Search

The Raramuri Indians in Mexico use 1 word for guilt and shame. In this article, the authors show that the Raramuri nevertheless differentiate between shame and guilt characteristics, similar to cultural populations that use 2 words for these emotions. Emotion-eliciting situations were collected among the Raramuri and among rural Javanese and were rated on shame and guilt by Dutch and Indonesian students. These ratings were used to select 18 shame-eliciting and guilt-eliciting situations as stimuli. The Raramuri (N = 229) and the Javanese (N = 213) rated the situations on 29 emotion characteristics that previously had been found to differentiate shame from guilt in an international student sample. For most characteristics, a pattern of differentiation similar to that found among the students was found for both the Javanese and the Raramuri. Keywords: emotion, shame, guilt, cross-cultural, culture

The authors propose that people use 2 routes in justifying self-gratification: 1st through hard work or excellence (entitlement) and the 2nd through the attainment of vices without depleting income. This framework was tested using real tasks and choices adopted from prior research on self-control. The results indicate that (a) higher effort and (bogus) excellence feedback increase preferences for vice rewards, but these effects are reversed or attenuated when the interchangeability of effort and income is implied; (b) willingness to pay in effort is greater for vices than virtues, but willingness to pay in income is higher for virtues; and (c) these effects are magnified among individuals with stronger (chronic or manipulated) guilt. The authors discuss the ability of the justification routes to explain the findings of prior self-control research. Keywords: entitlement, guilt, hyperopia, justification, self-control

In the current research, the author investigates the influence of social categorizations on retributive emotions (e.g., anger) and punishment intentions when people evaluate suspected offenders as independent observers. It is argued that information that guilt is certain or uncertain (i.e., guilt probability) has different consequences for retributive reactions to ingroup and outgroup suspects. In correspondence with predictions, results of four experiments showed that people reacted more negatively to ingroup than outgroup suspects when guilt was certain but that people reacted more negatively to outgroup than ingroup suspects when guilt was uncertain. It is concluded that guilt probability moderates the influence of social categorizations on people's retributive reactions to suspected offenders. Keywords: retribution; social categorizations; injustice; guilt probability

In two studies, the authors investigated guilt as a response to group-based advantage. Consistent with its conceptualization as a self-focused emotion, White guilt was based in self-focused beliefs in racial inequality. Thus, guilt was associated with belief in White privilege (Study 1) and resulted from seeing European Americans as perpetrators of racial discrimination (Study 2). Just as personal guilt is associated with efforts at restitution, White guilt was predictive of support for affirmative action programs aimed at compensating. African Americans. White guilt was not, however predictive of support for noncompensatory efforts at promoting, equality, such as affirmative action programs that increase opportunities (Study 2). In contrast, the other-focused emotion of group-based sympathy was a more general predictor of support for different affirmative action policies. Our findings demonstrate the benefits and limits of group-based guilt as a basis of support for social equality and highlight the value of understanding, the specific emotions elicited in intergroup contexts.

Although scholarly traditions assume that shame results more from the public exposure of a transgression or incompetence than guilt does, this distinction has little empirical support. Four studies, using either undergraduate participants' responses to hypothetical scenarios, their remembered experiences, or the coding of literary passages, reexamined this issue. Supporting traditional claims, public exposure of both moral (transgressions) and nonmoral (incompetence) experiences was associated more with shame than with guilt. Shame was also more strongly linked with nonmoral experiences of inferiority, suggesting 2 core features of shame: its links with public exposure and with negative self-evaluation. The distinctive features of guilt included remorse, self-blame, and the private feelings associated with a troubled conscience.

This study examined reactions toward an expression of anger or guilt. Participants' reactions were assessed after their partner for a collaborative task expressed anger or guilt due to failure on the task. Analysis indicated that participants inferred the attribution of responsibility made by the partner based on the expressed emotions; anger elicited an inference that the partner attributed the failure to the participant, while guilt led to an inference that the partner attributed the failure to the self. Further, expressers of anger were perceived as having more negative traits and were avoided more than those who expressed guilt. Discussion considered negative interpersonal effect of an expression of anger.

According to attributional theories of emotion, feelings of guilt presuppose that the causes of a negative event are located within the individual (internal attribution), whereas feelings of anger presuppose that the causes of the eliciting event are located outside the individual (external attribution). This study tested whether these attributions in fact exert the claimed causal influence on emotional experiences. The study employed a procedural priming technique in which neutral events were repeatedly attributed either to oneself (internal attribution) or to another person (external attribution). Subsequently, participants were exposed to a negative event that was ambiguous as to its causes. The results reveal that the prior repeated use of internal attributions enhanced the tendency to experience guilt, whereas the repeated use of external attributions enhanced the tendency to experience anger. These findings support the assumption that attributions exert a causal influence on emotions.

