June P Tangney

• Ph.D.
• Professor at George Mason University

Rates of multiple episodes of suicide spectrum behaviors are higher among incarcerated individuals than community members. Understanding the trajectory of multiple episodes of suicide spectrum behavior is important for assessment of risk and precautionary measures. We examined escalation in terms of frequency and method among 204 incarcerated indiv...

Psychology is moving increasingly toward digital sources of data, with Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk) at the forefront of that charge. In 2015, up to an estimated 45% of articles published in the top behavioral and social science journals included at least one study conducted on MTurk. In this article, I summarize my own experience with MTurk and...

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) and substance use disorders (SUDs) commonly co-occur across various settings. However, little research has examined how BPD features relate to specific types of SUDs. This study examined whether BPD features assessed shortly after incarceration were differentially related to symptoms of dependence on alcohol, c...

Introduction: Trait self-control is one of the most robust predictors of important life outcomes. Recent evidence suggests at least two domains of self-control: inhibitory self-control (refraining from more attractive but goal-inconsistent behaviors) and initiatory self-control (engaging in and persisting in less attractive but goal-consistent beha...

This multi-method, two-study investigation tested the hypothesis that, controlling for guilt and negative affect, shame increases following binge eating. Support for this hypothesis constitutes the first step in testing the theory that shame mediates the link between binge eating and comorbid psychopathology. Study 1 employed a laboratory binge-eat...

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is common in jails and prisons. In a sample of 506 jail inmates (30% female), we examined whether BPD symptoms assessed upon incarceration predict subsequent institutional misconduct and treatment-seeking. BPD features modestly predicted occurrence (vs. nonoccurrence) of institutional misconduct. Importantly, B...

Women represent a small subset of the incarcerated population, but this does not prevent them from being trapped in the revolving door of the criminal justice system. Because women with children represent the vast majority of incarcerated women, continued criminal justice involvement has critical implications for children and families. Yet little i...

Aims Many factors affect the utility and practicality of measures in longitudinal studies characterized by transient participants such as those caught in the cycle of incarceration. The current study evaluated the psychometric equivalency of a visual and a verbal version of a single‐item connectedness measure; the aim was to determine whether the d...

Incarceration separates individuals from their families and communities, strictly limiting and controlling contact with the outside world. Despite these barriers, those who maintain contact with their families during incarceration tend to function more adaptively postrelease. Within a longitudinal framework, the current study examines mechanisms (i...

Purpose: Self-reports are integral to the understanding of a variety of behavioral phenomena, with arrest history being no exception. The current study investigated how accurate self-reports of arrest are when compared to official arrest records, and we also assessed several new predictors of self-report accuracy. Methods: In a sample of 339 former...

This study assessed whether psychopathy and borderline personality disorder (BPD) symptoms are differentially related to three drinking motives: coping, enhancement, and social. Participants were 170 inmates (74% male) initially held on felony charges in a suburban jail. The Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version (PCL:SV; Hart et al., 1995) and B...

The significant sex-based discrepancy in violent crime suggests that something about maleness or masculinity contributes to this pattern. Research on masculinities clearly indicates that if men struggle to meet masculine gender role expectations, they are likely to report distress (Eisler & Skidmore, 1987; O'Neil, 2008). Empirical work demonstrates...

Suicidal behavior occurs at much higher rates in correctional facilities than in the community, yet little is known about factors that distinguish inmates at risk for attempting versus dying by suicide. Individuals in the current study included 925 inmates housed in 2 large U.S. jails and 8 state correctional systems who attempted (79.5%) or died b...

Jails bring inmates into proximity with one another and separate them from the community. Because inmates’ connectedness to one another and to the community influences post-release functioning, understanding risk factors for maladaptive shifts in connectedness may inform interventions. The current study examined changes in jail inmates’ (N = 203) c...

Research on changes in community integration from pre- to post-incarceration has primarily focused on employment and is mixed, showing both deterioration and improvement. Research is needed to examine change in other areas, as well as predictive individual-level factors. We assessed changes in jail inmates’ (n = 334) employment, source of income, r...

The notion that high psychopathy inmates seek treatment for nontherapeutic reasons is frequently assumed but lacking empirical evidence. In a sample of 217 jail inmates, we examined whether psychopathy differentially predicted treatment-seeking during incarceration versus postrelease. Overall, analyses revealed psychopathic inmates did not artifici...

