frustrated by the lack of integration and interconnection between the two areas. Prevailing views on emotion frequently neglect important self-evaluative processes or fail to do justice to the complexity of these processes; and research and theory on the self is dominated by a simple dichotomy between positive and negative affect, when emotions such as pride and shame seem so central to many important self-processes. These dual frustrations motivated us to develop the theoretical model presented in our target article, which represents our attempt to “put the self into self-conscious emotions.” Our goal was to summarize what the field knows about self-conscious emotions and related self-processes, and organize this research into a coherent, explanatory framework. In this response, we (a) explain why we believe a process model of self-conscious emotions is essential for the field to progress, (b) address some of the concerns raised by the commentators about the role of the self in the emotion-elicitation process, and (c) suggest topics for future research inspired by the commentaries and our model.