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Moving beyond “shame is bad”: How a functional emotion can become problematic: How Shame Becomes Problematic
... Similar to previous research (Norman et al., 2015), in which aggressive responses to competition were found only in men with low trait anxiety, we expected the above predicted testosterone-aggression relationship to be present only at low levels of shame proneness. Given that shame proneness is associated with consistent feelings of threat to the self (Cibich et al., 2016) and with behavioral submission and withdrawal (Behrendt and Ben-Ari, 2012;Gilbert et al., 1994;Sheikh and Janoff-Bulman, 2010), it was theorized that individuals high in shame proneness would feel threatened regardless of whether they experienced inclusion or exclusion. As such, we expected that testosterone reactivity would not be associated with aggression among individuals high in shame proneness. ...
... Those high in trait anxiety, on the other hand, may have viewed the situation as a socially provocative threat and responded with behavioral withdrawal regardless of testosterone reactivity (Norman et al., 2015). Shame proneness, by its very definition, involves a propensity towards consistent feelings of threat towards the self (Cibich et al., 2016). Therefore, in the present study, it is possible that, regardless of inclusion or exclusion, highly shame prone individuals characterized the Cyberball manipulation as threatening, motivating withdrawal and disengagement from their partners on the PSAP task. ...
... Therefore, in the present study, it is possible that, regardless of inclusion or exclusion, highly shame prone individuals characterized the Cyberball manipulation as threatening, motivating withdrawal and disengagement from their partners on the PSAP task. This view would be consistent with the association of shame proneness with submissiveness , withdrawal (Cibich et al., 2016), and avoidance of direct conflict (Behrendt and Ben-Ari, 2012;Sheikh and Janoff-Bulman, 2010). For those low in shame proneness-who presumably do not experience consistent feelings of threat-testosterone response to inclusion or exclusion may have been more relevant for subsequent status-relevant behaviors. ...
Exclusion from social relationships is a painful experience that may threaten an individual’s status and dominance. The steroid hormone testosterone, which fluctuates rapidly in response to such threats, may be implicated in subsequent behavioral action (e.g., aggressive or prosocial responses) that aims to protect or enhance one’s status after exclusion. Past research, however, indicates that the link between acute changes in testosterone and behavior depend on context-relevant individual dispositions. In the context of social exclusion, an individual’s level of shame proneness—characterized by a tendency to experience shame and to react submissively—is theoretically relevant to the testosterone-induced aggression relationship but has yet to be examined empirically. Here, men (n =167) were randomly assigned to be socially included or excluded in the virtual ball-tossing game, Cyberball, after which aggressive behavior was examined using the Point Subtraction Aggression Paradigm (PSAP). Testosterone reactivity was measured via salivary hormone samples collected pre- and post-game. Moderated multiple regression analyses were run to examine the extent to which testosterone reactivity and shame proneness moderated the effect of Cyberball condition on aggression. Results revealed a significant two-way interaction between Cyberball condition and testosterone reactivity, as well as a three-way interaction including shame proneness. For individuals low in shame proneness, exclusion was associated with higher post-cyberball aggression among those who experienced a rise in testosterone but was associated with lower post-cyberball aggression among those who experienced a decrease in testosterone. For individuals high in shame proneness, however, exclusion did not meaningfully affect aggressive responses, regardless of whether they experienced an increase or decrease in testosterone. These findings extend our understanding of the moderating roles of context and disposition on the neuroendocrinology of aggression in social interaction.
... Central elements of shame are self-consciousness (Welten et al., 2012) and a sense of inferiority (Keltner and Harker, 1998). People who feel shame fear negative evaluation by others and social judgement (Cibich et al., 2016). A common reaction to shame is therefore social withdrawal (Cibich et al., 2016;Keltner and Harker, 1998). ...
... People who feel shame fear negative evaluation by others and social judgement (Cibich et al., 2016). A common reaction to shame is therefore social withdrawal (Cibich et al., 2016;Keltner and Harker, 1998). People who are prone to shame often cope by withdrawal and avoidance (Bennett et al., 2016;De Rubeis and Hollenstein, 2009). ...
... Abe, 2004). People who often feel shame, moreover, tend to withdraw socially (Cibich et al., 2016;Keltner and Harker, 1998;Tignor and Colvin, 2017). The social relatedness and tolerance of agreeable people may, therefore, prevent concealing information needs. ...
Purpose
The aim of this study is to assess the impact of personality traits and sense of coherence (SOC) on concealing information needs out of shame. The study also investigates the link between concealed information needs and the use of experiential information for psychological wellbeing.
Design/methodology/approach
A Partial Least Square ‐ Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) approach is used to assess and analyse the proposed conceptual model, which is based on the responses of 412 upper secondary school students.
Findings
The findings reveal that personality traits not only have direct significant effects on concealing information needs but that their effects are also mediated by SOC. The positive relationship between concealed information needs and the use of experiential information is confirmed in the study.
Originality/value
This study is the first to show that personality and SOC influence concealing information needs. Two pathways are found. Firstly, negative emotionality and a low SOC lead to a heightened sense of shame. Secondly, introversion induces a more guarded behaviour. The study, moreover, quantitatively demonstrates a link between concealed information needs and the use of experiential information for psychological wellbeing.
... Interpersonal activation can occur throughout the lifespan, beginning as early as infanthood if the bond between infantcaregiver is breached without repair (Kaufman 1996;Morrison 2011). Once activated, shame can be relieved by relational reconciliation (Cibich et al. 2016;Kaufman 1996). If relational reparation is perceived as impossible, or if shame is amplified by renewed relational engagement, it can motivate protective withdrawal from interpersonal connections (De Hooge et al. 2010;Parker and Thomas 2009;G. ...
... However, Kaufman (1996) argued that while shame draws a person inwards, the interpersonal breach that underlies shame also creates a simultaneous longing for restoration through interpersonal union, identification, merging and fusion. If such reparations are perceived possible, shame may subsequently lead to approach behaviours rather than avoidance (Cibich et al. 2016;De Hooge et al. 2010). Indeed, experimentally-induced shame has been found to lead to prosocial approach behaviours (De Hooge et al. 2018). ...
... These features of shame-based relational approach behaviours and dependency correspond to the anaclitic orientation described by Blatt (2008), and suggest that shame may also be instrumental to its establishment. The idea that shame may be central to both introjective and anaclitic orientations helps to explain contradictory evidence regarding the nature of shame (Cibich et al. 2016;De Hooge et al. 2010), and reflects Kaufman's (1996) view that shame is characterised by an ambivalence between withdrawing from, and longing for, connection. In managing early shame experiences, the introjective orientation seems to have increased emphasis on withdrawal, whilst for the anaclitic orientation, connection is predominant. ...
The psychological literature has re-awakened its interest in shame. Research demonstrates that shame is negatively linked with intimacy through direct and indirect associations with intimacy fear and intimacy levels. This study explored the pathways between trait shame and perceived risk in intimacy. We hypothesised there would be an indirect relationship between shame and risk in intimacy via associations with introjective (self-definition) and anaclitic (dependent) personality orientation, identity impairment and abandonment concerns. University students (N = 501) from New Zealand and Northern Ireland completed an online survey, and path analysis was used to analyse data. Some support for the hypotheses was found, with shame being positively associated with risk in intimacy and half the magnitude of the effect operating indirectly through introjective orientation. Shame was positively associated with anaclitic personality, abandonment concerns and identity impairment, but these latter variables were not associated with risk in intimacy. Moreover, anaclitic orientation was associated with abandonment concerns and introjective orientation was associated with identity impairment. These findings extend the literature by demonstrating that shame may impact on feelings of intimacy risk directly and indirectly via introjective personality orientation. The results are consistent with research that shame has negative associations with intimacy, while also demonstrating that shame can be linked to approach behaviours via anaclitic personality orientation. This study provides further evidence of the complex nature and multifaceted effects of shame.
... We all know the pangs of regret, guilt, and shame that can arise when we have acted wrongly. Self-condemnation, prolonged shame, and being stuck in regret have been associated with negative outcomes such as anger (Baumeister, Stillwell, & Heatherton, 1994), depression, maladjustment, and global negative self-evaluations (Cibich, Woodyatt, & Wenzel, 2016). Research suggests that chronic selfcondemnation is also problematic in the context of marriages (Pelucchi, Paleari, Regalia, & Fincham, 2013). ...
... One way to demonstrate these individual differences in response patterns to an offense could be use of cluster analysis. Cluster analysis is a data analytic technique that sorts or classifies cases (often people) into groups based on similarity on targeted variables (Byrne & Uprichard, 2012). This technique can therefore be used to demonstrate whether a subset of individuals responding about a specific offense score high on a measure of responsibility for that offense, high on a hedonic end-state measure of self-forgiveness, and low on a state self-condemnation measure, thus demonstrating genuine self-forgiveness. ...
... For example, there are no universally accepted approaches to determining the numbers of clusters. Our three-cluster solution was sufficient to answer our study questions, but use of few clusters results in fairly heterogeneous groups (Byrne & Uprichard, 2012). Examination of a solution with more clusters may have revealed additional patterns of responding and more nuanced cluster differences on the personality and wellbeing variables used in this study. ...
Studies examining individual differences associated with self-forgiveness have tended to include measures that confound self-forgiveness with other hedonic traits, that is, the ability to release negative emotion following failure. In this paper we used cluster analysis to distinguish genuine self-forgiveness from simply letting oneself off the hook via self-exoneration. Cluster analysis revealed three patterns of responding to interpersonal offenses: self-forgiving (high responsibility and end-state self-forgiveness and low self-condemnation), self-condemning (high responsibility and self-condemnation and low end-state self-forgiveness), and self-exonerating (high end-state self-forgiveness and low responsibility and self-condemnation). Comparisons among the clustering solution groups allowed for examination of personality traits associated with individual differences in responses to transgressions. The self-forgiving and self-exonerating clusters largely did not differ on traits (e.g., self-compassion, neuroticism) associated with hedonic wellbeing. However, interpersonal functioning personality traits did distinguish the three response patterns. The self-forgiving cluster had lower vulnerable narcissism compared to the self-exonerating and self-condemning clusters. In addition, the self-exonerating cluster had lower empathetic concern compared to the self-condemning cluster. Our findings provide evidence for three types of responses to transgressions and insight into the individual differences associated with each of these response patterns.
... When considering the role of shame in a longterm addiction cycle, research suggests that clinicians should consider how painful self-focused emotions can serve adaptive (e.g., motivation for reparations) and maladaptive (e.g., hiding) functions in the context of psychotherapy (Cibich et al., 2016;Luoma et al., 2019). As opposed to indiscriminately reducing shame-based feelings and cognitions, consensus appears to be growing that it is the nature of a client's response (i.e., approach vs. avoidance) to psychological pain, coupled with the opportunity to make reparations, that appears to promote SUD recovery (e.g., De Hooge et al., 2008Gausel et al., 2012;Kemeny et al., 2004;Leach & Cidam, 2015;Tracy & Robins, 2004). ...
... Individuals who are pursuing SUD recovery often experience shame and other painful selffocused emotions related to past interpersonal transgressions that might lead to relapse and perpetuation of their addiction cycle (Cibich et al., 2016;Dearing et al., 2005;Ianni et al., 2010;Luoma et al., 2012;Mohr et al., 2008;Stuewig et al., 2015;Tangney et al., 2007;Wiechelt, 2007). In such cases, engaging in a process of self-forgiveness could serve as a vital dimension of psychotherapy for SUDs (Webb, Toussaint, et al., 2017). ...
Persons with substance use disorders (SUDs) often act in ways that are harmful to others and incongruent with deeply held values and beliefs, which can result in painful thoughts and emotions related to critical self-evaluation (e.g., shame). In turn, substance misuse often serves as a maladaptive coping strategy that perpetuates a substance–shame cycle that further erodes meaningful connections and resources in life. Self-forgiveness and transformation of shame and related emotions might represent universal principles of psychotherapies for SUDs in such cases, in which clinicians help clients to move from avoidance-based coping and violation of cherished values into personal responsibility and values-consistent living. Focusing on Cornish’s (2016) emotion-focused therapy (EFT) intervention with men in early recovery from chronic SUDs, this study attempted to examine these principles in the context of a specific context intervention designed to promote self-forgiveness. In turn, an interpersonal process recall approach was used to illumine clients’ experiences and processes of self-forgiveness (or lack thereof) over the course of treatment. Drawing upon strategies from grounded theory and consensual qualitative research, three overarching thematic categories emerged from qualitative interviews at posttreatment: retreat (e.g., behaviors and related psychological processes involved in avoidance of painful emotion), reflection (e.g., owning regrettable actions/decisions associated with cycle of addiction), and rehabilitation (e.g., letting go of self-condemnation). Overall, these findings supported existing conceptions of self-forgiveness in cases of long-term addiction while offering possible mechanisms that could inform EFT and other evidence-based psychotherapies with clients who are seeking recovery from SUDs.
