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Autobiographical remembering is a dynamic process in which narrators construct their life story from single memories. What is included in or deleted from the life story depends on many factors. Here, we examined the functions, emotions and correspondence with the life script for the memories that people desire to save or erase from their past. We asked people to generate either the two memories they were most likely to save and erase or the two memories they regarded as their most positive and negative memories. Then everyone rated those memories on function, emotion and correspondence with the life script. Overall, we found save and erase memories corresponded less with the life script relative to most positive and most negative memories though they were similarly emotionally intense. Additionally, erase memories were more associated with shame and less with social functions than most negative memories, whereas most negative memories to a higher degree involved the death of significant others, albeit being similarly traumatic. These findings have important implications for theory about autobiographical memory, and possible clinical relevance.

Guilt- and shame-prone responding were examined in a sample of 146, 18-month-old toddlers and their older siblings (

Shame and guilt are distinct negative moral emotions, although they are usually regarded as overlapping affective experiences. Of these two emotions, shame is more closely related to concerns about other people's judgment, whereas guilt is more related to concerns about one's own judgment. Although some studies have tried to identify the psychological process underlying shame as opposed to guilt, there is no clear evidence of brain regions that are specifically relevant to the experience of shame rather than guilt and, more generally, self-blame. We therefore investigated associations between individual differences in shame- and guilt-proneness and the gray and white matter structures of the brain using magnetic resonance imaging and voxel-based morphometry while controlling for associations with guilt- or shame-proneness. To accomplish this goal, we enrolled 590 healthy, right-handed individuals (338 men and 252 women; age, 20.6 ± 1.8 years). We administered a questionnaire to assess shame proneness and guilt proneness. Based on our hypothesis, we found that high shame proneness was associated with decreased regional white matter density only in the right inferior temporal pole, whereas no significant region was associated with guilt. The function of this area may be important for the underlying processes differentiating shame from guilt.

Internet addiction is an important mental health problem among university students. This study aimed to examine the relationship between shame and Internet addiction and investigate the mediating role of experiential avoidance in undergraduate students. A total of 307 undergraduate students (210 females and 97 males) were recruited. Shame was examined using the Self-conscious Affect-3 Test. Experiential avoidance was evaluated using the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-ӀӀ (AAQ-II). Internet addiction was assessed using the Young Internet Addiction test (IAT). Findings revealed significant associations between shame, experiential avoidance, and Internet addiction. In addition, the results of structural equation modelling demonstrated the mediating role of experiential avoidance in the relationship between shame and Internet addiction. The results suggest that the experts working on Internet addiction consider the shame and experiential avoidance. Early discovery and intervention of shame and experiential avoidance can be incorporated into programmes intending to reduce the risk of Internet addiction.

A major form of porn creativity in the digital age has been the ‘hypno video’: a user-generated film mashing up short clips from various porn sources, accompanied by hypnotic imagery and sound, oft...

Infants express emotional distress through whining, crying, flailing, silence, etc., which can be viewed as communications that also afflict the caregiver(s). One expressive mode, subtle and often unnoticed except by the parents, is infant gaze avoidance. It often elicits parental feelings of rejection, shame and despair, and may be a reason for seeking parent-infant psychotherapy. In therapy, the symptom often discloses a disturbance in the dyad's emotional interaction. Therapy can bring about relief in the symptom and the relational disorder. Sometimes, the therapist discovers that the infant is avoiding the therapist's, rather than the parents', eyes. This challenges the therapist's expertise in establishing contact with the baby and in perceiving and processing emotional reactions to what may be experienced as the baby's dismissal. Gaze avoidance elicits theoretical questions approached in a previous publication: what does the child seem to avoid in the adult's eyes, and how can we conceptualize the psychodynamics behind the symptom? It also evokes technical questions: how can the therapist make contact with an infant who avoids the mother's or the therapist's eyes? How can the clinician exploit their emotional reactions, the countertransference, to understand and further the dyad's emotional communication? Two case vignettes are provided.

This article examines the complicated relationship between affect and power in the production of urban space. Focusing on a valuable site in the Basmane neighborhood of Izmir, which is conspicuousl...

The authors examine how consumers react to online prosocial advertising reminding them that they have violated ethical standards. Findings show that consumers feel ethical dissonance when recognizi...

A recurring staple of the popular Hindi film is when actresses dance as if they were drunk. Underlying such performances are notions of nasha (intoxication) and sharam, or shame. This article explo...

It can be difficult to assess the magnitude of a problem from inside the conditions produced by it. This is why objectivity is an overarching goal in science and medicine, where something like a bi...