The aim of this study was to identify risk factors distinguishing inmates who attempt suicide from inmates who complete suicide. Compared with attempters, completers tended to be older, male, more educated, and married or separated/divorced; pretrial, committed for a violent crime, incarcerated in jail, housed in an inpatient mental health unit or...

In recent years, mindfulness-based interventions have been modified for use with inmate populations, but how this might relate to specific criminogenic cognitions has not been examined empirically. Theoretically, characteristics of mindfulness should be incompatible with distorted patterns of criminal thinking, but is this in fact the case? Among b...

This study pilot-tested a values and mindfulness-based intervention (Re-Entry Values and Mindfulness Program: REVAMP) in a sample of male jail inmates. REVAMP aimed to reduce post-release risky behavior by targeting dimensions of mindfulness (e.g., willingness/acceptance) and associated proximal outcomes/ mechanisms of action (emotion regulation, s...

People with concealable stigmatized identities, such as a criminal record, often anticipate stigma from others. Anticipated stigma is thought to cause withdrawal from situations in which there is the potential for discrimination, which then negatively impacts behavior and functioning. This may have implications for offenders reentering the communit...

Those involved in the criminal justice system are swiftly identified as “criminals.” Receipt of this label may promote self-stigma, a process wherein criminal stereotypes are internalized and produce negative psychological and behavioral consequences. Research has yet to identify which types of offenders are at risk for, or in contrast, protected f...

Is the relationship between criminal thinking and recidivism the same for criminal justice–involved individuals from varying demographic backgrounds? Relying on two independent samples of offenders and two measures of criminal thinking, the current studies examined whether four demographic factors—gender, race, age, and education—moderated the rela...

This chapter explores common forms of mental illness, conceptualizing hyper-egoicism as a transdiagnostic factor that has primary relevance to multiple disorders in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. It discusses the degree to which major approaches to psychotherapy (psychodynamic, behavioral, cognitive-behavioral, and mindf...

Regulating emotions, refraining from impulsive, maladaptive behavior, and communicating effectively are considered primary treatment needs among jail inmates. Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT; Linehan, 1993a) skills address these deficits and have been implemented in long-term correctional settings, but have yet to be adapted for general populatio...

The Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS) is one of the most widely used measures of criminal thinking. Although the PICTS has adequate psychometric qualities with many general population inmates, the measurement confound of reading ability may decrease its construct validity in low-literacy inmates. To help resolve this confo...

Purpose: To assess changes in inmates' misuse of substances from pre- to post-incarceration. Methods: In Study 1, professionals (n = 162) and laypersons (n = 50) predicted how jail inmates' substance misuse would change from pre-incarceration to post-release. In Study 2, a longitudinal study of 305 jail inmates, we examined actual changes in sub...

Suicidal behavior is a significant problem in United States jails. Suicidal ideation (SI) is an established precursor to suicidal behavior in incarcerated populations. No studies to date have examined the prevalence of SI or its correlates in a mixed-gender U.S. jail sample. The purpose of the present study was to document rates of SI in a mixed-ge...

The current study tested the effectiveness of a self-administered, cognitive-behavioral intervention targeting criminal thinking for inmates in segregated housing: Taking a Chance on Change (TCC). Participants included 273 inmates in segregated housing at state correctional institutions. Reductions in criminal thinking, as assessed by the Psycholog...

We describe a model in which guilt and shame associate with reactions to wrongdoing among perpetrators of interpersonal harm. Individuals who reported wronging another person (N = 410) completed measures of perceived transgression severity, guilt and shame, and possible reactions to perpetration of wrongdoing (i.e., forgiving, punishing, and excusi...

Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) are associated with elevated depression, suicidality, functional impairment, and days housebound, yet little research has identified risk factors for these outcomes. Using path analysis, the present study examined anxiety and shame as risk factors for these outcomes across Inter...

Upon conviction, individuals receive the stigmatizing label “criminal offender.” Existing stereotypes about criminal offenders may be integrated into the self-concept, a phenomenon known as self-stigma. In many stigmatized groups, self-stigma is a robust predictor of poor functioning (Livingston & Boyd, 2010; Schomerus et al., 2011). However, littl...

