Shame

When we say such sentences as “I am so ashamed at what I said to him,” we can see that this statement requires consideration of the idea of self-evaluation. When a speaker says that the speaker is ashamed of what the speaker has said, it is because of some verbal action on the speaker’s part that does not meet some standard of appropriate behavior that the speaker holds. It also implies that the speaker accepts responsibility for the speaker’s action. The emotion of shame is discussed in this entry with a focus on the components of the emotion, the experience of shame and how it differs from embarrassment and guilt, and how it changes across the life span.