What do the ways in which human beings can become self conscious tell us about the nature of selfhood?

Tangney and Miller (1996) say that self-conscious emotions such as shame, embarrassment and guilt involve a heightened sense of awareness and evaluation of the self. They move on to suggest that as well as being self-conscious, they should also be considered other-conscious, as they often involve the feeling of exposure and a heightened concern for others judgements of the self. If this is true, it suggests that the nature of selfhood may be directly linked to social interactions. Before this can be explored, however, it is important to understand the meaning of the term self-conscious.

In this context when we say self-conscious we mean (as Tangney and Miller suggested) any situation in which a person is brought to be more aware of themselves. Examples of this include Shame, Guilt, Embarrassment and Pride…(short extract)