Research has rarely considered criminal offenders’ psychological responses to stigma, but these responses may significantly influence behavior after release from jail/prison. Jail inmates’ perceived and anticipated stigma was assessed prior to release from jail/prison (N = 163), and outcomes were assessed one year post-release (N = 371). We hypothe...

emapthy, morality, psychopathy, values, prosocial

Body shame is described as central in clinical literature on body dysmorphic disorder (BDD). However, empirical investigations of body shame within BDD are rare. One potential reason for the scarcity of such research may be that existing measures of body shame focus on eating and weight-based content. Within BDD, however, body shame likely focuses...

Connectedness to one's community relates to positive psychological and behavioral outcomes. But what implications do connectedness to distinct communities—the criminal community and the community at large—have for inmates about to be released from jail? This study (N = 383) prospectively examined connectedness to the criminal community and communit...

The present study explored the relationship between borderline personality disorder (BPD) features and preincarceration HIV risk behaviors in a sample of 499 (70% male) jail inmates, as well as gender differences in these associations. Elevated levels of BPD symptomatology were present among male and female participants, though there was considerab...

Vigilance, or sustained attention, is a required ability in many operational professions. While past research has consistently indicated that vigilance performance declines over time, referred to as the vigilance decrement, the theoretical mechanisms underlying the decrement continue to be explored. In the current study, trait self-control was exam...

Shame, guilt, embarrassment, and pride are self-conscious emotions, ™ evoked by self-reflection and self-evaluation. A growing empirical literature indicates that shame and guilt are distinct emotions with very different implications for psychological adjustment and interpersonal behavior. In brief, shame involves a negative evaluation of the globa...

The current study evaluated the feasibility and acceptability of a manualized Impact of Crime (IOC) group intervention implemented with male inmates (N = 108) at a county jail. Facilitator adherence to the intervention and participant attendance, homework completion, and feedback were assessed. On average facilitators covered 93.7% of each manual t...

Purpose Some differential intervention frameworks contend that substance use is less robustly related to recidivism outcomes than other criminogenic needs such as criminal thinking. The current study tested the hypothesis that substance use disorder severity moderates the relationship between criminal thinking and recidivism. Methods The study uti...

We describe and appraise a theoretical model in which individual differences in perspective-taking eventuate in crime reduction. Specifically, it is hypothesized that perspective-taking propensities influence the tendency to feel empathic-concern, thereby heightening proneness for guilt, which ultimately inhibits criminal behavior (perspective-taki...

Do shame and guilt help people avoid doing wrong? Although some research suggests that guilt-proneness is a protective factor while shame-proneness puts individuals at risk, most research is either cross-sectional or short-term. In this longitudinal study, 380 5th graders (ages 10-12) completed measures of proneness to shame and guilt. We re-interv...

Psychological research using mostly cross-sectional methods calls into question the presumed function of shame as an inhibitor of immoral or illegal behavior. In a longitudinal study of 476 jail inmates, we assessed shame proneness, guilt proneness, and externalization of blame shortly after incarceration. We interviewed participants (N = 332) 1 ye...

Previous research finds that self-control is positively associated with adaptive and negatively associated with maladaptive behavior. However, most previous studies use cross-sectional designs, low-risk samples, and limited assessments of self-control. This study of 553 jail inmates examined the relationship of a valid measure of self-control (Brie...

Jail inmates represent a high-risk, multineed population. Why do some jail inmates not access available programs and services? Drawn from a longitudinal study, 261 adults were assessed shortly upon incarceration and reassessed prior to transfer or release from a county jail. Of the participants in need of treatment, 18.5% did not participate in any...

Theories of health behavior change suggest that perceived susceptibility to illness precedes health-protective behavior. We used a cross-lagged panel design to explore the relationship between perceived susceptibility to AIDS, and HIV risk behavior pre-incarceration and postrelease in a sample of 499 jail inmates, a group at high risk for HIV. We a...

Theories of health behavior change suggest that perceived susceptibility to illness precedes health-protective behavior. We used a cross-lagged panel design to explore the relationship between perceived susceptibility to AIDS, and HIV risk behavior pre-incarceration and post-release in a sample of 499 jail inmates, a group at high risk for HIV. We...

Most research concerning chronic procrastination has focused on the cognitive and behavioral aspects of delay in starting or completing tasks. The primary goal of the current study was to clarify the relationship of chronic procrastination with affective experiences of shame and guilt. In the present study, 86 18-49 yr old undergraduates (34 male,...

