An exploration of shame measures—I: The other as Shamer scale

Abstract

There is growing interest in the association of shame with various personality traits and psychopathology. This study modified a self-report measure to focus upon beliefs about how others evaluate the self (the “Other As Shamer” scale) and explore its correlations with other measures of shame. An initial analysis of the scale indicates satisfactory reliability and a three factor structure, with one factor called ‘inferiority’ accounting for the largest proportion of the variance. Results support the view that shame involves both self-evaluations and beliefs about how the self is judged by others.