... Shame is a painful, debilitating emotion characterized by feelings of exposure, inadequacy, inferiority, worthlessness, and powerlessness [1,2]. Evolutionary, the function of shame is to drive the individuals to maintain their social position: physiological responses to shame, such as body shrinkage, blushing, gaze aversion and down-tilt of the head, and facial covering induce empathy and forgiveness in others [3,4]. In fact, shame experience can promote reparative motivation [5]. ...
... For instance, shame is pronounced in individuals with social anxiety disorder, who characteristically detach from social and interpersonal situations [124]. Unlike detachment, antagonism is incongruous with the proposed evolutionary function of shame, which is to recover social status [3,4]. Nonetheless, individuals with narcissistic and antisocial PDs, who are characterized by antagonism, apply defense mechanisms such as aggression or "attack-others" to minimize the experience of shame and maintain self-cohesion [37,117]. ...
Background
General Emotion Dysregulation (GED) is increasingly implicated as an underlying factor in personality pathology; however, the regulation of specific emotions, such as shame, has been relatively overlooked in the literature. We aimed to identify distinct clusters of shame-coping/regulation and compare them regarding attachment insecurities, mentalizing deficits, and personality pathology, controlling for GED.
Methods
A convenience sample of 600 participants (351 females and 249 males) from the general population with ages ranging from 18 to 65 (M = 33.78, SD = 12.80) completed a battery of self-report instruments, measuring shame-coping styles, GED, attachment insecurities, mentalizing deficits, criteria A and B of the alternative model for personality disorders, and borderline personality traits. A two-stage clustering method was employed, with shame-coping styles as the clustering variables. The identified clusters were then compared for their effects on dependent variables using multivariate and univariate analyses. These comparisons were also performed after controlling for GED.
Results
Multiple determination methods suggested a two-cluster solution: maladaptive and adaptive shame-coping. Attack-self, withdrawal, and attack-other styles were the main discriminators. Compared with the adaptive cluster, the maladaptive cluster was characterized by higher use of maladaptive and lower use of adaptive shame-coping styles. Multivariate analyses demonstrated significant differences for all the between-cluster comparisons, with and without GED as the covariate (p < .001).
Conclusions
The current study provides evidence for the presence of homogenous clusters of shame-coping in community-based adults. Between-cluster contrasts after controlling for GED suggest that addressing shame-coping could have incremental utility over and above GED.
... When moral failure is perceived to be a specific self-defect, this can lead to feelings of shame, and subsequently to self-and social improvement. However, if moral failure is perceived as a condemnation by others, this more likely leads to feelings of rejection and self-defense (Cibich et al., 2016;Gausel et al., 2012). Relatedly, Allpress et al. (2014) revealed that highlighting transgressions of an advantaged ingroup can either trigger image shame (based on a concern for the image of the group) or moral shame (based on undermined moral essence of the group). ...
... The positive role of the moral and the negative role of the image appraisal path are in line with the findings that a desire to be perceived positively by an outgroup leads to less constructive outcomes than an ingroup-focused motivation, such as adhering to moral norms (Aquino & Reed, 2002;Gausel & Leach, 2011). It also aligns with research on moral failure, where moral threat and shame were associated with the willingness to apologize for ingroup transgressions, to support reparations, and with more moral engagement (Cibich et al., 2016;Wenzel et al., 2020). Integrating research on privilege interventions with the theoretical approach of research on ingroup transgressions and moral failure therefore proved to be a promising way forward for the field. ...
Interventions that confront men with male privilege can threaten their social identity. Past research on White privilege confrontations has suggested group-image threat is a positive predictor of positive privilege attitudes. However, research on emotional appraisals of ingroup transgressions demonstrates that feelings of shame elicited by the ingroup’s negative image lead to less constructive responses while feelings of shame elicited by the ingroup’s moral failure motivate more positive reactions. To reconcile these different predictions, we examined how relevant dimensions of threat (to the ingroup’s image or to moral values of the group) and subsequent experiences of shame (image shame, moral shame) affect men’s privilege attitudes in response to male privilege confrontations. Across three preregistered experiments (N = 1463 men), we found that male confronters were evaluated more positively, which was explained through lower levels of image concerns towards male confronters. We also found evidence that morality concerns are related to more positive responses. Although the total effects on privilege attitudes were small, our findings highlight the importance for future research and practice to distinguish between the positive effects of moral threat through moral shame and the negative effects of group-image threat through image shame in privilege interventions.
... Empirical findings of the adaptive functions of shame are growing and indicate that shame is a complex emotion with possible positive implications that have been neglected and underexplored. There has been a call for a reevaluation of shame and a greater examination of the dualistic view of shame, in which shame can be viewed as both beneficial and detrimental (Cibich et al., 2016;Leach & Cidam, 2015;Vanderheiden & Mayer, 2017). ...
... In recent years, however, there has been a growing discussion on functional shame, and empirical studies have started to explore the positive effects of shame in examining the conditions under which shame is judged to be good or bad (Cibich et al., 2016;Leach & Cidam, 2015). The mechanism identified suggests that whether shame is good or bad depends on individuals' reactions/responses to it (Dempsey, 2017;Schalkwijk et al., 2016). ...
Shame is conventionally regarded as a negative emotion with maladaptive effects. However, the rich connotations of the word shame suggest an adaptive function too (e.g., in restraining people from engaging in shame-inducing behaviors). This is the first research that examines the enhancing beliefs about sense of shame (i.e., utility of sense of shame) and debilitating beliefs about shame (i.e., consequences of shame), with a tool developed to assess these two beliefs among two independent samples of Chinese undergraduate students (N = 585 and 386). Findings confirmed the two-factor structure of the scale with acceptable internal consistency. Only the enhancing beliefs about sense of shame were positively correlated with adaptive shame coping and reappraisal emotion regulation, whereas only debilitating beliefs about shame were positively correlated with suppression emotion regulation. By exploring lay theories of shame and their potential differential associations with individuals’ resilience in the face of shame, this newly developed scale sheds light on multifaceted aspects of shame-related beliefs and coping.
... It would be a shortcoming to leave this discussion without acknowledging recent commentaries that question the stigmatization of shame as primarily a negative experience. Cibich et al. (2016) recently endeavored to reconcile the polarization of shame research and its frequent portrayal of shame as a "negative emotion associated with problematic outcomes for well-being, an enemy from which we need to be released" which they stated has been popularized, in part, by Brene Brown through her "Listening to Shame" TED talk (p. 471). ...
... Their review of shame literature was conducted to synthesize an integrated view of shame that acknowledges its potentially problematic and functional impact (Cibich et al., 2016). ...
This writing explores shame and its distress. It does so through a historical examination of Western psychological theories of emotion compared to emotions as seen through Buddhist psychology, based upon scholars and authorities within these respective fields. Further, it explores some Western psychotherapeutic approaches used to alleviate (unhealthy) shame compared to Buddhist mindfulness methods for alleviating aversive emotions and their efficacy, alone or in combination. The question examined is whether mindfulness grounded in Buddhist psychology and teachings, when applied within Western therapeutic settings and populations, is an effective and appropriate means to help alleviate aversive states of shame. To identify therapeutic approaches utilizing mindfulness-based or other approaches to alleviate shame and psychological distress, database searches (primarily PubMed and PsycInfo with some auxiliary searches of Google Scholar) were conducted of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy, Compassion Focused Therapy, and Shame Resilience Theory to locate systematic reviews or meta-analytic research studies of their therapeutic effectiveness, primarily on psychological disorders, published from 2010-2020. After an overview of study outcomes, a discussion follows of their respective benefit (or harm) as well as opportunities for greater integration or further exploration of the application of mindfulness meditative techniques to shame or other aversive emotions.
... Prior research has highlighted the role of self-conscious affective states in the 3 aftermath of shortcomings (Baumeister, Stillwell, & Heatherton, 1994). For example, whereas 4 excessive shame may lead to self-punishment, insufficient shame likely results in self-5 exoneration (Cibich et al., 2016). Taken together, reorienting toward positive values and 6 restoring one's sense of personal esteem following perceived wrongdoing or failure seem to 7 occur on a spectrum, with maladaptive responses occurring when one or both aspects are at the 8 lower extreme, and the adaptive response of self-forgiveness occurring when higher levels of 9 both value reorientation and esteem restoration are present. ...
... forgiveness. This evidence supports a minority position that variants of shame might be either 9 adaptive or maladaptive (Leach & Cidam, 2015); whereas a global sense of inferiority may 10 contribute to avoidance-oriented behavior, negative emotion directed toward specific and 11 modifiable aspects of the self is likely to promote personal growth (Cibich et al., 2016). narcissism along several spectra that provides more information into the total cluster of traits 18 than simplistic dichotomies between grandiose and vulnerable narcissism. ...
In two studies (N’s = 515 and 359), we examine the utility of the Dual-Process Model of Self-Forgiveness for conceptualizing and measuring trait self-forgiveness with South African and American adults. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of the trait-adapted Dual-Process Self-Forgiveness Scale supported an eight-item, two-factor structure of self-forgivingness consistent with prior theorizing and empirical evidence. The trait-adapted measure predicted incrementally more variance in outcomes beyond an existing measure of trait self-forgiveness. Latent subgroups characterized by tendencies to forgive, punish, and exonerate oneself in response to wrongdoing or failure were identified. Comparisons of mean differences provided preliminary evidence supporting the validity of the subgroups. Implications of the findings for conceptualizing and measuring self-forgiveness are discussed.
... Many scholars have documented that the emotion shame signals lower social status or rank, submissiveness, and the respect for (or at least the awareness of) social norms and external evaluations (Cibich et al., 2016;Deonna et al., 2012;Dickerson et al., 2004;Durkee et al., 2019;Gilbert & McGuire, 1998;Keltner, 1995Keltner, , 1996Keltner & Harker, 1998;Lundberg et al., 2009;Martens et al., 2012;Piff et al., 2012;Scheff et al., 1988;Tangney et 1996). The appeasement displays that are often involved in the nonverbal expressions of shame (and embarrassment, the related emotion) communicate the displayer's submissiveness or motivation to reconcile, especially after (having committed) a social or cultural transgression (Castelfranchi & Poggi, 1990;Clark, 1990;De Waal, 1988;De Waal & Aureli, 1997;Keltner, 1995;Keltner & Harker, 1998;Keltner & Potegal, 1997;Miceli & Castelfranchi, 2018). ...
The current empirical investigation examined how the target's socioeconomic background (income and class categories) can predict—and furthermore bias—perceptions of shame and pride. Across six different samples (total N = 1,910) collected through different study designs and methods (Studies 1-3B: between-person; Studies 4A-4B: within-person), we observed robust evidence suggesting that people perceive more shame and less pride in targets of lower (vs. higher) socioeconomic backgrounds. In Study 1, participants perceived stronger shame from the same target's same (prototypical) facial expression of shame when informed that the target belongs to a low-income (vs. high-income) group. In Studies 2, 3A, and 3B, participants perceived more shame and less pride from the neutral facial expressions of a low-income (vs. high-income) group of actual pedestrians. Study 2 examined this in the context of a bank crime, and Studies 3A and 3B in the context of hiring preferences. Further analyses suggested that biased inferences of competence (i.e., expecting low-income targets to be less competent, even when devoid of such objective information or evidence) can in part explain such observed biases (3A-3B), and that the meritocracy beliefs of the observers can either worsen or mitigate the effects on hiring inequality (3B). And in Studies 4A and 4B, both U.S. and S. Korean participants expected lower-class (vs. upper-class) individuals to experience more frequent shame and less frequent pride in their everyday lives.
... Emotions impact individuals' behaviors (Baumeister et al., 2007); the differing emotional experiences may result in distinct outcomes, ultimately influencing their capacity for self-forgiveness. Some may argue that shame proneness may lead to more avoidance than a guilt proneness (however, this is debatable, with more recent research suggesting both emotions can lead to approach/repair, although this needs further research in more diverse contexts; see Cibich et al., 2016;Leach & Cidam, 2015). Furthermore, emotion regulation is also highly dependent on culture (Ho & Fung, 2011). ...
Psychological research has made considerable inroads in studying self-forgiveness, as a process of restoration of a moral and positive self following transgression or failure. However, prior research has predominantly focused on Western contexts; or, where cultural influences were considered, it has relied on a dualist individualism–collectivism framework that maintained a Western perspective as comparison baseline. The present study explores self-forgiveness from within the Chinese cultural context, to deepen insights into how Chinese people understand, apply, and (if relevant) achieve self-forgiveness. Employing a qualitative methodology with 51 Chinese nationals, we identified four overarching themes representing Chinese conceptions and experiences of self-forgiveness: (a) be strict with self, (b) be benevolent to self, (c) be responsible to self, and (d) be harmonious with others. We interpreted the theme of “be harmonious with others” as central and connected to the other themes, while these themes also demonstrate the heterogeneity of human experience within culture. This research advances a nuanced understanding of the phenomenon of self-forgiveness in the Chinese context, providing potential language and concepts for counsellors and mental health professionals working with individuals of Chinese cultural backgrounds who have experienced failure or committed wrongs.