Theory, research, and clinical reports suggest that moral cognitions play a role in initiating and sustaining criminal behavior. The 25 item Criminogenic Cognitions Scale (CCS) was designed to tap 5 dimensions: Notions of entitlement; Failure to Accept Responsibility; Short-Term Orientation; Insensitivity to Impact of Crime; and Negative Attitudes...

This study examined the relationship between two risk factors for substance misuse (self-control, substance using friends) and changes in jail inmates' substance misuse from pre-incarceration to post-release. Participants were 485 adult jail inmates held on a felony conviction, recruited from a metropolitan county-jail situated in the mid-Atlantic...

Although humility is commonly equated with a sense of unworthiness and low self-regard, true humility is a rich, multifaceted construct that is characterized by an accurate assessment of one's characteristics, an ability to acknowledge limitations, and a "forgetting of the self." In this chapter, I describe current conceptions of humility, discuss...

In a study of 144 Japanese, 180 Korean, and 688 US children, grades 3–6, differential item functioning analysis supported the cross-cultural equivalence of the TOSCA-C measure of shame, guilt, and pride. Substantial differences were observed in the mean levels of shame, guilt and pride, with Japanese children scoring highest on shame, Korean childr...

Research shows that offenders perceive stigma, but the accuracy of these perceptions has not been assessed, nor their impact on successful reintegration. In a longitudinal study, jail inmates (N = 168) reported perceptions of stigma toward criminals and anticipated stigma just prior to release. A diverse college sample completed a parallel survey a...

The emotions shame and guilt may represent a critical stepping stone in the rehabilitation process. Often referred to as "moral" emotions owing to their presumed role in promoting altruistic behavior and inhibiting antisocial behaviors, shame and guilt provide potentially exciting points of intervention with offenders. In this article, we describe...

Individuals cycling in and out of the criminal justice system are at high risk for contracting HIV/AIDS. Most infections are contracted in the community, not during incarceration, but little is known about the profile of risk behaviors responsible for this elevated infection rate. This study investigated pre-incarceration and post-release HIV risk...

This study of 550 jail inmates (379 male and 171 female) held on felony charges examines the reliability and validity of the Test of Self Conscious Affect -Socially Deviant Version (TOSCA-SD; Hanson & Tangney, 1996) as a measure of offenders' proneness to shame and proneness to guilt. Discriminant validity (e.g., vis-à-vis self-esteem, negative aff...

The present study examines the predictive and incremental validity of Violence Risk Appraisal Guide scores in a sample of 328 male and 145 female jail inmates held on felony charges. Significant gender differences were observed in VRAG item and total score means, as well as in correlations between the VRAG and concurrent measures of aggression. VRA...

Shame is a common emotion that contributes to many problems that bring clients into therapy, such as poor psychological adjustment, interpersonal difficulties, and overall poor life functioning (see Tangney & Dearing, 2002). Not only is shame a factor underlying many of the reasons that clients seek psychotherapeutic help, but clients may feel sham...

This study investigated the relationship between inmates' physical health concerns and optimism. Optimism has been consistently associated with physical health in community samples, but little research has examined this potentially malleable variable in an inmate population. This study of 501 male and female jail inmates attempts to bridge this gap...

Previous research investigating the relationship between Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and sleep problems, independent of depression, has been conducted on small atypical samples with mixed results. This study extends the literature by utilizing a much larger sample and by statistically controlling for depression and substance dependence. S...

Theory suggests that shame should be positively related to aggression while guilt may serve as a protective factor. Little research has examined mediators between the moral emotions and aggression. Results using path analyses in four diverse samples were consistent with a model of no direct relationship between shame-proneness and aggression. There...

Whites in community samples use mental health services at a much higher rate than African Americans (Kessler et al., 2005). Is this also the case among those in jails? In this study of jail inmates (229 African American, 185 White), there were no race differences in the overall need for mental health treatment (63% of participants had significant s...

Rates of mental illness among prisoners are substantial, but little is known about the unique mental health needs of women in jail, those under pre-trial custodial remand or serving short sentences. To compare male and female jail inmates along a wide range of symptoms of mental illness using identical assessment methods, and to examine gender diff...

This article examines the relationship of shame, guilt, and symptoms of alcohol dependence to pre-incarceration HIV risk behaviors in an ongoing study in a metropolitan jail. Between 2002 and 2004 an ethnically diverse sample of 368 male inmates (mean age = 31, SD = 9.7), were interviewed on a variety of constructs including shame- and guilt-pronen...

