Commentary on “how emotions, relationships, and culture constitute each other: advances in social functionalist theory” by Keltner, Sauter, Tracy, Wetchler, and Cowen

ABSTRACT This paper is a commentary on the paper by Keltner and colleagues (this issue). Although Keltner at al.’s expanded version of a social functionalist theory of emotion is a welcome addition to theoretical thinking about the relation between emotion and social life, I argue that their paper accords too much importance to the ways in which emotion is shaped by the relational needs of the individual, and too little to the cultural context in which relationships take place.