This article uses the German idiom fremdschamen to discuss some of the ethical dilemmas posed by the representation of sexuality and mental disability in documentary. Fremdschamen roughly translate...

Teaching an online course on mental health and the law during a global pandemic, the subject of psychiatric diagnosis and the pros and cons of diagnostic categories arose very early in the conversa...

There is an evocative line in Bernard Williams’ Shame and Necessity, his superb treatise of Ancient Greek literature and philosophy, where he discusses “omens” in the archaic world. “The first ambi...

Objective The aim of this study was to refine the YSQ-L3 by identifying the most statistically and clinically appropriate items for each Early Maladaptive Schema (EMS) using Rasch analysis. Method A Rasch analysis was undertaken on a large sample (N = 838) that included a heterogeneous clinical sample (N = 574) and a smaller non-clinical group (N = 264). Results Overall, 116 out of 232 items showed misfit across a number of statistical indicators. After the removal of these items, the fit improved for all subscales and showed good (.74) to excellent (.86) reliability with the exception of Enmeshment (.57). In line with previous research, items originally measuring Punitiveness were found to better fit two separate subscales, Punitiveness (Self) and Punitiveness (Other). Similarly, items assessing Emotional Inhibition fit better as two different constructs; Emotional Constriction, reflecting an over-control related to shame/embarrassment of showing emotions, and Fear of Losing Control, related to anxiety of the consequences if emotions are not contained. Conclusion This is the first study to apply a rigorous methodological process to item selection from the YSQ-L3. The findings of this study are significant given the wide use of this scale cross-culturally in both clinical and research settings and offer a possible alternative to the current short form.

Purpose: Explore if and how American Samoan cultural norms influence caregivers' knowledge, attitudes, and care choices for person's living with Alzheimer's Dementia (AD).Design: This pilot study used mixed methods.Methods: 1) Quantitative survey: measuring knowledge/attitudes towards AD (n = 80); 2) Qualitative techniques: a) Focus groups (n= 54) with caregivers; b) Semi-structured interviews (n=26) with health professionals; and c) In-depth interviews (n=3) with key informants. Emergent themes were created using data from all methods.Findings: Quantitative analyses revealed 50% of participants identified AD as normal aging, 83% as mental illness. The majority of participants believed elders with AD do not experience pain (70%) and should be cared for solely at home (74%). Qualitative evidence showed dissonance between cultural norms of respect for elders, familial caregiving duty, shame in others observing elders' dementia-related behaviours, and the current language used to describe AD.Conclusions: Our findings show a need for developing and disseminating culturally sensitive terminology for AD to destigmatize and transmute attitudes, knowledge and care choices for elders living with AD.Clinical Evidence: American Samoan terminology for dementia is discordant with its cultural norms, thus shaping caregivers' perceptions of AD and influencing care choices for managing AD symptoms.

The author reviews current examples of institutionalized homo-, bi-, and transphobia expressed by right-wing politicians and the Catholic Church in Poland. He uses the Gestalt theory of shame to un...

It is widely recognised that emotions have important social functions, particularly with respect to the interaction between individual needs and preferences and socio-cultural norms and values. So far, however, a general theoretical framework has been missing for the social functions of emotion. In this issue of the special theory section of CognitionEmotion, an invited article by Keltner et al. proposes an expanded version of social functionalist theory entitled "How emotions, relationships, and culture constitute each other", which attempts to remedy this situation. Two invited commentaries, by Manstead and Von Scheve, welcome this attempt but enumerate issues in need of further elaboration, such as the interaction between relational needs and cultural norms, the necessity to consider situational context and cultural differences, and a more stringent specification of "functionality". The remainder of the current introductory article briefly outlines some areas in need of attention from social emotion theories, such as the effect of social and technological change on the elicitation and regulation of emotions. Here, earlier work is cited that evokes the danger of a potential waning of shame and guilt feelings due to changing values, norms, and self-ideals (for example, the growing importance of self-related values such as freedom and the weakening of prosocial values such as the responsibility for the common good). Another problem is group polarisation leading to negative emotions such as hate and potential violence taken together, the contributions to this theory section highlight the importance of creating a comprehensive theoretical framework for studying the social functions of emotions.

A purposive sample of 560 counselor education students from 12 CACREP-accredited programs completed the Guilt and Shame Proneness Scale (GASP), an emotional and behavioral assessment of shame and g...