The relationship of shame and guilt to eating-disorder symptomatology was investigated in a sample of 97 Australian women. In terms of the objective of predicting the severity of eating disturbance, the study explored the predictive utility of proneness to shame and guilt in a global sense, shame and guilt associated specifically with eating contexts, and shame associated with the body. The study also sought to determine if shame is a more prominent emotion than guilt among women who have eating difficulties. Shame associated with eating behavior was the strongest predictor of the severity of eating-disorder symptomatology. Other effective predictors were guilt associated with eating behavior and body shame. Eating disturbance was unrelated to proneness to shame and guilt in a global sense. Discussion of these findings focuses on the issue of determining whether self-conscious affects are best regarded as causes or as consequences of eating disturbance.

Seventy undergraduate participants between the ages of 19 and 30 were assessed with measures of death anxiety, religious orientation, separation-individuation conflict, and two dimensions of guilt (need for reparation and fear of punishment). A multiple regression with death anxiety as the criterion variable revealed the following variables, listed in order of their contributions to [R.sup.2] to be significant predictors:fear of punishment, extrinsic religious orientation, need for reparation, and separation-individuation conflict. A model of death anxiety for young adults that addresses the developmental tasks of this stage is proposed.

As a contribution to an understanding of the psychodynamics of dissociative disorders this study investigated proneness to shame and to guilt as predictors of dissociative tendencies. One hundred and three Australian university students completed self-report measures of dissociative tendencies, proneness to shame and to guilt, gender, and age. Proneness to shame, proneness to guilt, and age were found to contribute significantly to the prediction of dissociative tendencies. The data provide further support for the view that common affective consequences of childhood trauma may mediate between such trauma and the development of a dissociative coping style.

This study examined ethnicity and psychological predictors of beliefs in guilt and innocence in the O. J. Simpson trial. A mixed-gender, multiethnic sample of 441 college students completed measures examining trial beliefs, trial-related attitudes, ethnic identification, pro- and anti-Black attitudes, and authoritarian personality traits. Results revealed that: (1) mean differences existed among ethnic groups on all variables examined; (2) proximal attitudes mediated relations between psychological characteristics and trial outcome belie ; and (3) specific relations depended (to some extent) on ethnic group membership. Differences within and between ethnic groups may reflect schematic differences due to differential experiences with societal institutions, identification with (or rejection of) mainstream values, and race relations in American society.

The title of Laura Mulvey's canonical essay 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema' names one of the primary assumptions informing psychoanalytically-based theory: the narrative and visual conventions of the classical Hollywood [...]

This study explored the relation of shame proneness and guilt proneness to constructive versus destructive responses to anger among 302 children (Grades 4-6), 427 adolescents (Grades 7-11), 176 college students, and 194 adults. Across all ages, shame proneness was clearly related to maladaptive responses to anger, including malevolent intentions; direct, indirect, and displaced aggression; self-directed hostility; and negative long-term consequences. In contrast, guilt proneness was associated with constructive means of handling anger, including constructive intentions, corrective action and nonhostile discussion with the target of the anger, cognitive reappraisals of the target's role, and positive long-term consequences. Escapist-diffusing responses showed some interesting developmental trends. Among children, these dimensions were positively correlated with guilt and largely unrelated to shame; among older participants, the results were mixed.

If Machiavellians behave relatively morally or ethically as stated by Leary and colleagues in 1986, then hypotheses regarding their immorality should be reexamined. 84 MBA students in a program at Fairleigh Dickinson University completed Christie and Geis' 1970 Mach IV scale and the Guilty-Conscience subscale of Mosher's 1988 Revised Mosher Guilt Inventory. Results indicate that some students scored high on both Machiavellianism and Morality-Conscience Guilt.

This article presents the results of an investigation into the relationship between attributions of self-blame for the death of a loved one and subsequent psychological recovery from this loss. Two hundred and forty-four people who had suffered the death of a loved one identified the emotional, cognitive, and behavioral responses they used at the time of their loss. Data indicated that use of self-blame was associated with poorer long-term adjustment. However, it was also found that self-blame often led people to make amends or reparations. Significantly, when self-blame was linked to making amends, it became correlated with favorable adjustment outcomes. The potential therapeutic value of reviewing the moral and spiritual beliefs of self-blaming clients and determining how, within their belief system, they might make amends is considered. Key words: blame, grief, guilt, mourning, reparations, It is well documented that emotional traumas can affect physical as well as mental health (Lazarus, 1982; Monat & Lazarus, 1985). Moreover, there is elaborate empirical support for the mediating [...]

A study on the effects of guilt on divorce adjustment, involving 29 men and 44 women, who have not been married to one another, reveals a correlation between guilt and depression. The study also shows a relationship between guilt and the strengthening of attachment toward the former spouse. However, there was no significant relationship between guilt and role strain.