... ARjats.cls September 16, 2024 12:38 individuals may instead try to reduce their guilt and shame by downplaying the harm done, deflecting responsibility, avoiding, and morally disengaging from the incident (see also Cibich et al. 2016). For example, Graton et al. (2016) found that incidental guilt had positive effects on proenvironmental attitudes when combined with a message that framed waste separation as a tangible method of repair of environmental hazards. ...
Social norms have long been considered across the social and behavioral sciences for their effects on human behavior. This review focuses on norms that explicitly or implicitly convey socially shared views about what people should or should not do. Such injunctive norms can be powerful influences on behavior through internalization or through formal or informal enforcement. They can underpin interventions to shape people's behavior through conformity but can also be drawn upon by individuals to question social practices. However, norms also have pitfalls and may fail to affect behavior as intended: They can pose a threat to the individual's self (autonomy, morality, values), compromise motives and social meanings (intrinsic motivation, trust, sincerity), or be egocentrically reconstrued (through biased perceptions and selective social/temporal referents). Depending on one's stance on an issue, such pitfalls may also be turned into powers to inoculate against undesirable norms or to advance social change.
... ARjats.cls September 16, 2024 12:38 individuals may instead try to reduce their guilt and shame by downplaying the harm done, deflecting responsibility, avoiding, and morally disengaging from the incident (see also Cibich et al. 2016). For example, Graton et al. (2016) found that incidental guilt had positive effects on proenvironmental attitudes when combined with a message that framed waste separation as a tangible method of repair of environmental hazards. ...
... The relation between shame and other (nonsocial) anxiety symptoms is at first sight more difficult to explain, although it can be noted that this self-conscious emotion is associated with a sense of inadequacy and weakness that might undermine one's self-efficacy when confronted with stressful and threatening situations, thereby paving the way for feelings of fear and anxiety (Rüsch et al., 2007). Alternatively, at behavioural level, shame is associated with a tendency to vanish and escape, which of course shows strong resemblance with avoidance, one of the key mechanisms operating in the maintenance of fear and anxiety pathology (Cibich, Woodyatt, & Wenzel, 2016;Muris et al., 2018). ...
... The importance of shame in this context is further underscored by international research which identifies shame as a ubiquitous psychosocial consequence of poverty across diverse cultures . This is significant as shame can be detrimental to health, particularly when individuals are unable to directly address the source of shame and repair their social identity (Cibich et al., 2016). ...
Poverty is associated with higher rates of mental illness and lower levels of well-being. Poverty affects mental health and well-being through a range of mechanisms, one of which may be experiences of stigma associated with living in poverty or accessing services designed to assist individuals on low incomes (including social security). The aim of this study was to synthesise published research on the relationship between individuals' experiences of poverty stigma and aspects of mental health and well-being. A rapid review was undertaken of quantitative and qualitative research published between January 2005 and February 2021. In total, 22 (5 quantitative and 17 qualitative or mixed methods) studies met the inclusion criteria, the findings of which were extracted and analysed using thematic synthesis. Experiences of poverty stigma were found to be associated with four broad aspects of mental health and well-being: negative self-evaluations, diminished social well-being, negative affect, and mental ill-health. Several forms of poverty stigma, including self, received, perceived, anticipated, and endorsed stigma were implicated in these associations. Poverty stigma may contribute to inequalities in mental illness and well-being, although further quantitative and longitudinal research is required to test its impact on mental health.
... Approach behaviors toward other people can mend this threat to social bonds and alleviate the feelings of shame (De Hooge et al., 2010). However, the difficulty of shame repair through approach behaviors may be exacerbated by stigma (Cibich et al., 2016) and cultural expectations concerning what one should keep within the family (Lindeman et al., 2022). Thus, withdrawing from others is one way people can cope with stigma and feelings of shame, and try to protect the self from further social harm (De Hooge et al., 2010). ...
People bereaved by traumatic deaths are vulnerable to long-lasting impairments in social health, including the quality of social relationships and the capacity to manage their social lives. In this Norwegian study involving 255 participants bereaved by a drug-related death, we aimed to investigate their social health and associations with professional help. The results of a cross-sectional survey showed that participants on average rated their social health as poor, though with large variations within the group. Participants who reported high satisfaction with professional help reported significantly higher scores on most social health-related variables. More research is needed on professional help focusing on the social health of traumatically bereaved people.
... While aversive self-conscious emotions, such as guilt (or shame), have also been associated with prosocial action, these emotions-particularly in intergroup contexts-can also elicit defensiveness, avoidance, or emotion-focussed coping (Gausel et al., 2012). Avoidance is particularly likely when the cause of the guilt or shame-and its time referent in recent or distant wrong-doing-is perceived to be difficult or impossible to repair (Cibich et al., 2016;Leach & Cidam, 2015;Leach, 2017). The stable disadvantage experienced by people in developing countries may lead to the increased perception of the issue being irreparable, such that people who report feeling guilty about that state of affairs may be less likely to sustain action to tackle global poverty (manifesting in a negative slope). ...
Social change occurs over years and decades, yet we know little about how people sustain, increase or diminish their actions over time, and why they do so. This article examines diverging trajectories of solidarity-based collective action to support people in developing nations more than 5 years. We suggest that sustained, diminished, and/or increased action over time will be predicted by identification as a supporter, group efficacy beliefs, and discrete emotions about disadvantage. Latent Growth Mixture Models ( N = 483) revealed two trajectories with unique signatures: an activist supporter trajectory with a higher intercept and weakly declining action; and a benevolent supporter trajectory with a lower intercept but weakly increasing action. The activist trajectory was predicted by social identification, outrage, and hope, whereas the benevolent supporter trajectory was predicted by sympathy. The results highlight the role of combinations of emotions and the need for person-centered longitudinal methods in collective action research.
... Based on these theoretical assumptions, further research to explore the cognitive and physiological mechanisms between shame and anxiety is recommended to attain a broader framework. For instance, experiential avoidance that has been found as a significant mediator between shameful parenting experience and depressive symptoms (Carvalho et al., 2015) may account for anxiety as well, since the desire to escape accompanied with shame shows resemblance with avoidance behavior in anxiety disorders (Cibich et al., 2016). This further knowledge may improve the prevention and intervention programs for anxiety originated from shameprovoking parenting experiences. ...
Although the role of parenting on offspring’s anxiety has burgeoned attention in the literature, a limited number of researches have taken into consideration maternal and paternal influence separately. Besides, the need for knowledge about the mechanisms involved in the continuity of this relationship remains. Therefore, the present study aimed to explore the relationship between perceived parenting practices and trait anxiety during adulthood through difficulty in emotion regulation (ER), shame, and anger. The study was carried out with a community sample comprised of 544 adults (408 females and 136 males) aged between 18 and 50 (M = 26.52, SD = 7.30). Data was collected through the online administration of self-report measures including Short EMBU-Own Memories of Upbringing, Test of Self-Conscious Affect-3, Trait Anger Scale, Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory-Trait Form. The results of the hierarchical regression analysis revealed that only paternal rejection and maternal overprotection were the predictors of adult anxiety. In addition, difficulty in ER, shame, and anger all had significant mediator roles in these associations. Current findings highlight the different maternal and paternal parenting that might play a role in the origin of offspring’s anxiety and provide an emotional model that might explain the endurance of this impact during adulthood.
... Behavior. For individuals having committed a wrongdoing, their guilt or shame might appear beyond repair and can generate avoidance responses to these emotions (Cibich, Woodyatt, & Wenzel, 2016). Thought-suppression or avoidance to emotional distress is a factor known to further strengthen re-experiencing of negative events (Wenzlaff & Wegner, 2000). ...
Self-forgiveness is a complex process, linked to core aspects of what it means to be human. Psychological needs underpin our emotional experience following perceived transgressions, and, if unaddressed, can give rise to self-condemnation. While research on self-forgiveness continues to evolve, understanding the differences between those who struggle with self-condemnation is still an important avenue for ongoing research and clinical efforts.
... On the one hand, scholars have suggested beliefs about a strict or punishing deity who is overseeing one's life might promote in-group cooperation and prosociality (e.g., Roes & Raymond, 2003). Furthermore, there is increasing recognition that painful selfconscious emotions (e.g., shame) can often prompt behavior change, repentance, and/or amends-making with loved ones after moral wrongdoing (e.g., Cibich et al., 2016). However, when compared with authoritarian beliefs about God, findings indicate benevolent God representations serve as a more reliable motivating factor of prosocial behavior (Johnson et al., 2016) and are more common among Christians who might seek SIPs in their local communities (Johnson et al., 2015;Zahl & Gibson, 2012). ...
Objective
This practice‐based evidence study examined trajectories of God representations and psychological distress among Christians participating in spiritually integrated psychotherapies (SIPs).
Methods
In total, 17 clinicians practicing SIPs in a mid‐sized city on the US Gulf Coast implemented session‐to‐session assessments of these outcomes with 158 clients over a 4‐month period and also reported their use of specific spiritual interventions after each session (e.g., affirmed client's divine worth).
Results
Multivariate growth modeling revealed clients' psychological distress decreased over the study period whereas authoritarian God representations increased and benevolent God representations remained stable. In addition, clients who increased in benevolent representations of God had a greater likelihood of experiencing alleviation of psychological distress.
Conclusion
These findings affirm the potential efficacy of SIPs and cultural importance of belief in a benevolent deity as a source of strength, identity, and potential healing among Christians clients who prefer a spiritually integrated approach in psychotherapy.
... A tendency to conflate the affective core of shame proneness with behavioral avoidance may explain the lack of support for any adaptive function of shame (see Cibich, Woodyatt, & Wenzel, 2016;Cohen, Wolf, Panter, & Insko, 2011;Luyten, Fontaine, & Corveleyn, 2002; Tignor, & Colvin, 2019 for similar arguments). Equating the affective experience of shame with behavioral avoidance leads to a circular process; shame is assumed to be maladaptive and then the construction of the scale makes it so (Cibich et al., 2016, pg. ...
... Shame occurs when individuals engage in reputation-damaging behaviors or those that have a heavy cost to society (Cibich et al. 2016). In the current context, a positive COVID status can be shame-inducing due to the stigma associated with being contagious, as well as the costs it has to society (i.e., potential of infecting others). ...
The COVID-19 crisis has created a "mental health pandemic" throughout the world. Scientific data are not available to fully understand the nature of the resulting mental health impact given the very recent onset of the pandemic, nevertheless, there is a need to act immediately to develop psychotherapeutic strategies that may alleviate pandemic-related distress. The psychological distress, in particular fear and sadness, is a function of the pandemic's negative impact upon people's ability to meet their most basic needs (e.g., physical safety, financial security, social connection, participation in meaningful activities). This paper presents evidence-based cognitive behavioral strategies that should prove useful in reducing the emotional suffering associated with the COVID crisis.
... Shame occurs when individuals engage in reputation-damaging behaviors or those that have a heavy cost to society (Cibich et al. 2016). In the current context, a positive COVID status can be shame-inducing due to the stigma associated with being contagious, as well as the costs it has to society (i.e., potential of infecting others). ...
The COVID-19 crisis has created a “mental health pandemic” throughout the world. Scientific data are not available to fully understand the nature of the resulting mental health impact given the very recent onset of the pandemic, nevertheless, there is a need to act immediately to develop psychotherapeutic strategies that may alleviate pandemic-related distress. The psychological distress, in particular fear and sadness, is a function of the pandemic’s negative impact upon people’s ability to meet their most basic needs (e.g., physical safety, financial security, social connection, participation in meaningful activities). This paper presents evidence-based cognitive behavioral strategies that should prove useful in reducing the emotional suffering associated with the COVID crisis.
... Unacknowledged shame can lead to shame displacement as the individual externalises the blame and directs their anger towards others. Finally, Cibich, Woodyatt and Wenzel (2016) identify key responses that assist in turning problematic shame into functional shame. These include acknowledging one's shame, being compassionate and accepting others' responses, perceiving the self as malleable or capable of change and responding with self-compassion to one's own failings. ...
This thesis explores crime and forgiveness from the perspectives of victims and perpetrators.