The focus of this article is on the examination of variables that moderate the influence of exposure to TV violence. The research on the relationship between TV violence and aggressive behavior of the audience has largely focused on addressing the social policy issue of whether witnessing TV violence fosters aggressive behavior in viewers, particul...

The authors examined the association between psychopathy and identification of facial expressions of emotion. Previous research in this area is scant and has produced contradictory findings (Blair et. al., 2001, 2004; Glass & Newman, 2006; Kosson et al., 2002). One hundred and forty-five male jail inmates, rated using the Hare Psychopathy Checklist...

In this chapter, we’ve discussed the potential role of shame and guilt in both the causes and consequences of suicide. Theory and emerging empirical research indicates that feelings of shame are more prominent than guilt in the dynamics leading up to suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Nonetheless, experiences of shame often go unnoticed by both clien...

We developed a single-item pictorial measure of community connectedness, building on the theoretical and methodological traditions of the selfexpansion model (Aron & Aron, 1986). The Inclusion of Community in the Self (ICS) Scale demonstrated excellent testñretest reliability, convergent validity, and discriminant validity in a sample of 190 colleg...

Moral emotions represent a key element of our human moral apparatus, influencing the link between moral standards and moral behavior. This chapter reviews current theory and research on moral emotions. We first focus on a triad of negatively valenced "self-conscious" emotions-shame, guilt, and embarrassment. As in previous decades, much research re...

This paper describes our attempt to import social-personality theory and research on moral emotions and moral cognitions to applied problems of crime, substance abuse, and HIV risk behavior. Thus far, in an inmate sample, we have evidence that criminogenic beliefs and proneness to guilt are each predictive of re-offense after release from jail. In...

Without a doubt, people can feel simultaneously connected to multiple communities (e.g., Deaux, 1993; Roccas & Brewer, 2002). But, to what degree can people feel simultaneously connected to communities with opposing beliefs and values? And, more importantly, what are the psychological implications of being dually connected to these communities? Cap...

Previous research has demonstrated that shame-proneness (the tendency to feel bad about the self) relates to a variety of life problems, whereas guilt-proneness (the tendency to feel bad about a specific behavior) is more likely to be adaptive. The current analyses sought to clarify the relations of shame-proneness and guilt-proneness to substance...

Psychologists are often called upon to provide supervision, mentorship, and training to graduate student therapists-in-training. In these roles, psychologists may influence whether graduate students enter personal therapy during their training. This study investigated variables (including perceived faculty attitudes about students in personal thera...

What Are Self-conscious Emotions?Some General Development ConsiderationsSelf-conscious Emotions Are Interpersonal, TooShame and GuiltEmbarrassmentPrideReferences

What good is self-control? We incorporated a new measure of individual differences in self-control into two large investigations of a broad spectrum of behaviors. The new scale showed good internal consistency and retest reliability. Higher scores on self-control correlated with a higher grade point average, better adjustment (fewer reports of psyc...

Research has found a negative relationship between proneness to experience shame and problematic relationships, but no relationship between proneness to guilt and relationship adjustment or maladjustment (Tangney, 1995; Tangney & Dearing, 2002). Social cognitive theory suggests that a reason for the interpersonal problem of shame-prone people is th...

Explores the history of the self. Topics discussed include the meanings of self, disparate uses of self, attentional processes, cognitive processes, executive processes, motivation, emotion, self-constructs, self-processes, and self-phenomena. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Examined gender differences in morality from a Freudian perspective. We summarized evidence from several literatures refuting Freud's notion that women have a weaker, less internalized sense of morality than men because of defects in the formation of the superego. Empirical studies (of children, adolescents, and adults), however, indicate that fema...

describe the key phenomenological differences between shame and guilt / review the extant theoretical and empirical literature relating shame and guilt to depression / describe results from several independent studies bearing on the relationship of shame and guilt to depression study 1 demonstrates that the states of shame, guilt, and depression...

Shame, guilt, embarrassment, and pride are ‘self-conscious emotions,’ evoked by self-reflection and self-evaluation. A growing empirical literature indicates that shame and guilt are distinct emotions with very different implications for psychological adjustment and interpersonal behavior. In brief, shame involves a negative evaluation of the globa...

Psychology after World War II became a science largely devoted to healing. It concentrated on repairing damage using a disease model of human functioning. This almost exclusive attention to pathology neglected the idea of a fulfilled individual and a thriving community, and it neglected the possibility that building strength is the most potent weap...