The role of counterfactual thinking in 2 emotions - shame and guilt - was examined. In 1 series of studies, Ss read about situations evocative of shame and guilt or described personal experiences of guilt or shame. They then generated counterfactual alternatives to 'undo' the distressing outcomes. Consistent with predictions derived from Tangney (1991), Ss tended to undo shame situations by altering qualities of the self and to undo guilt situations by altering actions. In a 2nd series of studies, Ss imagined themselves in a situation that could evoke either guilt or shame. Ss were then led to mutate the self or behavior to undo the situation. Mutation manipulations amplified shame and guilt such that the former Ss anticipated feeling greater shame, whereas the latter anticipated feeling greater guilt. The role of counterfactual thinking in specific emotions and in differentiating shame-and guilt-prone personalities is discussed.

The authors briefly survey the literature about women in abusive relationships and discuss key issues about the change process that arise from that work and are consistent with the grieving process. The constructs of depression, guilt, and decision-making difficulty among women abused by an intimate partner are examined and compared with the perspective of the normal grieving of a major loss. Implications for counseling practice are considered.

This research challenges the claim made by D. Watson and L. A. Clark (1991, 1992) that the negative affects - fear, sadness, hostility, and guilt - are organized in a hierarchical structure and at the same time achieve discriminant validity. These reanalyses of the data in Watson and Clark (1991, 1992) provide strong support for both the hierarchical representation of the negative affects under a single valence factor and convergent validity. However, although weak support exists for discriminant validity of self-report measures of the negative affects, discriminant validity is rejected when the negative affects are measured either with self- and peer reports or self-reports over time treated as 2 methods. Limitations of Watson and Clark's procedures are pointed out, and the advantages of new methods are described. A rationale is provided for the interaction of traits and methods, where support is found in 1 of 4 data sets investigated.

Introduction of the concept of 'inflated responsibility' into the so-called anatomy of obsessions gives rise to an elaborated analysis of obsessions, responsibility and guilt. The analysis touches on a range of phenomena including anger and guilt, control of thoughts, the fusion of thoughts and action, resistance to additional responsibility, procrastination and unfinished tasks, hypochondriasis, brief holidays. Some clinical implications are deduced from the analysis.

Repeated abortion as a contraceptive method still remains very popular even among married women in modern Greece. This article presents the results of a clinical study concerning the bereavement process of Greek women after abortion. According to these data, illustrated by two clinical vignettes, strong identificatory tendencies are observed on both the mother and father images, and, thus, abortion might be a replacement and/or displacement of a reparatory character in relation to the 'family romance' of each woman. It has therefore been argued that in several cases of repeated abortion, mourning and guilt do not only refer to a murdered and lost 'person-fetus' but principally to the death and the loss of an object of ambiguous desire.

Two studies examined the effects of offender blameworthiness, consequence severity, and offender gender on written accounts provided after a hypothetical predicament. Participants imagined themselves as the offending party in a predicament and provided written accounts after their victims' reproach. Accounts were coded using Schonbach's (1980) account taxonomy. Study 1 results showed that although concessionary strategies were the most prevalent overall, they were more prevalent for more blameworthy offenses than less blameworthy offenses. Women's accounts were more complex than men's, especially for more blameworthy offenses. In Study 2, in which 3 levels of blameworthiness were used, offenders proffered significantly more concessions after negligent acts than after either accidental or intentional acts, producing a curvilinear pattern. Again, accounts of men and women differed, with men proffering fewer and less complex concessions and more lies than did women. Deviations from politeness theory predictions are explained by reference to face-saving tensions inherent in social predicaments, tensions absent in less problematic social encounters.

The psychological construct of guilt and its measurement were investigated in a series of studies (N = 1,041). Data collection and analyses involved 3 broad issues: (a) the further development and validation of the Guilt Inventory, designed to measure trait guilt, state guilt, and moral standards; (b) comparisons involving extant measures of guilt, shame, moral standards, and other emotions for the purpose of exploring the distinctions between trait guilt and state guilt, affective guilt and moral standards, and guilt and other emotions including both shame and the full range of emotional traits; and (c) an exploration of the factor structure of the trait guilt scales. Results supported the validity and reliability of the Guilt Inventory and the validity of most of the other guilt measures. However, results also raised questions regarding commonly articulated distinctions between trait and state guilt, guilt and shame, and, for some measures, affective guilt and moral standards. Discussion focuses on issues of measurement and conceptualization.

Judah, the protagonist in Woody Allen's 'Crimes and Misdemeanors' is a well respected doctor and philanthropist who kills his lover when she threatens to expose their affair and a past embezzlement. After a few months of torment, he manages to overcome the guilt. The concept of self-image and the reality of this turnaround are discussed.