The psychological mechanisms connecting shame and anger among men remain underexplored. This study aimed to understand the potential roles of psychological distress and alexithymia in this pathway, both in the form of difficulty identifying and describing one's feelings. Self-report measures were completed by 1,000 men (age mean = 49.6 years; range = 19-86 years). Conditional process analysis investigated a moderated mediation effect to determine whether men's distress mediated the relationship between shame and anger, and whether this effect differed according to severity and type of alexithymia. Findings indicated moderated mediation, with psychological distress a significant mediator in the association between shame and anger. Furthermore, difficulties describing feelings (but not identifying feelings) moderated the relationship between shame and psychological distress. Men's shame can be expressed via anger when experiencing psychological distress, and the inability to express one's feelings exacerbates this pathway. Clinical and public health avenues to reduce the impact of alexithymia are discussed.Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/00223980.2021.1977598 .

Pornography’s effects have received renewed attention, with particular concern about how viewing impacts committed partner relationships. Given that secrecy and deception about pornography viewing ...

Background: Whilst drinking to reduce negative affect (e.g., anxiety and depression) is a commonly reported motivation for consuming alcohol, minimal research has explored associations between sham...

Spivak refers to “originary queerness” as a concept she cannot yet theorize. If concepts convey and uphold heterogeneous lived experience, then the paradoxical missing-ness of a corresponding “what...

This essay explores how structures of looking and parabasis in Fleabag replicate the second-person pronoun’s ability to interpellate a storyworld-external reader in textual narrative, and the exten...

The paper examines the role of shame as a motivator to engage in social struggles. The author first introduces a distinction between social and moral shame arguing that, while the former can lead t...

This study aimed to assess whether, and to what extent, the commercial sexual exploitation of female adolescents placed in residential care predicted different manifestations of an altered sense of self in emerging adulthood while considering the possible confounding effects of child maltreatment and perceived stigmatization. Data were gathered in a broader longitudinal study conducted among a sample of 124 female adolescents placed in residential youth care centers. Commercial sexual exploitation was self-reported during adolescence. Altered sense of self was self-reported in emerging adulthood with the following dependent variables: sense of failure, sense of defensiveness and shame, lack of self-awareness, and other-directedness. Findings suggest that, even after accounting for the significant effects of confounding variables, commercial sexual exploitation increases specific vulnerabilities pertaining to identity development. This creates unique intervention needs among young women. Our study adds to the literature by highlighting the unique influence of commercial sexual exploitation experiences among vulnerable female adolescents on their sense of self in young adulthood. Our results point to the relevance of considering the intersection of trauma and stigmatization when working with and providing services to adolescent females with a history of commercial sexual exploitation.

Sexual promiscuity stigma constitutes a significant barrier which prevents young women from receiving catch-up human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccinations. Our objective was to explore how this stigma may be particularly detrimental to women in cultures of honor, where women are expected to maintain a reputation of sexual purity. Participants were a sample of 182 young women who had not previously received an HPV vaccination. We measured feminine honor endorsement, HPV sexual promiscuity stigma, HPV vaccination shame, HPV vaccination intentions, and a set of covariates. Analyses revealed that the significant association between feminine honor endorsement and HPV vaccination intentions is fully explained by HPV sexual purity stigma and HPV vaccination shame. These findings indicate that honor-endorsing women are significantly impacted by sexual purity stigma, minimizing intentions to receive HPV vaccinations. These findings also highlight the need for the inclusion of cultural factors in the study of HPV vaccine uptake.

This paper reports on a study of the dynamics of social emotions and social bonds between students and class teachers by analysing the narratives of students receiving intensive special support in the Finnish vocational education and training (VET) system. Pride refers to a strong and safe involvement in interaction, and shame implies intimidated social bonds. The analysis is based on abductive content analysis for which Greimas’ actant model worked as an analysis tool. We found some students showing high respect to their teachers who acted as senders setting the objects for students’ studying. Pride is based on the students’ experiences in achieving the objects, thereby pleasing their teachers and secondly on their ability to see positive development in their social belonging. The students who experienced feelings of shame did not perceive themselves as being subjects of positive development, but their special needs overshadowed their social relationships. They found it difficult to see approving and benevolent senders and receivers which could be interpreted as an explicit source of shame. The results concern not only individual teachers’ pedagogical practices and ways of interaction, but also the whole VET system which addresses competence and effective individual study paths rather than social belonging and communality. publishedVersion

Background: Self-harm is defined as intentional self-injury without the wish to die. People who self-harm report feeling poorly treated by healthcare professionals, and nurses wish to know how best to respond to and care for them. Increased understanding of the meaning of self-harm can help nurses collaborate with young people who self-harm to achieve positive healthcare outcomes for them. Aim: This review aimed to synthesise qualitative research on young peoples' experiences of living with self-harm. Method: A literature search in CINAHL, PubMed, and PsycINFO resulted in the inclusion of 10 qualitative articles that were subjected to metasynthesis. Results: The results show that young people’s experiences of living with self-harm are multifaceted and felt to be a necessary pain. They used self-harm to make life manageable, reporting it provided relief, security, and a way to control overwhelming feelings. They suffered from feeling addicted to self-harm and from shame, guilt, and self-punishment. They felt alienated, lonely, and judged by people around them, from whom they tried to hide their real feelings. Instead of words, they used their wounds and scars as a cry for help. Conclusion: Young people who harm themselves view self-harm as a necessary pain; they suffer, but rarely get the help they need. Further research is necessary to learn how to offer these people the help they need.