While extensive research exists on the traumatic or harmful effects of crime for victims
(Davis & Friedman, 1985; Frieze, Hymer, & Greenberg, 1987; Janoff-Bulman, 1989; Orth,
Montada, & Maercker, 2006) far less research exists on the effect that criminal wrongdoing
has on the perpetrator (Collins & Bailey, 1990; MacNair 2002a). The literature likewise holds
little in the way of explicating how victims and offenders may be able mitigate such effects.
One factor that appears to make a difference in this respect is forgiveness. Yet while
forgiveness has received more attention in the religious and psychological literatures, there
is much less known about its impacts in relationship to the effects of crime.
In this study I seek to gain a richer and more nuanced understanding of the effects of crime
and forgiveness in the lives of victims and offenders. As the focus of this study is the
understanding of forgiveness from the perspectives of victims and offenders, as well as an
examination of how they view forgiveness as affecting their lives, I utilized an interpretive
phenomenological approach. Interpretive phenomenology provides a methodological
framework from which to explore detailed and intimate understandings of people’s lives as
they seek to make sense of and live in their social worlds (Reiners, 2012; van Manen, 1990);
in this case for victims and perpetrators of crime. Towards this goal, in this study I employed
semi-structured, in-depth interviews, conducted with a purposeful sample of 12 victims and
19 offenders ranging in age from 19 to 70. Following these interviews, I utilized an iterative
process of data analysis, involving multiple readings of the interview transcripts and three
divisions of coding which facilitated the identification of emergent and master themes within
each case and superordinate themes which occurred across cases.
In this study, I find that victims and offenders are decidedly affected by the harms they
received and/or perpetrated, and that many credit forgiveness with restoring their
psychological and emotional well-being as it released them from the distressing aftereffects
of the crime they experienced. In my analysis of 31 interviews with victims and offenders, I
developed seven themes used to explain the offence-related effects experienced by
participants from their perspectives. Victims reported suffering ‘traumatic effects’ in the
form of mental, behavioural, and somatic outcomes. Crime victimisation also created ‘threats
iii
to identity and self’ for many victims. In the aftermath of the crime victims often explained
their ‘lost faith in a just world’ or having ‘unmet justice needs’. Offenders reported
experiencing ‘challenged lives’ in the form of mental, emotional and future effects due to
their criminal behaviour. They also explained significant impression management strategies
as a way to ‘save face’ as they engaged in what I call ‘blame talk’ as a means to either accept
or reject blame. In the second part of my focus, namely the effects of forgiveness on victims
and offenders, I analysed the interviews to develop several themes related to how participants
explained their understanding of forgiveness, or how they understood it to have affected their
lives. Victims’ conceptualised forgiveness in terms of both ‘victim-focused’ and ‘offenderfocused benefits’. Victims also perceived forgiveness in terms of its restorative and
transformative ‘functions’ in their lives. Offenders viewed forgiveness in terms of ‘giving’
and ‘receiving’ it as a part of the way they made sense of what it felt like or meant to them
to be the forgiver and the role they played with respect to receiving forgiveness. Most
offenders believed forgiveness assisted them in ‘moving forward’ with their lives. Of
particular salience for offenders was ‘self-forgiveness’ and forgiveness they receive from
loved ones.
This study makes contributions to both theoretical and applied knowledge regarding the
complex needs of victims and offenders in terms of how they make sense of their experiences
in the aftermath of crime. Theoretically, the findings of the study suggest that forgiveness
may be an effective means for mitigating the offence-related effects experienced by both
victims and offenders. In terms of applied knowledge, a keener understanding of the
viewpoints of victims and offenders has practical applications as it may assist those such as
clinicians, service providers, and criminal justice professionals involved in the treatment or
custodial care of both victims and offenders in the creation and implementation of treatment
programs and protocols that would better address the complex needs of those who have
experienced deleterious effects as a consequence of the harms they received and/or
perpetrated.
... have a heavy cost to society (Cibich et al., 2016). In the current context, a positive COVID status can be shame-inducing due to the stigma associated with being contagious, as well as the costs it has to society (i.e., potential of infecting others). ...
The COVID-19 crisis has created a “mental health pandemic” throughout the world (Marques et al. 2020; Strakowski et al. 2020) as a result of its impact upon people’s day-to-day functioning. A recent survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 56 percent of people reported that the worry or stress tied to COVID had a negative effect on their emotional well-being (Panchal et al. 2020), and as the duration of the pandemic increases, it is likely to lead to even more psychological distress.
Scientific data are not available to fully understand the nature of the resulting mental health impact given the recent onset of the pandemic, but there is a need to act immediately in order to develop strategies that may alleviate psychological distress. During the past two months we have identified the nature of pandemic-related distress by using our clinical observation skills to identify triggers and resultant psychological problems we were seeing in our patients, family, friends— and our own lives. Once we created this list we developed a self-help guide composed of strategies that allow those affected to manage their negative emotional states. The self-help guide is quite thorough and can be used in conjunction with the current paper in order to maximize the effectiveness of mental health professionals ability to reduce pandemic-related distress. Nearly all of the therapeutic techniques that we included were adopted from evidence-based cognitive behavioral treatments. We expect that these strategies will prove useful for those suffering the emotional challenges associated with the COVID crisis.
This paper also a discussion of a preliminary, scaleable consultation-oriented intervention that we developed (cf: Limowski et al. 2020) and are in the process of field-testing to determine if it is in fact feasible and effective in reducing pandemic-related psychological distress. Finally, we discuss the possibility of posttraumatic growth as a potential positive outcome that occurs when individuals are faced with negative circumstances.
... Shame occurs when individuals engage in reputation-damaging behaviors or those that have a heavy cost to society (Cibich et al. 2016). In the current context, a positive COVID status can be shame-inducing due to the stigma associated with being contagious, as well as the costs it has to society (i.e., potential of infecting others). ...
As a result of this pandemic, we are all serving in an enormous social experiment thatwill allow researchers to determine the impact of chronic fear, countless losses, social isolation, andsignificant disruption of people’s day to day lives.We are concerned that if this is left unattended, themental health impact of these factors may be disastrous. The good news is that we have effectivestrategies to help individuals manage negative emotional states.All of the strategies that we are outlining in this document are taken from evidence-based psychologicaltreatments for individuals with anxiety disorders and depression. Thus, there is no reason to expect thatthese strategies cannot be equally useful for those suffering from similar emotional states secondary tothe challenges associated with the COVID crisis.Typically, when we produce a paper in academics, we spend months planning, writing, and reviewing itbefore making it available to others.Given the current rapidly evolving crisis we do not have time forthat.As a result, we are doing something highly unusual - releasing a work in progress that is likely todevelop over the next several months as we learn more about the impact of the COVID crisis on mentalhealth. The first version, released last week on 4/6/20, was produced in two days.The second versionwas produced in nine days. We know it is not perfect, but still believe it can be useful and thus is worthreleasing before it meets our standard -- but is too late.Please note that the second version has been substantially improved.Most of the areas covered in thefirst version have been edited, many new areas have been added (these are noted in the table ofcontents).And perhaps equally important, the document and website have
... The relation between shame and other (nonsocial) anxiety symptoms is at first sight more difficult to explain, although it can be noted that this self-conscious emotion is associated with a sense of inadequacy and weakness that might undermine one's self-efficacy when confronted with stressful and threatening situations, thereby paving the way for feelings of fear and anxiety (Rüsch et al., 2007). Alternatively, at behavioural level, shame is associated with a tendency to vanish and escape, which of course shows strong resemblance with avoidance, one of the key mechanisms operating in the maintenance of fear and anxiety pathology (Cibich, Woodyatt, & Wenzel, 2016;Muris et al., 2018). ...
Purpose:
To broadly assess changes in key health behaviors (physical activity, fruit and vegetable consumption, smoking, and alcohol consumption) and one outcome (body mass index) between 2001-2006 and 2011-2016.
Design:
Repeated cross-sectional study.
Setting:
The United States of America.
Participants:
Noninstitutionalized adults age 24 to 39 participating in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
Analysis:
We used 2-sample t tests and χ2 tests to compare differences in health behaviors between the 2 time periods.
Results:
Data revealed a downward trend in both moderate and vigorous physical activity (P = .00), and fruit and vegetable consumption decreased (P = .003). Cigarette smoking decreased (P = .04), and there was no substantive change in heavy drinking between the 2 time periods. Body mass index was higher in the later time period (P = .00).
Conclusion:
Despite sustained funding efforts, we found little evidence that health behaviors improved between the 2 time periods. Indeed, many health behaviors have remained the same or worsened over time. These findings suggest the need to reflect on the appropriateness of the health promotion approaches being used.
... We suggest that emotions such as disappointment, sadness, remorse, judgement, resentment, guilt, and shame may be experienced with variation in emotional intensity, which may adversely impact the student. For example, the experience of disappointment may be temporary (e.g., I am disappointed that I did not do well on an exam), whereas the experience of shame (e.g., I am a bad person for what I did) has been shown to be problematic because it reinforces more serious forms of ongoing mental health challenges (e.g., depression; Cibich, Woodyatt, & Wenzel, 2016). Examining the range of possible emotional experiences associated with intrapersonal transgressions and the adverse consequences of such transgressions may help us understand the relationship between self-forgiveness and mental health outcomes (Gençoğlu et al., 2018;Thompson et al., 2005). ...
The self-forgiveness process may be considered emotionally taxing among college students. The current study explored college students’ past intrapersonal transgressions (n = 88) through two outcomes (able or unable to forgive oneself). Using NVivo 11 Pro software, thematic analyses revealed the most common situational circumstances and internal emotional determinants that were
embedded in these contexts. Findings highlight the need to revise the existing self-forgiveness model to include experiences related to intrapersonal transgressions. Clinical implications include relevant intervention strategies to engage in the self-forgiveness process of an intrapersonal transgression among emerging adults. Directions for theory development are discussed.
... The relation between shame and other (nonsocial) anxiety symptoms is at first sight more difficult to explain, although it can be noted that this self-conscious emotion is associated with a sense of inadequacy and weakness that might undermine one's self-efficacy when confronted with stressful and threatening situations, thereby paving the way for feelings of fear and anxiety (Rüsch et al., 2007). Alternatively, at behavioural level, shame is associated with a tendency to vanish and escape, which of course shows strong resemblance with avoidance, one of the key mechanisms operating in the maintenance of fear and anxiety pathology (Cibich, Woodyatt, & Wenzel, 2016;Muris et al., 2018). ...
Salutogenesis is the study of what keeps people healthy and how to develop health. It is a theory introduced by the medical sociologist, Aaron Antonovsky, in the late 1970s. Contemporary salutogenesis is an internationally well-researched theory. It was previously placed in a positive psychology framework (PP1.0) as a theory. In this article, the authors discuss how salutogenesis and the second wave of positive psychology (PP2.0) can contribute to developing the mental health and well-being of individuals in the counselling context. They focus on the emotions of shame, guilt and anxiety and their impact on counselling. The article further presents a conceptual approach to deal with shame, guilt and anxiety from a salutogenic and PP2.0 perspective to transform emotions that are experienced negatively into positive experiences. This salutogenic transformation can contribute to the growth, mental health and well-being of individuals. One case example from counselling practice is given. The article closes with conclusions and theoretical and practical recommendations for counselling.
EXTENDED ABSTRACT
The Sociology of Shame: From Tradition to Digital Age Social Control by Nuriye Çelik and Nadir Ateşoğlu examines the multifaceted role of shame as a potent tool for social control, tracing its evolution from traditional societal structures to the digital landscape of the 21st century. The authors explore how shame, historically rooted in maintaining social order and enforcing cultural norms, has been adapted and intensified through digital technologies. The work provides a critical framework for understanding the sociological, psychological, and political dimensions of shame in both past and present contexts.
Understanding Traditional Shame as Social Control
The first section, titled "The Custodian of Social Norms: Shame and Mechanisms of Control", offers a thorough exploration of shame's sociological underpinnings and its historical applications as a means of governing behavior. The authors engage with classical and contemporary sociological theories, particularly Michel Foucault’s concept of power and surveillance, to highlight how shame has been wielded by authorities to maintain societal order. Through detailed case studies, such as the persecution of “witches” in medieval Europe, the Cultural Revolution in Maoist China, Japan’s ingrained honor culture, and the enforcement of strict moral codes in contemporary Iran, the book illustrates the pervasive and adaptive nature of shame as a regulatory force.
These historical accounts serve to illuminate the coercive power of shame, demonstrating its ability to enforce compliance and marginalize dissenting voices. The authors question the ethical legitimacy of using shame as a moral guide, suggesting that while it fosters social conformity, it often suppresses individuality and perpetuates existing power hierarchies. This section also critiques the cultural and psychological effects of shame, probing its role in shaping individual identity and community dynamics. The analysis situates shame as a dual-edged phenomenon—capable of promoting ethical behavior but also serving as a weapon for social exclusion and oppression.
