Shame, guilt, jealousy, and envy are common human emotions that everyone experiences on occasion in the course of daily life. Although people may not welcome these feelings, they are quite normal and serve useful functions for individuals and their relationships. At the same time, these negatively valanced emotions can pose problems for social and emotional adjustment, particularly in cases of chronic or excessive experiences of shame, guilt, jealousy, or envy. In this chapter, we examine adaptive and maladaptive aspects of these potentially problematic emotions, drawing on current psychological theory and recent empirical work. We consider the implications of these emotions for both individual adjustment and interpersonal behavior.
DISTINGUISHING BETWEEN OFT'EN-CONFUSED EMOTIONS: SHAME VERSUS GUILT AND JEALOUSY VERSUS ENVYIn everyday conversation-and in significant portions of the psychological literature too-people are somewhat imprecise in their use of emo-I67