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Shame, Guilt, Narcissism, and Depression: Correlates and Sex Differences

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Abstract

This study examines the relationships between shame, guilt, narcissism, and depression and the gender differences connected with these states. We hypothesize that shame would be a more powerful contributor to narcissism and depression than guilt and that women would score higher in shame, higher in depression, and lower in narcissism than men. The Adapted Shame/Guilt Scale, the Narcissistic Personality Inventory, and the Self-Rating Depression Scale were administered to male and female undergraduates. The results show that shame plays an important role in both narcissism and depression, and that its role in depression is stronger than that of guilt. It was also concluded that men are more prone to narcissism and women to depression, and sex differences related to shame and guilt are linked to specific situations and self-images. Implications for treatment are also noted.
PSYCHOANALYTIC PSYCHOLOGY, 1989, 6(2), 217-230
Copyright © 1989, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Shame, Guilt, Narcissism,
and Depression:
Correlates and Sex Differences
Fred Wright, PhD
John Jay College of Criminal Justice
John O'Leary, PhD
William Alanson White Institute
Joseph Balkin, PhD
John Jay College of Criminal Justice
This study examines the relationships between shame, guilt, narcissism, and
depression and the gender differences connected with these
states.
We
hypothesize
that shame would be a more powerful contributor to narcissism and depres-
sion than guilt and that women would score higher in shame, higher in depres-
sion, and lower in narcissism than men. The Adapted Shame/Guilt Scale, the
Narcissistic Personality Inventory, and the Self-Rating Depression Scale were
administered to male and female undergraduates.
The results show that shame plays an important role in both narcissism and
depression, and that its role in depression is stronger than that of guilt. It was
also concluded that men are more prone to narcissism and women to depres-
sion, and sex differences related to shame and guilt are linked to specific situa-
tions and self-images. Implications for treatment are also noted.
Recently, there has been a resurgence of clinical and theoretical interest in
the superego. One reason is the expansion of psychoanalytic interest into new
territories where superego deficits are paramount (i.e., the preoedipal con-
ditions). Kernberg (1984), for example, stated that the two most important
considerations in the treatability of borderline and narcissistic states is the
quality of the patients' object relations and the relative integration of their
superegos.
Requests for reprints should be sent to Fred Wright, PhD, Department of Psychology, John
Jay College of Criminal Justice, 445 West 59th Street, New York, NY 10019.
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
... Several researchers have studied narcissism and have examined its relation to many other variables like self-esteem, job satisfaction, aggression, shame etc. Gender differences in narcissism has also been an area of interest and most of the studies have found men to be significantly higher on narcissism than females (Grijalva et al., 2014;Wright, O'Leary, & Balkin, 1989). Another area on narcissism which is still debatable is whether narcissism is a function of age (younger people are more narcissistic than older people) or it is a function of generation (younger generations are more narcissistic than the older generations when they were at that age) and studies have found results supporting both the propositions (Roberts, Edmonds, & Grijalva, 2010). ...
... Researchers suggest that a set of emotions known as self-conscious emotions (evaluations of these emotions require a conscious effort from individuals) may be playing a role in narcissism (Robins et al., 2001). Shame, a self-conscious emotion plays an important role in narcissism (Wright et al., 1989). Maladaptive components of the narcissistic personality inventory were found to have positive correlations with shame (Gramzow & Tangney, 1992). ...
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... Therefore, the past literature provides enough evidence that supports our argument that vulnerable narcissism is positively related to shame [32]. From the previous literature, it is clear that narcissistic individuals, particularly the grandiose subtype, are negatively related to two emotions: guilt and shame [33]. ...
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As competition for gaining high-profit margins and survival among organizations (in the situation caused by COVID-19) grows, the number of business scandals or unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPOB) increases simultaneously. The current study investigates the mediating role of employees' UPOB and the moderating role of organizational change between narcissism and guilt/shame. Data were collected from 272 employees of the Pakistani telecom sector using a temporally segregated research design based on three-time lags. The analysis was performed using the statistical software AMOS 20, SPSS 20, and MACRO PROCESS. The results found that vulnerable and grandiose narcissism could have an adverse impact on employees’ UPOB. This type of behavior mediates the relationship between vulnerable, grandiose narcissism and guilt/shame. In addition to this, organizational change moderates the relationship between vulnerable narcissism and UPOB. Lastly, in contrast, grandiose narcissism is negatively related to guilt and shame.
... For example, Lovelace and Gannon (1999) studied 231 psychiatric outpatients and found that psychopathy scores were weakly and negatively associated with depression scores (r = -.13), while Bianchi and Mircovic (2020) found that Machiavellianism and depression scores were positively associated in samples of undergraduates. Gómez-Leal et al. (2019) found that narcissism, psychopathy and Machiavellianism were positively correlated with depressive symptoms in a sample of Spanish adults, but Wright, O'Leary and Balkin (1989) found that narcissism and depression scores were not associated in either male or female undergraduate students (r = -0.07 and -0.03, respectively). ...
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