The Digital Transformation of Shame
The second section, "Digital Shaming in the Social Media Age: Mechanisms of Social Control", shifts focus to contemporary society, where digital platforms have redefined and magnified the impact of shame. The authors delve into how social media has become a breeding ground for public shaming, turning everyday individuals into global targets. This section draws on theories of media sociology and digital culture to examine the mechanisms through which digital shaming is propagated, such as viral outrage, meme culture, and the amplification of scandals. The concept of “cancel culture” is analyzed as a modern iteration of collective shaming, where public accountability can quickly devolve into punitive social control.
The book discusses the paradoxical nature of digital shaming: on one hand, it democratizes the ability to hold powerful individuals and institutions accountable; on the other, it fosters a culture of fear and conformity, where reputational damage can be immediate and irreparable. By examining instances of high-profile shaming events and their societal consequences, the authors reveal how digital shaming both challenges and reinforces dominant ideologies. The discussion includes an analysis of how marginalized groups can leverage digital platforms to combat systemic injustices, while also critiquing the potential for these same tools to perpetuate surveillance and regulate behavior in insidious ways.
Critical Reflections and Future Directions
The Sociology of Shame not only analyzes the evolution of shame but also engages critically with its implications for democratic society, individual freedom, and psychological well-being. The authors highlight the urgent need for a balanced approach to digital regulation that safeguards free expression while protecting individuals from the harms of public shaming. They advocate for educational initiatives that promote digital literacy and resilience, emphasizing the importance of equipping individuals with the skills to critically engage with media and resist coercive forms of social control.
The book invites further academic exploration in several key areas. One suggested avenue for future research is the psychological impact of digital shaming, particularly on vulnerable populations. Understanding the long-term effects on self-esteem, mental health, and social integration is crucial for developing effective interventions. Additionally, the authors call for interdisciplinary studies that bring together insights from sociology, psychology, media studies, and digital ethics to address the complexities of shame in the digital age.
Another significant area for exploration is the role of shame in contemporary political processes. The authors discuss how governments and political actors exploit digital platforms to enforce ideological conformity and suppress dissent. The increasing use of data-driven surveillance and algorithmic governance in shaping public opinion underscores the need for critical analysis of digital shaming practices as instruments of state and corporate power.
Conclusion
The Sociology of Shame makes a significant contribution to understanding how traditional and modern mechanisms of social control are intertwined through the enduring power of shame. By linking historical practices to contemporary digital phenomena, the authors provide a comprehensive framework for analyzing how power operates in both overt and subtle ways. The book serves as a vital resource for scholars in sociology, media studies, and political theory, as well as policymakers and practitioners interested in the ethical implications of digital communication. As societies navigate the complexities of the digital age, developing a nuanced understanding of shame and its consequences will be essential for fostering a more just and equitable social order.
The purpose of this study was to examine the explanatory power of a predictive model of psychological well-being, consisting of mindfulness, private self-consciousness with its two dimensions, self-reflection and insight, emotional regulation, psychological inflexibility and external shame. Also, it was the author’s intention to explore the mediating effect of insight on the relationship between emotional regulation and psychological well-being. The current research involved a nonexperimental, cross-sectional design exploring the presence of psychological well-being at clinical personality patterns. The quantitative methodology was used to collect and analyse the data obtained from all the respondents. Researchers adapted and pretested the questionnaire set (PWB, MAAS, AAQ-II, OAS-II, ERQ, SRIS) to the Romanian context before distributing it to 268 participants. SPSS (V. 20) and Hayes’s PROCESS tool were used to investigate the data. The research findings illustrated that the effectiveness of predictors varies depending on clinical personality patterns. Among participants without clinical personality pattern scores, psychological inflexibility, emotional regulation, and self-reflection emerged as significant psychological factors predicting psychological well-being. For those identified with a histrionic clinical personality pattern, emotional regulation and psychological inflexibility constituted the most robust explanatory model for psychological well-being. Similarly, for individuals exhibiting depressive clinical personality patterns, only emotional regulation and psychological inflexibility played pivotal roles in predicting psychological well-being. Furthermore, the study highlighted a significant indirect effect of emotional regulation on psychological well-being through insight. Elevated emotional regulation levels indirectly contribute to higher psychological well-being by enhancing insight, thus promoting overall psychological well-being.
Purpose
Evaluating and exploiting an opportunity is an iterative process, and one of the triggers for the re-evaluation is the feedback received from stakeholders. Most of the time, the feedback comes in the form of harsh comments, criticisms and rejections, which can cause shame. There is also a lack of studies on the impact of shame on the decision-making ability of the entrepreneur, which is addressed through this study.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses an experimental design, which is considered the “gold standard” in establishing causality. By manipulating the emotions of 107 entrepreneurs and making them assess a hypothetical opportunity, the study finds conclusive evidence for the proposed hypotheses.
Findings
Using the appraisal tendency framework, the authors show that shame makes an entrepreneur assess an opportunity as lower in desirability and feasibility. Shame also makes an entrepreneur give more significant weight to feasibility (over desirability) when deciding on entrepreneurial action.
Originality/value
The study provides strong empirical evidence that shame is an important emotion and influences the decision-making ability of the entrepreneur. The study reveals that important stakeholders assessing entrepreneurs need to be careful about how they provide feedback. Since the emotion it can elicit has a bearing on the subsequent decisions made by the entrepreneur.
Shame is a common experience for individuals living with chronic diseases related to lifestyle, such as obesity and diabetes. It is often characterized by feelings of stigma and worthlessness, leading many patients to feel judged and unworthy of respect, which can profoundly affect health outcomes and overall quality of life. Despite the severe consequences of shame, therapeutic approaches to address it remain underexplored. This paper highlights the role of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Compassion Focused Therapy as effective strategies to mitigate shame, cultivate self-compassion, and, therefore, enhance health outcomes for individuals with chronic lifestyle-related conditions. These therapies have demonstrated positive effects on treatment adherence and self-management among patients with chronic diseases. Therefore, healthcare providers can improve patients’ overall well-being by adopting strategies from these therapies, such as using compassionate language that emphasizes empathy, non-judgmental support, and validation, all of which help reduce shame and stigma.
El proceso del perdón a uno mismo se dificulta cuando nuestra conducta ha dañado a otro de forma muy intensa e injusta y es disonante con nuestros valores o principios. Esta experiencia amenaza la propia identidad y pone en marcha mecanismos de autoprotección para conservar un autoconcepto aceptable. Desde un enfoque individual y recogiendo las aportaciones de la psicología del perdón, el artículo ofrece claves para comprender el proceso de perdón a uno mismo en el victimario de abuso sexual infantil (ASI): revisa brevemente el alcance del daño infligido, para comprender la dificultad de la tarea y las defensas y resistencias presentes durante el proceso, presenta en detalle dos mecanismos de protección con frecuencia presentes en los victimarios ASI y termina identificando los pasos del proceso de perdón a uno mismo que permitirían al victimario reconstruir una identidad aceptable desde el pleno reconocimiento de la ofensa y su responsabilidad.
Shame is an intense, difficult to regulate, self-conscious emotion that predicts aspects of poor psychological functioning and is also strongly related to early relationships. Attachment insecurities, which constitute non-specific risk factors for psychological maladjustment, have been associated with an individual’s tendency to experience shame. In this study, we sought to examine the serial mediating roles of dispositional shame and shame-coping styles (i.e., attack other, attack self, withdrawal and avoidance) in the association between anxious and avoidant attachment, and psychological distress. Using a cross-sectional design, self-reported data were collected. The study sample included 978 respondents (57% female) with a mean age of 32.17 ± 13.48 years. The results of the path analysis indicated that both attachment dimensions were sequentially associated with dispositional shame and then with the attack self shame-coping style, which was, in turn, positively related to psychological distress. Further, attachment insecurities were sequentially associated with dispositional shame and then with the avoidance shame-coping style, which was, in turn, negatively related to psychological distress. The model was gender invariant, suggesting that the serial mediation worked in a similar way for men and women. The practical implications of these findings are discussed.
People who are managed by the National Probation Service and convicted of high risk offences will often meet criteria for antisocial personality disorder and have complex psychosocial needs; this group of people present with high risk behavior which may professionals have been reluctant to work with in the past who are associated with higher rates of recidivism. This study investigated the experiences of probation officers in managing people who meet the criteria for Anti Social Personality Disorder. Semi structured interviews were conducted with six participants to capture their experiences of working with this population, the challenges they faced, and coping mechanisms employed, through analysis using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Three superordinate themes were identified which revealed participants internal feeling, strategies employed, and external challenges. They spoke about internal negative feelings, specifically feeling controlled, having mistrust, a lack of confidence, being overwhelmed with emotion, and experiencing a fear of risk behaviors. Other themes involved external pressures as well as different coping responses. Implications are discussed to help probation officers to understand this population, for the organization to support staff to work with challenging behaviors and prevent burn out, to enable positive outcomes, and for potentially reducing reoffending.
Objective
Shame is a transdiagnostic emotion of strong clinical and research interest. Yet, there is a lack of consensus on the definition and varying methods employed across self-report measures, potentially affecting our ability to accurately study shame and examine whether clinical interventions to alter shame are effective. This paper offers a systematic review of self-report measures of generalized shame.
Methods
PubMed, PsycInfo, and Web of Science were searched. Studies were included when they were available in English and the primary aim was to evaluate measurement properties of scales or subscales designed to measure generalized shame in adults.
Results
Thirty-six papers examining 19 scales were identified, with measures of trait shame more common than state shame. Construct validity, internal consistency, and structural validity were relative strengths. Development and content validity studies were lacking and suffered from low methodological quality.
Conclusions
All measures evaluated needed additional research to meet criteria for recommended use.
Introduction
Depression and problem drinking are comorbid in emerging adulthood, yet the processes that link them are not well understood. Research has argued that shame has a unique influence on the experience of problematic drinking, but this has rarely been assessed at the state level. Using ecological momentary assessments (EMAs), we assessed whether shame, and not guilt, mediated the association between baseline depression and alcohol use and problems.
Methods
One hundred and eighty-four emerging adults (Mage= 19.27) completed a 12-day EMA study. Multilevel models were used to test hypotheses.
Results
In a model with alcohol use as the outcome, there were no significant associations between shame or guilt and alcohol use at the within- or between-subjects level. In a model with alcohol problems as the outcome, guilt was positively associated with alcohol problems but only at the daily level. At the between-subjects level and after controlling for guilt, there was a significant association between depression, shame, and alcohol problems; average levels of shame mediated the association between depression and alcohol problems. In post-hoc reverse directionality models, average alcohol problems mediated the relationship between depression and shame and guilt at the between-person level. No mediation was present for alcohol use.
Conclusion
After controlling for guilt, shame is an emotion that helps explain risk for alcohol problems among depressed emerging adults, which has implications for targeted interventions. Reciprocal associations between shame, guilt, and alcohol problems emerged highlighting the need for more fulsome assessments of shame and guilt in future EMA research.
Guilt and shame, two negative self-conscious emotions, have drawn theoretical and empirical attention in studying self-control. Although a functionalist view suggests that their reparative tendencies would help combat self-control failures, the evidence is equivocal. In this review, we begin with a systematic analysis of how the context of self-control conflicts allows mood management to dominate reparative control as the primary means of regulating guilt and shame and, subsequently, sours the potential benefits of mood management. Then, inspired by the emerging literature of strategic indulgence and a multilevel perspective on self-control, we propose that people should adopt a tolerant view of indulgence at the behavioral level while channeling the reparative tendencies of guilt and shame at the strategy (behavioral plans) and the system (goal balance) levels. When appraising and regulating self-control, thus, focusing on the forest rather than the trees may help capitalize on the benefits of guilt and shame.
Research on guilt proneness in the workplace has flourished over the past decade. Here we attempt to refine the construct, outlining its positive psychological mechanisms and clarifying how it relates to desired employee outcomes. We present a theoretical framework that explains how guilt-prone employees react and attempt to resolve, conflicting normative expectations, generating specific predictions about the relationship between guilt proneness and various forms of conformity and deviance. Specifically, we posit that guilt proneness relates positively to constructive conformity (e.g., high motivation and job performance) and negatively to destructive deviance (e.g., counterproductive work behavior) when employees perceive alignment between moral and organizational norms. If misalignment exists, and employees believe they can reconcile this misalignment, guilt proneness spurs constructive deviance in the form of dissent, voicing, and whistleblowing. When realignment appears unlikely, higher guilt-prone employees will choose to leave the organization rather than support its objectionable acts (i.e., avoiding destructive conformity). Overall, we offer a new perspective on the function of guilt proneness at work—conceptualizing guilt proneness as a source of motivation to adhere to organizational norms and to change these norms to align with moral ideals.