Background and Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the mental health of a range of people, including healthcare workers, the general population, and COVID-19 patients. This study examined the psychological distress, negative affect, and positive affect of people who contracted COVID-19 in Israel, and their relation to threatening illness perception, guilt, and shame.Design: Cross-sectional design.Methods: Three hundred and fifty-one participants who had contracted COVID-19 completed self-report questionnaires assessing the study variables.Results: The results revealed a direct positive link between threatening COVID-19 illness perception and psychological distress and negative affect, and a negative link with positive affect. In addition, shame and guilt were significant mediators; namely, threatening COVID-19 illness perception was linked with negative affect via guilt, and with psychological distress, negative affect, and positive affect via shame.Conclusions: Illness perception, shame, and guilt may have a significant negative effect on the mental health of people who contracted COVID-19, and should be acknowledged and addressed by professionals.

Our knowledge of how the more complex self-conscious emotions (SCEs) are affected in schizophrenia is sparse. SCEs, unlike basic emotions, involve sophisticated frontal-lobe-related cognition, impairment of which characterizes the neurocognitive profile of schizophrenia. We investigated, in a cross-sectional study, whether SCEs (shame, guilt and self-disgust) are affected in schizophrenia, and the relationship between changes in SCEs and executive (dys)function. Twenty-nine Greek and thirty Arabic patients with schizophrenia were recruited alongside twenty-two Greek and thirty Arabic matched controls. Participants were administered the Self-Disgust Scale (TOSCA for shame and guilt was also administered to the Greek sample), and the Trail Making and Verbal Fluency Tests to measure executive function (EF). Trait levels of self-disgust and guilt were found to be higher and lower, respectively, in patients with schizophrenia relative to control participants; and poorer EF was related with higher trait levels of SD, but lower trait levels of guilt. The pattern of findings was largely unaffected when controlling for anxiety and depression. Given that altered levels of SCEs are closely related to poorer EF, we suggest that the link between EF and emotion regulation, widely established in basic emotions but under-studied in SCEs, may explain the current findings.

“Repent you, fair one, of the sin you carry?” – “I do; and bear the shame most patiently”. Thus begins one of the most overlooked dialogues in Measure for Measure. Hidden in what appears to be an i...

The cultural construct ‘shame’ (sharam) is cited as an oppressive force that controls and perpetuates patriarchal structures within particular cultures. ‘Shame’ and the related construct ‘honour’ (...

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.

‘Cancel culture’ is defined as the withdrawal of support for individuals who have acted in a way deemed to be unacceptable or problematic related to social media, viewership, or the purchase of pro...

This paper proposes that the emotion of shame is key to understanding the appeal of Poland's ruling populist right-wing party, Law and Justice (Prawo i Sprawiedliwosc, or PiS). PiS employs shame in its strategy of emotion regulation in mediated party communication in pro-government media outlets. We suggest that there are two pillars of shame that underpin support for PiS: (1) the collective shame that originates from the perceived cultural inferiority of Poland in relation to the West/Europe, and (2) the individual shame of failing to achieve material prosperity in the context of the post-communist economic transformation. We examine how shame and pride have been instrumentalised in the coverage of the 2019 European Parliament elections by the right-wing media outlet wPolityce.pl. The paper demonstrates how wPolityce.pl consistently invoked both economic and cultural shame and highlighted the antagonism between PiS and the opposition by identifying the latter with a 'pedagogy of shame.'

The guilt and shame of participating in an indecent consumerist way of life that causes climate change and mass extinction of species inflicts a moral wound on us. This moral wound arouses an indignation of which the "Greta generation" is one of the spokespeople, and it involves developing an ethic of relations between our species and non-human species. We must learn to "think like a mountain", in the words of Aldo Leopold, that is to say in an ecosystemic way, in order to accept our true place in the biotic community of microorganisms, flora and fauna: that of "children of the biosphere", a biosphere on which we are as dependent as an infant is its parents. The author argues that developing such an ethic requires a work of culture to think about new environmental paradigms, especially the fact that humanity endlessly artificializes nature, even its own nature, to the detriment of the wild part of them. Can the Œdipal situation, its taboos and its respect for fecundity be extended to our biotic family?

