Ways of viewing the self change when social environments change, argues Diane Rothbard Margolis in this work of social theory. She analyzes six views of the self found in contemporary Western cultures and shows how each plays a critical role in society and in our everyday lives.

Her perspective on moral orientations and emotions illuminates such contemporary dilemmas as why women and men may play the same social role quite differently, why women encounter the glass ceiling, and why nationalism persists despite the growth of world markets.