Background
In this paper, we examine the Other as Shamer Scale-2 (OAS-2), a unidimensional and brief scale to directly assess external shame. In three studies with three independent samples of a Turkish university, we present evidence for OAS-2 validity with respect to well-being outcomes (subjective happiness, flourishing, and subjective well-being) and psychological distress out-comes (depression, anxiety, stress, and loneliness) through direct comparisons with existing measures.
Participants and procedure
In Study 1 (N = 311), confirmatory factor analyses, measurement invariance across gender, and Item Response Theory (IRT) were examined. In Study 2 (N = 380), criterion-related validities of the OAS-2 were analyzed. In Study 3 (N = 252), incremen-tal validity was examined using PROCESS. Also, internal consistency, composite reliability, and temporal reliability (n = 89) of the OAS-2 were investigated.
Results
In Study 1, confirmatory factor analyses supported the unidimensionality of the measure. The results provide support for meas-urement invariance across gender. All item scores fit the IRT model and were fit with ordered, progressing hierarchies in their step difficulties. In Study 2, criterion-related validity for the OAS-2 was demonstrated through positive correlations with loneli-ness, and negative correlations with subjective happiness and flourishing. In Study 3, findings indicated the mediation impact of external shame on well-being via psychological distress. The OAS-2 showed satisfactory reliability coefficients.
Conclusions
Overall, the OAS-2 proved to be a valuable and reliable tool, which presents a short form to measure external shame. In addi-tion, it was observed that the OAS-2 was related to both well-being and psychological distress.
This study examines additive, curvilinear, and interactive relations of anxiety and depression with several subjective indicators of intrapersonal (i.e., hope, self-compassion, shame) and interpersonal (i.e., social connectedness, quality of social relationships) functioning in a sample of adults (N = 547, Mage = 43.37 ± 12.02, female = 56.88%) seeking treatment for psychological difficulties. Results of complementary analyses were largely consistent with the hypothesis that increasing levels of anxiety and depression would correspond with worse psychosocial functioning, although non-linear relations indicated that the effect of depression progressively attenuated at higher levels of symptom severity. Whereas the findings generally supported additive effects of anxiety and depression, the hypothesis that there would be synergistic effects of anxiety and depression was not supported. Supplementary group comparisons revealed that the functional implications of subsyndromal combinations of anxiety and depression may be comparable to those associated with symptoms that meet more traditional standards (i.e., syndromal or dimensional definitions) of comorbid anxiety-depression. The findings offer further insight into the complex relations of anxiety and depression with psychosocial functioning and emphasize the importance of detecting and offering appropriate treatments for anxiety and depression symptoms that co-exist at subsyndromal levels.
Guilt and shame are commonly related to PTSD. Yet, research has not examined whether guilt- and shame-proneness affect posttraumatic symptomatology due to difficulty making meaning of stressors. Using structural equation modeling (χ²(36) = 40.44, p = .282), difficulty making meaning was examined as a mediator between proneness to guilt/shame and PTSD symptomatology in a sample of previously deployed veterans. A significant indirect effect emerged whereby veterans’ difficulty making meaning of salient stressors partially accounted for the relationship between proneness to self-conscious emotions and PTSD symptomatology. Hence, difficulty making meaning may complicate veterans’ recovery from PTSD when prone to self-conscious emotions.
The adaptationist approach of evolutionary psychology provides a model of substantial scope for understanding the function of human behavior, however harmful it is. In this article the evolutionary importance of social belonging is discussed, as is its relevance to why people deny stigmatised harmful behavior, and the potential problems of labeling them by it.
Evolution reveals how natural selection has shaped the human nervous system for threat-detection, and cooperation. It casts a light on why people convicted of harmful and stigmatised behavior may hide, deny and lie as a means of limiting social devaluation and maintaining their fitness to belong in groups. For all our efforts as forensic practitioners to empower people to pro-socially reconnect and lead safer crime-free lives, endlessly associating them with their most unacceptable and harmful acts, might not help.
Evolutionary forensic psychology and evolutionary criminology are sub-disciplines of science that are progressively emerging. They place the adaptationist approach of evolution science front and center in the study and theory of criminal behaviour. This article aims to offer an example of this synergy, but with a specific focus on forensic practice itself.
Shame has been hypothesized to both contribute to and protect against problematic substance use, yet no systematic reviews of these relationships exist. We identified 42 studies of the empirical associations between shame and substance use or substance use-related problems in order to elucidate this relationship. A meta-analysis of 14 samples found no significant association between shame and substance use (r = 0.00). A meta-analysis of 18 samples found a significant association between shame and substance use-related problems (r = 0.16), an effect size similar to that found in previous meta-analyses of the association between depression and substance use. Samples in treatment for substance use disorders had higher experienced shame than controls. Over longer periods of time (i.e., months to years) shame was not a reliable predictor of substance use. Over shorter periods of time (i.e., hours to days), shame predicted more substance use, though this was qualified by complex interaction effects with shame sometimes appearing to have protective functions. Two studies demonstrated that substance use in particular contexts results in shame. The discussion identifies potential moderators of the relationship between shame and substance use and recommendations future research directions.
This chapter updates literature on shame, guilt, and workplace bullying and introduces different possible cognitive behavioral approaches that could be used to help remediate the shame underlying bullying in the workplace. Differences between shame and guilt are distinguished in terms of their consequences. Given these consequences, a move towards guilt promotion (i.e, acceptance of responsibility) will be argued. Methods to move from shame to guilt will be explored using different cognitive behavioral approaches with an emphasis on strategies for overcoming shame and promoting pro-social work behaviors such as taking responsibility and experiencing empathy.
The relation of shame and guilt to anger and aggression has been the focus of considerable theoretical discussion, but empirical findings have been inconsistent. Two recently developed measures of affective style were used to examine whether shame-proneness and guilt-proneness are differentially related to anger, hostility, and aggression. In 2 studies, 243 and 252 undergraduates completed the Self-Conscious Affect and Attribution Inventory, the Symptom Checklist 90, and the Spielberger Trait Anger Scale. Study 2 also included the Test of Self-Conscious Affect and the Buss-Durkee Hostility Inventory. Shame-proneness was consistently correlated with anger arousal, suspiciousness, resentment, irritability, a tendency to blame others for negative events, and indirect (but not direct) expressions of hostility. Proneness to “shame-free” guilt was inversely related to externalization of blame and some indices of anger, hostility, and resentment.
Despite recent evidence that episodic shame can be linked to the constructive approach of failure (i.e., prosociality, self-improvement), the prevailing view is that shame is neither constructive nor approach-oriented. To integrate these opposing views, we conducted a theory-driven meta-analysis of 90 samples from the published literature (N = 12,364). As expected, shame had a positive link to constructive approach when failure (g = .47, 95% confidence interval [CI] [.37, .55]) or social image (g = .37, 95% CI [.06, .68]) was more reparable. In contrast, shame had a negative link to constructive approach when failure was less reparable (g = -.34, 95% CI [-.53, -.14]). A supplemental meta-analysis of 42 samples showed shame and guilt to have a similar positive link to constructive approach orientation when failure was more reparable (g = .44 and .43), but not when it was less reparable (g = -.08 and .27). (PsycINFO Database Record
The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11031-015-9513-y
Research has shown that people can respond both self-defensively and pro-socially when they experience shame. We address this paradox by differentiating among specific appraisals (of specific self-defect and concern for condemnation) and feelings (of shame, inferiority, and rejection) often reported as part of shame. In two Experiments (Study 1: N = 85; Study 2: N = 112), manipulations that put participants’ social-image at risk increased their appraisal of concern for condemnation. In Study 2, a manipulation of moral failure increased participants’ appraisal that they suffered a specific self-defect. In both studies, mediation analyses showed that effects of the social-image at risk manipulation on self-defensive motivation were explained by appraisal of concern for condemnation and felt rejection. In contrast, the effect of the moral failure manipulation on pro-social motivation in Study 2 was explained by appraisal of a specific self-defect and felt shame. Thus, distinguishing among the appraisals and feelings tied to shame enabled clearer prediction of pro-social and self-defensive responses to moral failure with and without risk to social-image.
A central question of human psychology is whether and when people change for the better. Although it has long been assumed that emotion plays a central role in self-regulation, the role of specific emotions in motivating a desire for self-change has been largely ignored. We report 2 studies examining people's lived experiences of self-conscious emotions, particularly shame, in motivating a desire for self-change. Study 1 revealed that when participants recalled experiences of shame, guilt, or embarrassment, shame-and, to some degree, guilt-predicted a motivation for self-change. Study 2 compared shame, guilt, and regret for events and found that although shame experiences often involved high levels of both regret and guilt, it was feelings of shame that uniquely predicted a desire for self-change, whereas regret predicted an interest in mentally undoing the past and repairing harm done. Implications for motivating behavior change are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).
For decades, shame has been understood as a negative, self-conscious feeling with mostly negative interpersonal consequences. As a result, shame is currently perceived as an ugly emotion that motivates social withdrawal, avoidance, and inhibition. The present chapter challenges this view of shame and suggests instead that shame has a positive interpersonal function with positive consequences. Shame is thought to function as a general sociometer, a monitor indicating the danger of being excluded from groups in general. It would motivate affiliativeaffiliated behaviors such as cooperation, prosocial behavior, and approach of others to address this possible exclusion. The chapter starts with a critical overview of existing research that supports the view of shame as an ugly emotion, demonstrating that empirical support for this view is debatable. It then continues with the view of shame as a general sociometer and presents empirical research that supports this view. Together, these findings reveal that shame may not be so ugly and may be more beneficial than originally thought.
Objective:
The specific aims of this study are to examine trauma-related shame and guilt as time-varying predictors of symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Method:
Sixty-five patients were included in the statistical analyses and the multilevel modeling analyses supported three major findings.
Results:
(i) Patients with a higher level of shame and guilt at the start of treatment displayed a higher level of PTSD symptoms over the course of treatment compared to other patients. (ii) Time-specific change in shame and guilt predicted the level of PTSD symptoms 3 days later from session to session during treatment. (iii) No significant differences were evident between prolonged exposure (PE) and modified PE to include imagery rescripting in the within-person process of change in PTSD symptoms from session to session during therapy.
Conclusions:
This trial reports the first evidence that within-person change in shame and guilt predicts change in PTSD symptoms from session to session during treatment.
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 year after release into the community, and we accessed official arrest records (N = 446). Guilt proneness negatively and directly predicted reoffense in the 1st year after release; shame proneness did not. Further mediational modeling showed that shame proneness positively predicted recidivism via its robust link to externalization of blame. There remained a direct effect of shame on recidivism: Unimpeded by defensive externalization of blame, shame inhibited recidivism. Items assessing a motivation to hide were primarily responsible for this pattern. Overall, our results suggest that the pain of shame may have two faces-one with destructive potential and the other with constructive potential.
Shame has been described as a central emotion in narcissistic personality disorder (NPD). However, there is a dearth of empirical data on shame in NPD. Patients with NPD (N=28), non-clinical controls (N=34) and individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD, N=31) completed self-report measures of state shame, shame-proneness, and guilt-proneness. Furthermore, the Implicit Association Test (IAT) was included as a measure of implicit shame, assessing implicit shame-self associations relative to anxiety-self associations. Participants with NPD reported higher levels of explicit shame than non-clinical controls, but lower levels than patients with BPD. Levels of guilt-proneness did not differ among the three study groups. The implicit shame-self associations (relative to anxiety-self associations) were significantly stronger among patients with NPD compared to nonclinical controls and BPD patients. Our findings indicate that shame is a prominent feature of NPD. Implications for diagnosis and treatment are discussed.
Committing an offense creates psychological need within a victim and offender that can act as barriers to reconciliation. This paper examines the process of an offender addressing these needs independent of a victim's response in order to facilitate a process of self-forgiveness that promotes reconciliation and self-trust. We present two studies involving interventions following recent real-life interpersonal transgressions. Results suggest that meeting an offender's need for moral identity through the affirmation of the values violated by the offense, but not affirmation of belonging (Study 1), or affirmation of unrelated values (Study 2) increased genuine self-forgiveness, through shame acknowledgment. This process had downstream benefits for reconciliation and self-trust at one week follow-up.
Although current theories emphasize the role of fear in the etiology of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), recent research suggests that shame may also play a role in the development of PTSD symptoms. This study tested if the experience of peritraumatic shame mediates the relationship between 2 conceptually
linked PTSD risk factors (i.e., experiencing an interpersonal vs. impersonal reference trauma and number of previous potentially traumatic events [PTEs]) and current levels of PTSD symptoms. Path analysis was used to test a series of nested models assessing the indirect effects of these risk factors on PTSD via peritraumatic shame, while controlling for the potential indirect effect of these risk factors via peritraumatic fear. The final structural model found that the number of previous PTEs had a direct effect on current levels of PTSD, no association with fear, and a marginally significant indirect effect on PTSD symptoms via shame. The effects of reference trauma type on PTSD symptom levels was mediated by levels of both peritraumatic shame and fear, suggesting that shame, in addition to fear, may contribute to the development of PTSD symptoms in survivors of interpersonal traumas. The results underscore the need for further, more fine-grained research in this area and contribute to the nascent literature suggesting that other emotions, beyond fear, are important to our theoretical understanding of PTSD.