In the past, suicide was considered as an abomination among the Yorubas, yet it was also perceived as an acceptable and honourable way to escape dishonour, indignity, or shame. This study investiga...

Reading John Worthen’s The Life of Percy Bysshe Shelley together with Merrilees Roberts’s Shelley’s Poetics of Reticence: Shelley’s Shame is a study in contrasts. Worthen writes an accessible, enga...

For decades, advertisements for mainstream menstrual products have been criticised for upholding harmful menstrual taboos. Meanwhile, the range of alternative products has increased, and menstrual cups, discs, underwear, and cloth pads have become more easily available. This article examines how online promotional materials of alternative products relate to the menstrual taboo and other concerns raised by menstrual activists. Based on thematic analysis of seven websites selling alternative period products, the article shows how the companies function in a double bind typical for contemporary feminisms. While selling products meant to hide menstruation in a cultural environment that expects concealment, the sites discuss menstruation openly and declare periods as nothing shameful. The sites also support calls for fair access to products and education, advocate sustainability, and recognize the diversity of the menstrual experience. Yet, the companies also apply marketing language that stresses leak-prevention and discreetness. By doing so, they profit from the worries over leaks ingrained in menstruators by a culture of concealment. Furthermore, despite calls for openness, blood remains relatively invisible. The article discusses the results of the thematic analysis in relation to menstrual activism, and popular and postfeminism.

Early career academics (ECAs) working in neoliberal universities have been recognized as a vulnerable group who experience anxiety, uncertainty, exhaustion, stress, frustration, insomnia, shame and guilt. These feelings are often intensified among academics from developing countries, such as Argentina. Using the theoretical ideas of liquid subjectivities, risk and uncertainty, this paper aims to explore what we experienced while transitioning from undergraduate students to ECAs in the field of Physical Education (PE). Collective biographies were used as a method for data collection, and three main themes were constructed from the data in relation to power relations, gender and liquid subjectivities from the transition from students to ECAs. The paper concludes by highlighting the positive side of working in academia with the hope that working conditions will be improved for the next generation of ECAs in PE.

This paper draws on an autoethnographic ‘digital diary’ which the author began after testing positive for HIV in July 2016, until May 2021, to critically assess (mis)representations of both the AIDS and COVID-19 pandemics in the media. Drawing on insights from art, literature, queer theory and social anthropology, the paper focuses on dominant moral and political discourses to show how narratives of blame, shame and guilt about viral transmission contribute to the stigmatisation of ‘at risk’ groups. Concepts of biopower and normative judgement are used to reflect on discourses which construct those who ‘test positive’ for HIV or SARS-CoV-2 as ‘reckless’, ‘risky’ or ‘irresponsible’ subjects. The paper also analyses notes on recent media appearances made by the author to discuss their participation in the PARTNER study, which showed that HIV antiretroviral therapy eliminates the possibility of HIV transmission, including reports on BBC News, in The Guardian, on Sky News, on Channel 5 News, and in the Metro. As the latter had reported that the ‘Covid-19 crisis raises hopes of end to UK transmission of HIV’, portrayals of the two pandemics are compared to explore tensions between public health and individual responsibility as normative priorities.

To register as independent practitioners in South Africa, all clinical psychologists must first complete a compulsory year of community service. We report here on an aspect of our reactions to comp...

This article explores how one middling English family – the Wilkinsons, shopkeepers in industrialising Lancashire – experienced and negotiated threats to their respectability and social status during the early nineteenth-century. It contributes to the history of downward social mobility, responding to a recent call in this journal for more work on this topic. I use a rich epistolary archive to explore the Wilkinsons experiences.

Intersex people have diverse bodies and identities but are unified by experiences of pathologisation, enduring human rights violations, stigmatisation, and mental health issues stemming from shame ...

This article explores Finnish regulatory authorities’ attempts to mitigate young people’s participation in mediated sexuality. Previous studies have argued that both attempted regulation and educat...

Krista Thomason’s Naked: The Dark Side of Shame and Moral Life (Thomason, 2018), develops a novel account of shame – one that advances our understanding of the emotion and its moral significance. O...

This article engages the aporias that arise at the intersection of postcolonial aesthetics, trauma and ethics through a consideration of Philip Miller’s REwind: A Cantata for Voice, Tape, and Testi...

Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) is reportedly under diagnosed due to the significant shame that individuals experience in revealing the distress they feel regarding their perceived flaws. Despite th...