This study focuses on the prediction of self-initiated bullying from family, school, personality, and shame management variables. Reintegrative shaming theory provided a theoretical framework for data gathered from students (n = 1,401) and their parents (n = 978). To test the importance of shame management in relation to bullying, the MOSS-SASD instrument (Management Of Shame State-Shame Acknowledgment and Shame Displacement) was developed. Bullying was related to a child’s unacknowledged shame and its displacement to other-directed blame and anger. The results of path analysis indicated that shame management partially mediated the effects of family, school, and personality variables on bullying. The implications of these findings for creating a safer school environment are discussed.
Effective processing of a transgression must involve accepting responsibility for one's wrongdoing. However accepting responsibility may mean increasing the threat of social exclusion which offenders face as a result of their transgression, yet humans are fundamentally motivated to avoid this type of threat. Pseudo self-forgiveness is the use of minimization of harm, denial of wrongdoing, or victim derogation in order to release oneself from guilt and shame. This research examines the defensive psychological process of pseudo self-forgiveness and the impact of threat to belonging on a transgressor's engagement with this defensive response in both an experimental setting and real life. Study 1 used a lab based approach, manipulating the threat to belonging with an ostracism task. Ostracized participants minimized harm to the victim, reported less shame, regret and self-anger and less desire to reconcile with the victim. Study 2 followed participants over the 11 days after committing an interpersonal transgression. Results of analyses with linear mixed modeling suggest that the more rejected participants felt the more they engaged in pseudo self-forgiveness. Hostile responses from the victim were positively associated with pseudo self-forgiveness and others' respectful confrontation was negatively associated with pseudo self-forgiveness. Results suggest that need for belonging is a key variable for rehabilitation after committing a transgression.
Psychologists have long used the Test of Self-Conscious Affect (TOSCA) as an instrument for empirically distinguishing between trait emotions of guilt and shame. Recent assessments of the internal structure of the TOSCA guilt scale suggest that it may not measure the experience of guilt, but rather motivation to make amends for personal wrongdoing. In contrast, TOSCA shame may better assess the tendency to experience negative self-conscious affect. Previous research did not take into account that TOSCA guilt theoretically should only predict emotions in a situation of wrongdoing; we put this idea to the test in two studies. Experimental, but not control, participants received believable feedback that they had shown involuntary prejudice towards a member of a minority group. In both studies TOSCA guilt predicted reparative action after feedback was given, including expressing non-prejudiced views and recommending financial compensation to the minority group. However, TOSCA guilt had no relationship with feelings of guilt or shame after expressing prejudice. In contrast, TOSCA shame was a better predictor of feelings of guilt, shame and other self-critical emotions, but did not predict compensatory action. These findings suggest motivation rather than emotion as a mechanism behind past findings involving TOSCA guilt.
The self-conscious emotions of guilt, shame, and pride typically occur when people evaluate their own self through the eyes of another person. This article will first of all discuss the nature and function of self-conscious emotions, and describe their developmental course in children and adolescents. Then, a number of variables are discussed that are thought to increase young people's proneness to experience self-conscious emotions. Following this, the empirical evidence on the relationships between guilt, shame, and pride and various types of psychopathology in children and adolescents will be summarized. A model is presented to explain why these self-conscious emotions are associated with a diversity of psychopathological outcomes. Finally, recommendations for clinical practice are made in terms of assessment and interventions targeting the origins and sequelae of self-conscious emotions.
Shame has been found to promote both approach and withdrawal behaviours. Shame theories have not been able to explain how shame can promote such contrasting behaviours. In the present article, the authors provide an explanation for this. Shame was hypothesised to activate approach behaviours to restore the threatened self, and in situations when this is not possible or too risky, to activate withdrawal behaviours to protect the self from further damage. Five studies with different shame inductions and different dependent measures confirmed our predictions. We therefore showed that different behavioural responses to shame can be understood in terms of restore and protect motives. Implications for theory and behavioural research on shame are discussed.
Prior research has typically attempted to distinguish one emotion from another by identifying distinctive expressions, physiology, and subjective qualities. Recent theories claim emotions can also be differentiated by distinctive action tendencies, actions, and motivational goals. To test hypotheses from both older and more recent theories, 100 Ss were asked to recall experiences of particular negative emotions and answer questions concerning what they felt, thought, felt like doing, actually did, and wanted. Results support hypotheses specifying characteristic responses for fear, sadness, distress, frustration, disgust, dislike, anger, regret, guilt, and shame. The findings indicate that discrete emotions have distinctive goals and action tendencies, as well as thoughts and feelings. In addition, they provide empirical support for hypothesized emotion states that have received insufficient attention from researchers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Although shame plays a vital role in psychosocial functioning and development, it has also been implicated in several mental health problems, such as depression, suicidal behavior, and posttraumatic stress disorder. Given the potentially debilitating impact of shame on adjustment, an understanding of resilience in the face of this emotion is essential. The purpose of this study was to explore how adults bounce back from significant shame experiences, based on the subjective perspectives of participants. Interviews were conducted with 13 adults who recalled events or situations that elicited intense feelings of shame. Grounded theory was used in the collection and analysis of the data. In the findings, shame is conceptualized as an assault on the self, where the individual's self-concept, social connection, and sense of power and control come under attack. Individuals bounce back from this adversity through a process of self-reconstruction. This process is represented by the core category rebuilding of the self and by 5 interrelated subcategories, including connecting, refocusing, accepting, understanding, and resisting. Implications for counseling and directions for further research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Ss in 2 studies were asked to report on 32 emotional states. Ss were asked to remember instances of experiencing these states and, for each experience, to fill out a questionnaire on appraisal dimensions and action readiness modes. Appraisal patterns as well as patterns of action readiness show distinct relations to various emotional categories, or names; the contributions of both kinds of components to emotion distinction are in part independent and additive. Multiple correlations, predicting action readiness scores from appraisal scores, demonstrated significant relations between particular modes of action readiness and particular appraisal patterns. The results of these studies are interpreted as providing support for the view that emotions can be regarded both as experiences of forms of appraisal and as states of action readiness. Emotions can profitably be analyzed in terms of sets of components, in which action readiness components take an important share. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Moral failure is thought to damage self-image when people appraise it as indicating a global self-defect. This appraisal is thought to be associated with the feeling of shame and thus self-defensive motivation. However, a damaged social image better explains self-defensive motivation to hide from and avoid others. Based on an integrative review of theory and research, we offer a conceptual model of how concern for self-image and social image guides the experience of moral failure. The model distinguishes the appraisals (of self-defect and other-condemnation) and feelings (of rejection, inferiority, and shame) embedded in the shame concept. Concern for a damaged social image is represented in an other-condemnation → rejection combination, whereas concern for a damaged self-image is represented in a (global) self-defect → inferiority combination. As these appraisal–feeling combinations are concerned with damage done to one's image, they should be linked to self-defensive motivation. As the (specific) self-defect → shame combination is concerned with a repairable defect in self-image, it should be linked with self-improvement motivation. Thus, our model explains why “shame” is sometimes tied to self-defensive motivation and sometimes tied to self-improvement motivation after moral failure. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Five studies tested hypotheses derived from the sociometer model of self-esteem according to which the self-esteem system monitors others' reactions and alerts the individual to the possibility of social exclusion. Study 1 showed that the effects of events on participants' state self-esteem paralleled their assumptions about whether such events would lead others to accept or reject them. In Study 2, participants' ratings of how included they felt in a real social situation correlated highly with their self-esteem feelings. In Studies 3 and 4, social exclusion caused decreases in self-esteem when respondents were excluded from a group for personal reasons, but not when exclusion was random, but this effect was not mediated by self-presentation. Study 5 showed that trait self-esteem correlated highly with the degree to which respondents generally felt included versus excluded by other people. Overall, results provided converging evidence for the sociometer model.
Both guilt and empathic perspective taking have been linked to prosocial, relationship-enhancing effects. Study 1 found that shame was linked to personal distress, whereas guilt was linked to perspective taking. In Studies 2 and 3, subjects were asked to describe a recent experience of interpersonal conflict, once from their own perspective, and once from the perspective of the other person. Guilt-prone people and guilt-dominated stories were linked to better perspective taking (measured by changes between the two versions of the story) than others. Shame had no effect. Guilt improved relationship outcomes but shame harmed them. Path analysis suggested that trait guilt-proneness leads to perspective taking, which leads to actual guilt feelings, which produces beneficial relationship outcomes. Guilt feelings may mediate the relationship-enhancing effects of empathy.
Social identities are associated with normative standards for thought and action, profoundly influencing the behavioral choices of individual group members. These social norms provide frameworks for identifying the most appropriate actions in any situation. Given the increasing complexity of the social world, however, individuals are more and more likely to identify strongly with multiple social groups simultaneously. When these groups provide divergent behavioral norms, individuals can experience social identity conflict. The current manuscript examines the nature and consequences of this socially conflicted state, drawing upon advances in our understanding of the neuropsychology of conflict and uncertainty. Identity conflicts are proposed to involve activity in the Behavioral Inhibition System, which in turn produces high levels of anxiety and stress. Building upon this framework, four strategies for resolving identity conflict are reviewed.
© 2015 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.
Children's conceptions of the self-conscious emotions guilt versus shame were investigated. In Study 1, 10-12-year-old children answered questions about scenarios that should elicit feelings of guilt and/or shame (moral transgressions and social blunders). In Study 2, 7-9- and 10-12-year-old children completed a sorting task to ascertain the features they associate with guilt and shame. Feelings of guilt were aroused by moral norm violations. Guilt feelings were also seen as involving an approach-avoidance conflict with respect to the victim, self-criticism, remorse, desire to make amends, and fear of punishment. Feelings of shame resulted from both moral transgressions and social blunders. Younger children associated shame with embarrassment, blushing, ridicule, and escape. Older children additionally characterized shame as feeling stupid, being incapable of doing things right, and not being able to look at others.
Many psychological phenomena have been explained primarily in terms of intrapsychic motives to maintain particular cognitive or affective states-such as motives for consistency, self-esteem, and authenticity-whereas other phenomena have been explained in terms of interpersonal motives to obtain tangible resources, reactions, or outcomes from other people. In this article, we describe and contrast intrapsychic and interpersonal motives, and we review evidence showing that these two distinct sets of motives are sometimes conflated and confused in ways that undermine the viability of motivational theories. Explanations that invoke motives to maintain certain intrapsychic states offer a dramatically different view of the psychological foundations of human behavior than those that posit motives to obtain desired interpersonal outcomes. Several phenomena are examined as exemplars of instances in which interpersonal and intrapsychic motives have been inadequately distinguished, if not directly confounded, including cognitive dissonance, the self-esteem motive, biases in judgment and decision making, posttransgression accounts, authenticity, and self-conscious emotions. Our analysis of the literature suggests that theorists and researchers should consider the relative importance of intrapsychic versus interpersonal motives in the phenomena they study and that they should make a concerted effort to deconfound intrapsychic and interpersonal influences in their research.
© The Author(s) 2015.
This important handbook provides a comprehensive, authoritative review of achievement motivation and establishes the concept of competence as an organizing framework for the field. The editors synthesize diverse perspectives on why and how individuals are motivated in school, work, sports, and other settings. Written by leading investigators, chapters reexamine central constructs in achievement motivation; explore the impact of developmental, contextual, and sociocultural factors; and analyze the role of self-regulatory processes. Focusing on the ways in which achievement is motivated by the desire to experience competence and avoid experiencing incompetence, the volume integrates disparate theories and findings and sets forth a coherent agenda for future research.
After committing an offense, transgressors can optimize their chances of reconciling with the victim by accepting responsibility. However, transgressors may be motivated to avoid admitting fault because it can feel threatening to accept blame for harmful behavior. Who, then, is likely to accept responsibility for a transgression? We examined how implicit theories of personality-whether people see personality as malleable (incremental theory) or fixed (entity theory)-influence transgressors' likelihood of accepting responsibility. We argue that incremental theorists may feel less threatened by accepting responsibility because they are more likely to view the situation as an opportunity for them to grow as a person and develop their relationship with the victim. We found support for our predictions across four studies using a combination of real-world and hypothetical offenses, and correlational and experimental methods. These studies therefore identify an important individual difference factor that can lead to more effective responses from transgressors.
Although debilitating effects of experiencing shame are posited in several theories of emotion and motivation, little research has been conducted on individuals' "in-the-moment" feelings of shame (i.e., state shame). However, researching state shame is challenging because individuals may deny or underreport their feelings of shame, tend to self-isolate when they feel shame, and may be unwilling or unable to express themselves when feeling shame. The Experiential Shame Scale (ESS), an "opaque" measure of physical, emotional, and social markers of shame experiences, was developed to address the difficulties of assessing state shame. Evidence obtained in three studies of individuals' emotional reactions following personally important exam feedback suggests that students' ESS ratings were uniquely related to feelings of state shame and not to state guilt. Findings also reveal that state shame is specifically related to feelings of shock and not surprise. As intended, findings suggested that the ESS has low face validity and is not related to social desirability.
Emotions play a crucial role in moral behavior. The present paper does not contest this point but argues that qualifications of certain feelings such as shame and guilt as moral emotions should not exclusively be based on a proximal analysis of their function. A proximal analysis details how moral emotions produce moral behavior. Emotions are qualified as moral when they are elicited by concerns for others rather than the self and produce prosocial action tendencies. Although researchers have acknowledged that moral emotions may also have an ultimate function that details why it is in the individual interest that these moral effects occur, they have neglected to translate such ideas into testable hypotheses. Using guilt and shame as an example, we show how an analysis of ultimate functions accommodates recent findings, which contest the view that guilt is more moral than shame and provides new insights as to when and why moral emotions will produce moral effects.
This study explored the associations and interactions between social rank (submissive behaviour and social comparison), shame, rumination and depression. 125 undergraduate students completed a battery of self-report questionnaires measuring the research variables. It was found that social rank and shame are highly related and that both shame and social rank are significantly correlated with rumination. A moderator analysis suggested an effect of gender on the relationship between external shame and rumination. A mediational path analysis suggested that rumination partially mediated a link between shame and depression, but shame retained a unique contribution to depression after controlling for rumination.
In this article we outline the history, elements, and variations of functional accounts of emotions. Summarising diverse theories and observations, we propose that functional accounts of emotions: (1) address why humans have emotions; (2) de® ne emotions as solutions to problems and opportunities related to physical and social survival; (3) treat emotions as systems of interrelated components; and (4) focus on the bene® cial consequences of emotions. This conceptual approach to emotion is complemented by several empirical strategies, including the study of emotion dysfunction, the effects of emotions on others, and the relations between emotions and personal and social outcomes. We conclude by considering how functional accounts of emotion vary, including in terms of their level of analysis, speci® city, manner of organisation, and range of focus, and the implications functional accounts have for the study of emotion.
Background:
Shame experiences have been suggested to be related with psychopathological symptoms and with self-relevant beliefs. Recent studies also suggest that avoidant-focused strategies (e.g., rumination, thought suppression and dissociation) mediate the impact of shame memories and depression symptoms. However, experiential avoidance has been found to mediate the relation between early experience of abuse and psychopathological symptoms. Our goal was to test the mediating effect of experiential avoidance in the relation between both the nature of shame experiences at the hands of caregivers and the centrality of shame memories with others, and depression symptoms.
Method:
Using structural equation modelling, we assessed the frequency and nature of recalled shame experiences at the hands of caregivers, the centrality of shame experiences with others throughout childhood and adolescence, experiential avoidance and depression symptomatology in 161 participants from general population.
Results:
Experiential avoidance mediates the impact of shame experiences with caregivers and depression symptoms. Experiential avoidance also mediated the association between the centrality of shame experiences with others and depression symptoms.
Conclusion:
Our results suggest that shame memories with others do not per se impact on depression symptoms, but rather the unwillingness to experience them and the attempts to control them. Hence, our results emphasize the importance of addressing affect regulation processes such as avoidance when dealing with shame memories, particularly with patients who experience depression symptoms.
Key practitioner message:
The recall of shame experiences with caregivers is associated with the experience of depression symptoms, even when these experiences are not perceived as central points to one's life identity and story. This seems to suggest a necessity to explore these experiences in a therapeutic setting. Our findings suggest that experiential avoidance is a key process through which these memories of shame experiences impact on depression symptomatology. Hence, it seems to be of great importance to reduce experiential avoidance and help people change the way they relate with these memories.
Interpersonal trust has long been known to influence cooperation. This study tested the hypothesis that one's degree of trust in others will influence the extent to which one reacts to the presence of fear (or the possibility of receiving no payoff for cooperative actions) in a payoff matrix. The hypothesis was formally tested with public goods games and resource dilemma games, with fear manipulated. Results support the hypothesis: when fear was present, high trusters cooperated more frequently than low trusters; when absent, high and low trusters cooperated at the same rate. The findings held across both games. However, the effects of fear within each game were not straightforward: removing fear from the resource dilemma increased low trusters' cooperation rates, but removing fear from the public goods game decreased high trusters' cooperation rates. Results imply that discussion of the role of trust in cooperation must consider whether the particular dilemma contains an element of fear.
This study estimated the extent to which shame is elicited in physician–patient interactions and examined the emotional and behavioral reactions of patients to such interactions. A large adult sample (N = 915) reported on their shame-provoking experiences in interactions with physicians through an anonymous survey. Half of all respondents (n = 456) recalled one or more interactions with a physician that left them feeling ashamed, with significantly more women (59%) than men (39%) reporting this. Forty-five percent of those reporting such experiences stated they terminated treatment with, avoided, or lied to their physician to avoid experiencing further shame. However, 33% believed the shame-provoking interaction provoked useful behavioral changes, and 46% were, on balance, grateful to the physician. Women, relative to men, reported that the interaction led to more negative emotional and behavioral consequences. The type of health issue involved in the interaction also was associated with differential outcomes. Thus, it appears that inducing shame in medical contexts is widespread and may well have both positive and negative effects.
This article proposes a unitary explanation of social control for normal and rigid conformity. Conformity may arise from the interaction of deference with normal pride and shame; rigid conformity from chain reactions of shame. I show that Darwin, Cooley, and others suggested the same context for pride and shame: self's perception of the evaluation of self by other(s). Their work, which assumes a continuous social monitoring of the self from the standpoint of others, suggests a puzzle: If social monitoring is continuous and causes either pride or shame, why are so few manifestations of either emotion visible in our lives? One possible explanation is that pride and shame usually have very low visibility. I call this the Cooley-Scheff conjecture. Goffman's work on "face" implies this conjecture and Lewis's discovery of unacknowledged shame confirms it. Her analysis of hundreds of clinical interviews demonstrates that low-visibility shame was present in every session, though neither therapist nor patient seemed to be aware of it. Drawing on Lewis's exact description of the markers of various manifestations of shame and Goffman's analysis of the relation between deference and embarrassment, a deference-emotion system is described. Members perceive this system as compelling conformity to norms exterior to self by informal but pervasive rewards (outer deference and its reciprocal, inner pride) and punishments (lack of deference, and the inner shame that is its reciprocal). I show how Asch's study of conformity and independence illustrates the role of shame in compelling conformity to exterior norms.
This study explores the associations between shame, depression and social anxiety from the perspective of social rank theory (Price and Sloman, 1987; Gilbert, 1989, 1992). Social rank theory argues that emotions and moods are significantly influenced by the perceptions of one's social status/rank; that is the degree to which one feels inferior to others and looked down on. A common outcome of such perceptions is submissive behavior. It is suggested that shame, social anxiety and depression are all related to defensive submissive strategies when individuals find themselves placed in unwanted low status/rank positions. In this study 109 students and 50 depressed patients filled in a battery of self-report questionnaires designed to measure varied aspects of shame, guilt, pride, social anxiety, depression, and social rank (inferiority self-perceptions and submissive behaviour). Results confirm that shame, social anxiety and depression (but not guilt) are highly related to feeling inferior and to submissive behaviour. It is suggested therefore that an understanding of the defensive behaviours of animals and humans who are located in unwanted subordinate positions may throw light on the underlying psychobiological mechanisms of these varied pathologies. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The primary aim of this study was to examine how early adolescents' anticipated guilt and shame before adults in response to wrong doing are related to each other and to their antisocial and prosocial behaviour. Measures of anticipated guilt and shame before adults were obtained from 363 10- to 13-year-old participants. Correlational analyses were used to relate participants' anticipated guilt and shame before adults to their teacher-reported aggressive behaviour, to a peer-report-based measure of antisocial behaviour that combined nomination-based measures of bullying, aggression, and unempathic behaviour, and to a peer-report-based measure of prosocial behaviour that combined nomination-based measures of helping victims of bullying and of empathic behaviour. For exploratory reasons, anticipated guilt and shame before adults were also related to a peer-nomination-based measure of participants' outsider behaviour, that is their tendency to actively avoid all involvement in bullying. Results indicated that there was a considerable positive relation between anticipated guilt and shame before adults and that both types of anticipated affective responses were negatively related to antisocial behaviour and positively to prosocial and outsider behaviour. However, when guilt and shame before adults were controlled for each other using regression analyses, only guilt was positively related to prosocial behaviour and only shame before adults was negatively related to antisocial behaviour and positively to outsider behaviour. The findings concerning anticipated guilt are interpreted as being in line with previous theoretical and empirical accounts that depict guilt as an empathy-based response that helps the individual both to inhibit antisocial behaviour and to maintain important interpersonal relationships. The findings concerning shame before adults are interpreted as suggesting that anticipated shame before an audience that values the individual's adherence to moral norms primarily serves to inhibit antisocial behaviour.
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 that shame impairs people's ability to generate effective solutions to interpersonal problems and/or diminishes confidence (self-efficacy) in one's ability to implement those solutions. In a study of 233 undergraduates, shame-proneness was negatively correlated with the quality of self-generated solutions to common interpersonal problems, self-efficacy for implementing these solutions, and with the expected effectiveness of those solutions. Guilt-proneness was positively correlated with quality of solutions, self-efficacy for implementing the solutions, the expected effectiveness of the solutions, and with the desire to solve the interpersonal conflict. Findings support and extend previous findings on shame-proneness, guilt-proneness, and interpersonal effectiveness.
Undergraduates (N = 146) briefly described three shame-inducing situations and three guilt-inducing situations. Shame and guilt situations differed in both form and content. Shame dissipations were longer but less specific in content, and respondents were more likely to use the "projective"second person when describing shame than guilt. The observed content differences were generally consistent with current theory. Guilt was typically induced by specific moral transgressions, often involving harm to others. Shame was induced by specific moral transgressions as well as by nonmetal situations and issues (e.g., failure in performance situations, social{y inappropriate behavior or dress). The analysis of interpersonal concerns indicated that both shame and guilt can arise from a concern with one's effect on another person. Concern with others' evaluations, however, were almost exclusively the domain of shame. Although there appear to be some classic shame-inducing situations and some classic guilt-inducing situations, the majority of situations appear capable of engendering either emotion.
The relationship between shame measures, in particular the Other As Shamer Scale (OAS), and self-report measures of psychopathology was explored in a non-clinical population. Results indicate that beliefs about negative evaluations by others is associated with measures of clinical relevance. Additionally, shame scales which tap into global negative beliefs, including the OAS, are more strongly associated with measures of psychopathology than scales which focus on shame responses to specific events.
there is converging theoretical and empirical evidence that shame and guilt have important and very different implications for subsequent motivation and interpersonal functioning / focuses on this . . . set of interpersonal issues related to shame and guilt / provide an overview of the nature of shame and guilt experiences, highlighting key similarities and key differences between these 2 frequently confused emotions / review recent phenomenological and personality studies, which indicate that shame and guilt are differentially related to a range of motivational and interpersonal features / these include a tendency toward reparative behavior vs avoidance, interpersonal empathy, and people's characteristic anger management strategies in everyday contexts (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This study aimed at investigating intentional and non-intentional situations eliciting shame and guilt in relation to children's involvement in bullying, victimization and prosocial behaviour. We used the contextual model designed by Olthof, Schouten, Kuiper, Stegge, and Jennekens-Schinkel (2000) according to which certain situations elicit more shame than guilt (‘shame-only’, SO), whereas others elicit both guilt and shame (‘shame-and-guilt’, SAG). Besides these, four new scenarios were added (2 SO and 2 SAG) in which the protagonist was alternatively the perpetrator or the receiver of harm. Participants were 121 children aged 9–11, who filled in the self-report Shame and Guilt Questionnaire, and a peer nomination survey to investigate the roles of bully, victim, prosocial and not involved. Results showed that in SAG situations, perpetrated-harm situations elicited more guilt than neutral situations; while in SO situations, neutral situations elicited more shame than received-harm situations. In SAG situations, prosocial children reported feeling more ashamed and guilty than bullies and not-involved children, while in SO situations, victims scored higher on shame than not-involved children. Results are discussed considering the contextual model employed and the relationship between emotions and behaviours.